Contractor HH Smith & Sons reaches practical completion of restoration of Grade II-listed Liverpool city region Victorian town hall, part of a wider £30m town centre regeneration project. Tony McDonough reports

More than 130 years after it was built, Newton-le-Willows’ Grade II listed Earlestown Town Hall has been restored.

Main contractor HH Smith & Sons has reached practical completion on the major renovation of the town hall, part of a wider £30m project to transform the centre of Earlestown. This includes public realm and a new market square.

This regeneration scheme is being delivered by St Helens Council and ECF, a partnership between Homes England, L&G and Muse, backed by £20m from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund and £8m in match funding from St Helens Council.

A further £1.1m from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme will replace the building’s heating and lighting with sustainable, cost-effective systems.

Strict heritage protection rules meant the town hall team had to bring in trades and techniques rarely seen on modern town centre sites. Chemically matched lime plaster and handmade roof louvres sat alongside digital surveying that mapped the building in millions of data points.

Mike Smith, project manager at HH Smith & Sons, said: “Reaching practical completion on Earlestown Town Hall is a proud moment for the whole team. This project required specialist skills from start to finish.

“For instance, we matched the Victorian lime plaster to its original chemical profile, made the roof louvres by hand, and used 3D laser scanning to plan around the historic structure.

“Our apprentices have picked up skills on this project that very few tradespeople ever get to learn, and they will carry those with them for the rest of their careers.”

The five-stage clock tower has also been brought back to life. Its clock and bells were first made by Messrs Potts & Sons, and their chimes have been part of daily life in the town for generations.

Horologists from The Cumbria Clock Company, who restored the bells and clockwork of Big Ben, have reinstalled the fully overhauled mechanism with a series of upgrades.

Before the new heating system went into one of the upper floors, the team carried out a high-precision 3D laser scan of the interior.

It captured millions of data points and produced a detailed digital model of the historic structure, which showed the system would fit the space exactly without disturbing the original architecture.

An initial community consultation on the potential relocation of Newton Library to the restored Town Hall has taken place, with the responses currently being evaluated.

And the repurposed building will feature a mixed-use performance and events space, plus a new café with courtyard garden alongside public toilets and a changing places facility.

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Cllr Jack Benyon, St Helens Council Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Property and Planning, added: “Reaching practical completion on this heritage restoration contract is a big moment for Earlestown.

“The Town Hall has stood at the heart of the town since the 1890s and people here care about it deeply. Seeing it restored with this much skill and care shows what our regeneration programme is doing for the town centre.”