Auchtermuchty Town House

Auchtermuchty Town House
Auchtermuchty Town House
Location	High Street, Auchtermuchty
Coordinates	56°17′31″N3°13′57″W / 56.2919°N 3.2326°W / 56.2919; -3.2326 Coordinates: 56°17′31″N3°13′57″W / 56.2919°N 3.2326°W / 56.2919; -3.2326
Built	1729
Architectural style(s)	Scottish medieval style
Listed Building – Category B
Official name	Auchtermuchty Town House and Council Chambers, High Street
Designated	18 August 1972
Reference no.	LB21372
Shown in Fife

Auchtermuchty Town House is a municipal structure in the High Street, Auchtermuchty, Fife, Scotland. The structure, which accommodates the local public library, is a Category B listed building. ^[1]

History

The town of Auchtermuchty was granted a charter by James IV of Scotland in 1517: the charter gave the burgh council the right to erect a tolbooth but it seems that a purpose-built structure was not contemplated until the early 18th century. ^[2] At that time the burgh leaders decided that the lack of a traditional tolbooth was "uneasy and troublesome". ^[3]

The new building was designed in the Scottish medieval style, built in rubble masonry and was completed in 1729. ^{[4] [5]} The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of seven bays facing the High Street. The central bay was formed by a tall three-stage tower: there was a doorway flanked by pilasters supporting a triangular fanlight in the first stage, three pairs of lancet windows in the second stage and a belfry with louvres in the third stage. The tower was surmounted by a parapet, a spire and a weather vane. The wings flanking the tower contained doorways in the central bays on either side and were originally fenestrated by sash windows on both floors. Internally, the principal rooms were the prison cells on the ground floor and the council chamber on the first floor. ^[6]

In the early 19th century, after commissioning four new bridges across the Calsay Burn, ^[7] the burgh council got into financial difficulties and declared itself bankrupt; the borough treasurer, John Beverage, who had signed a personal guarantee in favour of the bank, was imprisoned as a debtor in the town house for nearly three weeks in May 1818. He subsequently sued the members of the local masonic lodge, who had asked for his incarceration, for damages of £5,000. ^[8] After the numbers of persons being held in the cells reduced in the 1820s and 1830s, the ground floor was converted for retail use and, in the second half of the 19th century the first floor windows were replaced by bi-partite mullioned windows which were surmounted by gables and finials. A new bell, cast by John Warner & Sons of London, was installed in the tower in 1874 and new clock faces were added in 1897. ^[6]

The building continued to serve as the headquarters of the burgh council for much of the 20th century, but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged North-East Fife District Council was formed in 1975. ^{[9] [10]} The building was subsequently converted for use as the local public library. ^[11] A detailed map of the town, prepared by the Dundee architect, George Jamieson, in 1883, which had been re-discovered in an antiques shop in Cupar, was returned to the people of Auchtermuchty and placed on a wall in the library in March 2019. ^[12]

See also

• List of listed buildings in Auchtermuchty, Fife

References

1. Historic Environment Scotland. "Auchtermuchty Town House and Council Chambers, High Street (LB21372)" . Retrieved 24 August 2022.
2. Leighton, John M. (1840). History of the County of Fife From the Earliest Period to the Present Time. Vol. 2. Glasgow: Joseph Swan. p. 211.
3. Glendinning, Miles (2019). History of Scottish Architecture. Edinburgh University Press. p. 140. ISBN   978-1474468503.
4. Tolbooths and Town-houses Civic Architecture in Scotland to 1833. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. 1996. p. 36. ISBN   978-0114957995.
5. Gifford, John (1988). Fife (Buildings of Scotland Series). Penguin. p. 77. ISBN   978-0140710779.
6. Historic Environment Scotland. "Auchtermuchty, 30 High Street, Town Hall (30282)". Canmore . Retrieved 24 August 2022.
7. "General Information". Auchtermuchty.co.uk. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
8. "Information for John Beveridge, Wheelwright, and town treasurer for the burgh of Auchtermuchty for the trial in the Court of Session. Issues in process of damages against John Scott and others. Beveridge was claiming £5,000 damages". On Fife. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
9. "Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973". Legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
10. "Auchtermuchty Burgh". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
11. "Auchtermuchty Library". On Fife. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
12. "Mystery of old map that found its way home – 136 years later". The Courier and Advertiser. 30 March 2019. Retrieved 24 August 2022.