Stonehaven Sheriff Court | |
---|---|
Location | Dunnottar Avenue, Stonehaven |
Coordinates | 56°57′41″N2°12′31″W / 56.9614°N 2.2086°W |
Built | 1865 |
Architect | James Campbell Walker |
Architectural style(s) | Neoclassical style |
Listed Building – Category B | |
Official name | Stonehaven Sheriff Court House and Police Station, including boundary walls, Dunnottar Avenue, Bogwell Lane, Stonehaven |
Designated | 18 August 1972 |
Reference no. | LB41617 |
Stonehaven Sheriff Court, formerly known as County Buildings, is a judicial structure in Dunnottar Avenue, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The structure, which was used as the headquarters of Kincardineshire County Council as well as a courthouse, is a Category B listed building. [1]
After sheriff court hearings were transferred from Kincardine to Stonehaven in 1660, [2] judicial proceedings were initially held in the Stonehaven Tolbooth which had been erected on the old pier in the late 16th century. [3] However, in the early 1760s, the Commissioners of Supply decided to commission a dedicated courthouse: the site they selected was in the "Auld Toon" part of Stonehaven. The new building was completed in 1767 and expanded in 1788. [4]
The courthouse was rebuilt, incorporating elements of the earlier structure including three prison cells, to a design by James Campbell Walker in the neoclassical style and it re-opened in 1865. [1] [5] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of eleven bays facing Dunnottar Avenue, with the end two bays on either side slighted projected forward. The central bay, which also slightly projected forward, featured a portico which was formed by a round headed opening with colonnettes and a carved keystone, flanked by pilasters supporting a balustrade. The ground floor, which was rusticated, was fenestrated by round headed windows, while the first floor was fenestrated by square headed sash windows. At roof level, there was a balustraded parapet. Internally, the principal room was the main courtroom on the first floor. [1]
Following the implementation of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, which established county councils in every county, the new county leaders needed to identify a meeting place for Kincardineshire County Council [6] and decided to use the courthouse for that purpose. [7] Additional offices in Evan Street were acquired in around 1920. [8] [9]
After the abolition of Caithness County Council in 1975, the building continued to serve a judicial function, being used for hearings of the sheriff's court and, on one day a month, for hearings of the justice of the peace court until the court hearings were transferred to Aberdeen in 2015. [10] [11] Ownership of the building was transferred to the Stonehaven Town Partnership for a nominal sum in May 2018. [12] [13] The Stonehaven Town Partnership subsequently initiated refurbishment works to the building costing £150,000. [14]
Stonehaven is a town in Scotland. It lies on Scotland's northeast coast and had a population of 11,602 at the 2011 Census. After the demise of the town of Kincardine, which was gradually abandoned after the destruction of its royal castle in the Wars of Independence, the Scottish Parliament made Stonehaven the successor county town of Kincardineshire. It is currently administered as part of the Aberdeenshire Council Area. Stonehaven had grown around an Iron Age fishing village, now the "Auld Toon", and expanded inland from the seaside. As late as the 16th century, old maps indicate the town was called Stonehyve, Stonehive, Timothy Pont also adding the alternative Duniness. It is known informally to locals as Stoney.
Kincardineshire, also known as the Mearns, is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area on the coast of northeast Scotland. It is bounded by Aberdeenshire on the north and west, and by Angus on the south.
Inveraray Jail is a former prison and courthouse in Church Square, Inveraray, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It was built in 1820 and is a Category A listed building. The prison closed in 1889 but the building remained in use as a courthouse until the mid-twentieth century, in which time it was also used for some meetings of Argyll County Council. Since 1989 it has been a museum.
The Stonehaven Tolbooth is a late 16th-century stone building originally used as a courthouse and a prison in the town of Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Constructed of local Old Red Sandstone, the prison probably attained its greatest note, when three local Episcopalian clergymen were imprisoned for holding services for more than nine people. Lying midway along the old north quay of the Stonehaven Harbour, the present day Tolbooth serves as a local museum with a restaurant on the floor above the ground floor. It is a category A listed building.
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