Description

SE 3456 KNARESBOROUGH CASTLE YARD
(south side)

8/92 Court House Museum

GV II

Courthouse, now museum and gardeners' store. Early C14 with late C16 and
C18 additions and restoration 1830 and C20. Coursed squared magnesian
limestone, brick, stone slate roof. 2 storeys, 5 bays with single-storey,
2-bay addition to rear. Bay 1: round-arched board door to right with
hoodmould; small boarded opening to left. Board door in plain frame between
bays 3 and 4 flanked by barred side-sliding sash windows with glazing bars.
Between bays 2 and 3: external staircase, mid C20, rising to C20 board door
in chamfered basket-arch surround. 1st-floor windows: 3-light to bays 1 and
4, 5-light to bays 2, 3 and 5; all double-chamfered with recessed mullions
and stepped hoodmoulds. Kneeler and ashlar coping to left, hipped roof to
right. Gritstone stacks to left end, to ridge between bays 4 and 5, and to
rear of ridge at centre. Interior: rear wall is built largely of small red
bricks in random bond. Ground floor, bay 3 - large fireplace of C14 type,
covered in and details not seen at resurvey. Bay 4 - length of stone
walling enters from rear wall and projects into the room at an angle. 1st
floor supported on longitudinal beams supported by posts, 2 with straight
braces. Much reused timber. 1st floor: bay 1 - C17 cupboards and door,
restored and rooms divided mid C20. Bay 3 - benches and panelling of late-
C16 courtroom retained as part of Museum display. The earliest parts of
this building are part of a range of rooms built between the inner and outer
bailey of the castle. It is thought to have been the "House of Records"
mentioned in a survey of 1561 but appears to have been largely rebuilt
c1590-1610, with an upper storey serving as the courthouse for the Honour of
Knaresborough. The roof was raised, left gable wall rebuilt and right
(southern) bay possibly rebuilt during the period 1786-1830, when the
single-storey 2-bay addition was built at the rear. The prison block
attached to north end (q.v.) was added during this time. M Mann, Old
Courthouse Museum c1970. Leaflet sold at the Museum.

Listing NGR: SE3489156863

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Knaresborough Castle and Court House Museum official website
• Wikidata Q26442776

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)