Gatepiers and Railings, Dingwall Sheriff Court, Dingwall, Highland

Description

Thomas Brown II, 1842-45, court house and former prison; Andrew Maitland, 1864, former police station. Large 2-storey, 9-bay, roughly rectangular-plan Tudor Gothic court house and 2-storey, 3-bay, roughly rectangular plan former police station attached at east. Tooled ashlar with polished ashlar dressings. Advanced centre hoodmoulded door to court house, and tall tripartite window with continuous hoodmould above lighting courtroom. Steeply pitched parapeted and finialled gable flanked by gabled bays with canted windows rising 2 storeys. Further ranges set back with square, 3-storey towers in re-entrant angles, at west linked to similar tower by wide 3-bay range. The court house is linked at east angle tower to a later, former police station, with centre hoodmoulded door and first floor windows rise through wallhead as gabled dormers. Wallheads and parapets predominantly crenellated. Mainly 4-pane glazing. Tall, polygonal end stacks (some truncated) and slate roofs.

Interior, seen in 2014, is arranged with the court and public offices at ground floor and an east facing main courtroom at first floor accessed from a dog-legged staircase with decorative barley sugar iron balusters and timber handrail. Much of the 1842-45 plan remains. Large principal courtroom retains most of its mid 19th century furnishings including raked and curved public seating and timber panelled front to Sheriff's bench and jury box. Tripartite window behind bench flanked by round arch niches. A dentilled pediment is evident above north and south end windows. Ribbed ceiling with timber panelled braces and central pendentives. Decorative roof vents. Architectural detailing remains on most rooms, such as cornice, fireplaces, and panelled doors. Hallways have pointed arch detailing to ceiling, some with decorative cross-ribbed vaulting. The interior of the former police station was not seen in 2014.

Former (1843) 2-storey, 7-bay, and roughly rectangular-plan prison block is detached to north (rear) of the court house. Rubble with tooled ashlar dressings. Shallow U-plan opening to north, with centre projecting wing to north. String course between ground and first floor; crenellated wall head to north centre wing. The outer bays are gabled with symmetrical pattern of cell and large multi-pane timber casement windows. Ridge and end stacks. Slate roof. Converted to housing circa 1990s, some cell windows enlarged. The interior was not seen in 2014.

Low stone boundary wall to west, with large pyramidal capped gatepiers and iron railings to south.

Statement of Interest

Dingwall Sheriff Court dates to 1842 and was designed by the prolific architect of this period, Thomas Brown II. Built from high quality materials, it has a distinctive and prominent street elevation and unusually served the combined function of Sheriff Court with prison, and later police quarters. Internally, the building retains most of its mid 19th century courtroom components and decorative features.

Dingwall Sheriff Court with former prison and police station was constructed in 3 phases. The first phase of construction in 1842-5 was an 18 cell prison to the northwest of the slightly later courtroom, both designed by Thomas Brown II and erected at a cost of £5000. This was followed by the T-plan main court house to the southwest. The third phase was the police station to the east, designed by Andrew Maitland in 1864. The 1st Edition Ordnance Survey Map (surveyed 1873) in comparison with modern maps show that the footprint of the buildings is largely unchanged since 1864.

Thomas Brown II (1806-circa 1872) began his architectural career in his father's firm. He probably worked in the office of William Burn prior to being appointed as architect to the Prison Board of Scotland in 1837 and setting up his own independent office in Edinburgh. As architect to the Prison Board of Scotland, Brown II had extensive experience in designing county court houses and prisons (the design work of which his partner Thomas Wardrop gradually took over) including Dingwall, Wigtown (1862), Alloa (1863), Forfar (1869) and Stirling (designed 1866, built 1874) (see separate listings). The practice were also highly successful at remodelling and designing country houses. The Tudor Gothic style adopted at Dingwall was undoubtedly influenced from both Brown and Wardrop previously working in the offices of William Burn and David Bryce respectively.

Andrew Maitland (1802-1894) designed a number of schools, churches and steadings in Ross-shire and was the architect for Stornoway Sheriff Court and Prison (1870) (see separate listing).

The development of the court house as a building type in Scotland follows the history of the Scottish legal system and wider government reforms. The majority of purpose-built court houses were constructed in the 19th century as by this time there was an increase in the separation of civic, administrative and penal functions into separate civic and institutional buildings, and the resultant surge of public building was promoted by new institutional bodies. The introduction of the Sheriff Court Houses (Scotland) Act of 1860 gave a major impetus to the increase and improvement of court accommodation and the provision of central funding was followed by the most active period of sheriff court house construction in the history of the Scottish legal system, and many new court houses were built or reworked after this date.

Court houses constructed after 1860 generally had a solely legal purpose and did not incorporate a prison, other than temporary holding cells. The courts were designed in a variety of architectural styles but often relied heavily on Scots Baronial features to reference the fortified Scottish building tradition. Newly constructed court buildings in the second half of the 19th century dispensed with large public spaces such as county halls and instead provided bespoke office accommodation for the sheriff, judge and clerks, and accommodated the numerous types of court and holding cells.

Statutory address and listed building record revised as part of the Scottish Courts Listing Review 2014-15. Previously listed as 'Ferry Road, Sheriff Court, Prison and Former Police Station'.

External Links

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