Banff Sheriff Court is a judicial structure in Low Street,

Banff, Aberdeenshire Banff () is a town in the Banff and Buchan area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is situated on Banff Bay and faces the town of Macduff, Aberdeenshire, Macduff across the estuary of the River Deveron. It is a former royal burgh, and is the county ...

, Scotland. The structure, which was the meeting place of Banffshire County Council and was also used as a courthouse, is a Category B

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

Originally, court hearings in Banffshire were held in a

tolbooth A tolbooth or town house was the main municipal building of a Scotland, Scottish burgh, from medieval times until the 19th century. The tolbooth usually provided a council meeting chamber, a court house and a jail. The tolbooth was one of th ...

which was built on the west side of Low Street, on the corner with Strait Path, in the early 16th century. From the late 18th century, court hearings were held in the newly-built

Town House A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residen ...

. In the mid-19th century it became necessary to commission a dedicated courthouse: the site the sheriff selected was occupied by a private house known as "Little Fillicap", which had been the home of Katharine Innes, Lady Gight, who was periodically visited there by her grandson, George Gordon Byron, who later became

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...

. The courthouse was designed by James Matthews in the

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Ita ...

, built by John Drysdale and Sons in

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone at a cost of £7,214 and was officially opened by sheriff-substitute, James Gordon, on 28 January 1871. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto Low Street. The central section of three bays, which was slightly projected forward, featured a three-bay single-storey

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

formed by four pairs of

Corinthian order The Corinthian order (, ''Korinthiakós rythmós''; ) is the last developed and most ornate of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Ancient Roman architecture, Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric or ...

columns supporting an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

surmounted by a

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

. On the first floor, the central section featured three round headed windows with keystones and

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, ...

s, while the outer bays were fenestrated with segmental headed windows on the ground floor and by round headed windows on the first floor, all with keystones and architraves. Internally, the principal room was a double-height courtroom. Following the implementation of the

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 ( 52 & 53 Vict. c. 50) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which was passed on 26 August 1889. The main effect of the act was to establish elected county councils in Scotland. In this it fol ...

, which established county councils in every county, the new county leaders needed to identify a meeting place for Banffshire County Council. A large room on the first floor of the building served as the council chamber. The county council initially established its offices at 8 Low Street, opposite the sheriff court. In 1934 they bought St Leonard's House on Sandyhill Road, converting that to be their main offices instead. Council meetings continued to be held at the sheriff court. Banffshire County Council was abolished in 1975. The council chamber within the sheriff court then served as the meeting place of

Banff and Buchan Banff and Buchan is a committee area of the Aberdeenshire Council, Scotland, covering an area along the northern coast of the council area. The main towns are Banff and Fraserburgh. Fishing and agriculture are important industries, together with ...

District Council from 1975 until its abolition in 1996. Between 1996 and 2020 the council chamber was also used for area committees of

Aberdeenshire Council Aberdeenshire Council is the local authority for Aberdeenshire, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. The council has been under no overall control since its creation in 1996. It is based at Woodhill House, which is outside its own territory ...

; area committee meetings since 2020 have been held virtually. The building's primary function remains as a courthouse. The courtroom continues to be used for hearings of the sheriff's court and, on one day a month, for hearings of the justice of the peace court.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1871 County halls in Scotland Category B listed buildings in Aberdeenshire Court buildings in Scotland 1871 establishments in Scotland Listed government buildings in Scotland Italianate architecture in Scotland Listed buildings in Banff, Aberdeenshire

History

See also

References