Crail Tolbooth and Town Hall is a municipal structure in

Crail Crail (; ) is a former royal burgh, parish and Community council#Scotland, community council area (Royal Burgh of Crail and District) in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. The locality has an estimated population of 1,630 (2018). Etymology The ...

Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...

, Scotland. The building, which stands in Marketgate, at its junction with Tolbooth Wynd, is Category A listed.

History

The structure was developed in two discrete sections, the

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 ...

and the

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

. The earlier section, the tolbooth, was designed in the Scottish medieval style, built in

rubble masonry Rubble masonry or rubble stone is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses. It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar. Some medieval cathedral walls have outer shells of ashlar wi ...

and was completed in the 16th century. The design involved a main frontage of a single bay facing Marketgate; there was a doorway with a hood mould on the ground floor; the oculus above the doorway, the upper stages of the structure and the slated

pagoda A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist, but some ...

-style

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

all followed in 1776. A bell, cast in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

in the 16th century, was installed in the bell tower. A

weather vane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...

was installed at the top of the bell tower: it took the form of a

haddock The haddock (''Melanogrammus aeglefinus'') is a saltwater ray-finned fish from the Family (biology), family Gadidae, the true cods. It is the only species in the Monotypy, monotypic genus ''Melanogrammus''. It is found in the North Atlantic Oce ...

(known locally as a ''Crail Capon'') rather than the traditional cockerel form. An earlier iteration of the town hall section was erected in 1602 and replaced, to a design by John Corstorphine (1759–1826), in 1814. The design involved a main frontage of four bays facing Marketgate; the building was fenestrated with four standard

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s on the ground floor and two tall sash windows in the first and third bays from the left on the first floor. The principal room was the council chamber of the Royal Borough of Crail on the first floor. Internal modifications to the structure, including work to the main doorway, were undertaken by John Currie (1839–1922) of Elie in 1886. 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. However, the town hall, instead, became the meeting place of the Royal Burgh of Crail and District Community Council. The public library, which had been based in the town hall, closed as part of a broader programme of library closures, in 2016. The

Lord Lyon King of Arms The Right Honourable the Lord Lyon King of Arms, the head of Lyon Court, is the most junior of the Great Officer of State, Great Officers of State in Scotland and is the Scotland, Scottish official with responsibility for regulating heraldry i ...

, Joseph Morrow, passed the front of the town hall on his way to Crail Market Cross, just to the north of the building, where he proclaimed the granting of a

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

to the community council in May 2019.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1814 1814 establishments in Scotland City chambers and town halls in Scotland Tolbooth and Town Hall Category A listed buildings in Fife

History

See also

References