Elgin Sheriff Court is a courthouse in the High Street,

Elgin, Moray Elgin ( ; ; ) is a historic town (former cathedral city) and formerly a royal burgh in Moray, Scotland. It is the administrative and commercial centre for Moray. The town originated to the south of the River Lossie on the higher ground above th ...

, Scotland. The structure 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

The first judicial building in the town was a 16th century timber-framed

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 ...

in the middle of the High Street in which burgh court and county meetings were held. It was rebuilt in stone the early 17th century and replaced by a combined jail, court house and town hall in the early 18th century. This, in turn, was replaced by a dedicated courthouse on the south side of the High Street which was designed by William Robertson and completed in 1837. By the early 1860s, Robertson's courthouse was deemed inadequate, and it was decided to commission a new structure to the immediate east of the existing courthouse to be known as "County Buildings". The new building was designed by Robertson's nephews, Alexander and William Reid, in the

neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

, built 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 and was officially opened on 14 January 1866. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto the High Street. The central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured a recessed doorway flanked by two

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 first floor, the central section was fenestrated by sash windows fronted by

balustrades 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 c ...

; the central window was flanked by

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic classical order, orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric order, Doric and the Corinthian order, Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan order, Tuscan (a plainer Doric) ...

columns and the outer windows were flanked by Ionic order

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s all 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 ...

, a

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a Cornice (architecture), cornice which helps to support them. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally transl ...

ed cornice and a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

, which was originally decorated by ten

urn An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape ...

s. The outer bays were fenestrated by sash windows on both floors and were surmounted by an entablature and a modillioned cornice, but no parapet. All the windows on the ground floor, which was rusticated, featured keystones while all the windows on the first floor were surmounted by

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

s supported by

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

. Internally, the principal room was a new courtroom which featured a large portrait of Sheriff-Substitute Patrick Cameron. Following the completion of the Reid brothers' building in 1866, the 1837 building became known as the "Old Courthouse" and served as the meeting place and offices of the

Commissioners of Supply Commissioners of Supply were local administrative bodies in Scotland from 1667 to 1930. Originally established in each sheriffdom to collect tax, they later took on much of the responsibility for the local government of the counties of Scotland. ...

, the main administrative body for the county at the time. The commissioners' functions mostly transferred to the new Elginshire County Council established in 1890 under 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 also met and had its main offices at the Old Courthouse. Elginshire County Council renamed itself Moray County Council in 1919. By the 1930s, the county council had outgrown the Old Courthouse; it was demolished and replaced by a new eleven-bay structure. Work began on the new building in 1938, but construction was interrupted by the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The new building was eventually completed in 1952, being formally opened on 18 April 1952 as the new "County Buildings". The Reid brothers' building then became known as "Elgin Sheriff Court". After the abolition of Moray County Council in 1975, County Buildings was taken over by Moray District Council while the Reid brothers' building continued to be used for hearings of the sheriff court and, on one day a month, for hearings of the justice of the peace court. The Reid brothers' building was extended to the rear by three bays in a similar style in 1993.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1866 County halls in Scotland Category B listed buildings in Moray Court buildings in Scotland Listed government buildings in Scotland 1866 establishments in Scotland Neoclassical architecture in Scotland Buildings and structures in Elgin, Moray

History

See also

References