Forfar Sheriff Court
Forfar Sheriff Court
LocationMarket Street, Forfar
Coordinates56°39′00″N 2°53′14″W / 56.6499°N 2.8873°W / 56.6499; -2.8873
Built1871
ArchitectJames Maitland Wardrop
Architectural style(s)Scottish baronial style
Listed Building – Category B
Official nameForfar Sheriff Court House including steps, boundary walls and piers, Market Street and Brechin Road, Forfar
Designated11 June 1971
Reference no.LB31609
Forfar Sheriff Court is located in Angus
Forfar Sheriff Court
Shown in Angus

Forfar Sheriff Court is a judicial building in Market Street, Forfar, Angus, Scotland. The building, which remains in use as a courthouse, is a Category B listed building.[1]

History

Plaque to commemorate the march past by Polish I Corps on 7 March 1941

The first judicial building in the town was a medieval tolbooth in The Cross which was primarily used to the detention of prisoners and which dated back at least to the 16th century.[2] This was replaced by the Town and County Hall which was built on the same site in 1788,[3] and was supplemented by a dedicated courthouse erected behind the Town and County Hall in 1824.[4][5][6] However, by the mid-19th century the old courthouse was considered inadequate and, following the implementation of the Sheriff Court Houses (Scotland) Act 1860, which laid down minimum standards for courthouses, the Commissioners of Supply decided to commission a new courthouse on a site to the immediate west of Forfar Prison in Market Street.[1]

The foundation stone for the new building was laid by Fox Maule-Ramsay, 11th Earl of Dalhousie on 5 August 1869. It was designed by James Maitland Wardrop of the firm of Brown & Wardrop in the Scottish baronial style, built in ashlar stone and was officially opened on by the Sheriff-Substitute, Andrew Robertson, on 2 February 1871.[7][8][9]

The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of seven bays facing onto Market Street with the end bays projected forward; the central section of five bays featured a portico formed by an arched opening with an architrave flanked by pilasters supporting a balustraded parapet surmounted by finials. There were tri-partite windows on either side of the portico, five bi-partite windows on the first floor and a panel containing the Royal coat of arms just below the stepped gable above. The outer bays were fenestrated by tri-partite windows on the ground floor and the first floor and by bi-partite windows in the stepped gables above. Smaller panels above the ground floor windows recalled the towns over which the courthouse had jurisdiction viz. "A" for Arbroath, "D" for Dundee, "B" for Brechin and "M" for Montrose. The gables were augmented by gargoyles and pinnacles. A rectangular wing to accommodate the local police force was erected to the northeast of the main structure. Internally, the principal room was a large courtroom on the first floor of the main structure.[1]

A plaque was placed on the front of the courthouse to commemorate the march past of elements of Polish I Corps, in front of King George VI, accompanied by Queen Elizabeth and General Władysław Sikorski, on 7 March 1941.[10] The courthouse continued to serve a judicial function, being used for hearings of the sheriff's court and, on one day a month, for hearings of the justice of the peace court into the 21st century.[11]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Historic Environment Scotland. "Forfar Sheriff Court House including steps, boundary walls and piers, Market Street and Brechin Road, Forfar (LB31609)". Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  2. ↑ Historic Environment Scotland. "Forfar, High Street, The Cross, Town And County Hall, War Memorial (33846)". Canmore. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  3. ↑ Historic Environment Scotland. "Forfar Town and County Hall, Cross (LB31496)". Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  4. ↑ Historic Environment Scotland. "Municipal Buildings, Castle Street (LB31542)". Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  5. ↑ Lewis, Samuel (1846). "'Fillan's, St - Forfarshire', in A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland". London: British History Online. pp. 429–441. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
  6. ↑ Dennison, Elizabeth Patricia (2017). The Evolution of Scotland's Towns: Creation, Growth and Fragmentation. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1474409810.
  7. ↑ Historic Environment Scotland. "Forfar, Market Street, Sheriff Court House (194376)". Canmore. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  8. ↑ "Forfar Courthouse". Dictionary of Scottish Architects. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  9. ↑ Historic Buildings at Work: A Guide to the Historic Buildings of Scotland Used by Central Government. Scottish Civic Trust in collaboration with the Property Services Agency, Department of the Environment, Scotland. 1983. p. 205. ISBN 978-0904566031.
  10. ↑ "His Majesty King George VI accompanied by Queen Elizabeth and General Sikorski C. in C. Polish Forces took the salute from the Polish troops on March the 7th 1941". Open Plaques. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  11. ↑ "Forfar Sheriff Court and Justice of the Peace Court". Scottish Courts and Tribunals. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
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