Castle Street Police Station

This purpose-built combined law court and police station, originally known as Bolton County Police Court, was constructed in 1876 to designs by Henry Littler, the county architect for Lancashire and architect to the Lancashire Asylums Board. The building is constructed of mellow red brick laid in English Bond with stone dressings, beneath a shallow hipped and gabled slate roof. A modillion eaves cornice with decorative dentilled brick band runs beneath the roofline. The two-storey main building has a complex J-shaped plan, with outbuildings and an enclosed yard to the rear.

Exterior

The main building comprises three blocks forming a J-shaped plan. It is bordered by Castle Street to the front (northeast), Court Street to the northwest, May Street to the southeast, and an unnamed lane to the southwest rear. Windows throughout include 2-over-2 and multi-pane sashes, slender casements, and mullioned and transomed windows. Cast-iron downpipes serve the building.

The northeast front elevation facing Castle Street extends eleven bays. The end bays (first and eleventh) project forward, with bays two and ten featuring slightly lower rooflines. The central section of seven bays includes a projecting central gabled bay. This gabled bay contains a 10-light mullioned and transomed window at ground floor level with a continuous hoodmould above, and at first floor level a 6-light mullioned and transomed window flanked by two lower casements. Returns to each side feature similar single windows in the same style with quoined surrounds. Between the ground and first floor windows, lettering reads 'COUNTY POLICE STATION' interspersed with red roses of Lancashire. The main entrance for use by the justices is located in the seventh bay from the left, with a stone surround incorporating carved relief depicting the arms of the County Palatine. Two small windows are positioned at first floor level. The fifth bay contains a ground floor sash window with a stone surround incorporating a square relief depicting chains of justice and the date '1876', with a single narrow window at first floor. Sashes appear at both ground and first floors, with a large tripartite window at ground floor level in the eleventh bay.

The southeast side elevation facing May Street, originally serving as the sergeant's and constables' accommodation, has three irregular bays beneath a hipped roof. At ground floor level, a sash window appears to the left, a central window with hood above, and a 2-light bay window to the right. The first floor has three windows with a narrower central window, a replaced casement, and sashes and fixed lights at both floor levels.

The northwest side elevation facing Court Street comprises three ground floor bays with a central entrance door, rectangular light and hood above, and sashes at both floors. A high, stepped, curved brick wall enclosing a small yard projects out, featuring a timber and iron spiked gate, and links to a two-storey block set at right angles to Court Street. The northwest end elevation of this block has an entrance door with a square relief above reading 'PUBLIC ENTRANCE', two rose motifs, and a hoodmould with carved rose stops. A large sash window sits above with a smaller one in the top left corner. This door provided public access into the first floor courtroom in the block behind. The northeast yard elevation features a central gable with sashes at both floors. The southwest rear yard elevation has later single storey and low two-storey extensions at the west end, a tall slender fixed light window, a doorway and two sashes at ground floor, three sashes at first floor, a rooflight, and a chimney stack to the ridge.

The court and cell block is two storeys with a gableted roof and pitched skylight to the centre. It attaches at right angles to the centre rear of the main Castle Street block and the southeast end elevation of the public entrance block. The ground floor cell area has four small cambered windows with iron bar glazing to the southeast side, with an adjacent doorway with cambered head at the north end. A small outshut features a southeast facing door and northeast facing window. A tall external stack is present. The southwest rear elevation has a recessed doorway with cambered stone lintel, two sashes, and a wide 3-light multi-pane iron bar window. The first floor courtroom features double-height brick-arched windows with multi-pane sashes: four to the southeast side, two to the northwest side, and three blind windows to the southwest rear.

A high brick wall attached to the main building and timber gates with spiked tops enclose a large rear yard used for drill purposes by the police and the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry Cavalry. A single storey outbuilding stands to the southeast side of the yard, its back wall forming part of the enclosing wall. It has a later chimney stack, a plank door to the northeast end elevation, two windows to the southeast wall elevation, four similar doors and three window openings to the inner yard elevation, and two blocked-up window openings to the southwest rear elevation. A long single storey carriage/vehicle garage range with a two-storey stable block to the southwest side of the yard completes the complex, with a ridge stack and back walls forming the rear enclosing wall to the yard.

Interior

The interior displays a high level of survival. The original plan form remains intact although some rooms have been partitioned for modern office space and fireplaces have been removed. Original features include 4-panel doors, moulded architraves to doors and windows, moulded cornicing to some rooms and corridors on both floors, built-in cupboards, and tiled flooring to some ground floor areas.

The ground and first floors of the Castle Street block served as the police station and police residence, with various rooms and offices accessed from corridors to the left and right of the main entrance hall. The first floor follows a similar layout. The main entrance hall, accessed from Castle Street, has a double door with two glazed upper panels to each door featuring cusped heads and quatrefoil motifs, and solid lower panels with parquet decoration. The floor is plain terracotta tile. An inner lobby has a double door with upper glazed panels featuring geometric tracery and solid lower panels with incised chevron design, within a glazed and panelled surround in the same style.

To the left of the hall, a door with an enquiries hatch leads to a large office behind (the former charge room), now with partition walls to the southwest side. To the right of the hall, a door (originally part of the Superintendent's house and office) leads into a corridor with offices and the Court Street secondary entrance, which has a replaced door. A timber dog-leg stair for police and court clerks' use branches off to the left of this corridor. It has turned balusters, wall string, and carved brackets, and leads to a first floor lobby/room with a panelled entrance door into the courtroom, also accessible from the main stair half-landing.

A door to the southeast corner of the hall opens into a corridor leading to offices and cells. The cell entrance door was originally part of the charge room but became separated when the room was partitioned to create the corridor. The main open-well cantilevered concrete stair, intended for the justices' use, rises from the southwest corner of the entrance hall. It features a timber handrail, partial iron-twist newel post, and ornate wrought iron balustrade incorporating trefoil and floral designs. A skylight lights the stairwell. The stair leads to a large first floor landing with a wide panelled door into the justices' room.

The justices' room occupies the gabled bay at the centre of the building fronting Castle Street. It has a raised ceiling with decorative geometric panels to the centre and deep moulded cornicing. A large cross beam behind the projecting main windows is supported on decorative carved brackets. Original oak bench seating with high fixed backs incorporating shelving lines the southwest wall. A short timber stair between the benches rises to a wide panelled door leading into the courtroom. A door in the southeast wall leads to further rooms including bathrooms and another plain dog-leg stair.

The courtroom is double-height and open to the roof, with a series of queen post trusses with additional vertical and diagonal struts, deep brackets, and balustrading above the tie beams. A large pitched skylight occupies the centre. Pitch pine fittings and fixtures include a central dock with two compartments and a concrete stair down into the cells below. The raised judicial bench at the front of the court has a slightly elevated central place for the chairman, with the justices' doorway to the northeast corner behind. The court clerks' desk sits in front of and below the bench, with an entrance doorway to the northwest corner. Advocates' seating is positioned below. The witness box stands to the northwest side, with two jury boxes to the southeast side facing inwards, also used by defendants and sergeants. An enclosed jury stair leads to the ground floor and rear yard. The public gallery at the rear features shallow tiered bench seating with iron legs and an iron balustrade, with the public entrance at the adjacent southwest corner.

The cell area beneath the courtroom originally contained eight cells. A wide brick-vaulted corridor with a cement floor has iron gates at the northeast end. One cell stands to the northwest side; two further cells have been knocked through to create a storage room, with one doorway blocked up and one with a replaced door. Four cells line the southeast side. One of these has a door in a short corridor to the left containing a door into the yard through which prisoners would be transferred. An iron gated walkway to the northwest side of the main corridor leads up into the dock. The cells retain their original iron-lined metal doors with hatches, high set multi-paned barred windows, and stone tile floors. Several cells also retain their original wooden bunks.

The Court Street block contains an enclosed stair rising to the courtroom, with rooms to the left on ground and first floors possibly originally used as accommodation for the constable in charge of cells.

History

The purpose-built Bolton County Police Court, later known as Castle Street Police Station, opened on Castle Street in The Haulgh, Bolton on 6 November 1876. Prior to this, the County Magistrates held a County (Quarter) Sessions court at Little Bolton Town Hall, but the premises became too small and unsuitable for their increased caseload. The new premises cost £7,000 and were constructed by Messrs. Watts of Miles Platting to the designs of Henry Littler of Manchester, who was also architect to the Lancashire Asylums Board.

At the time of the building's opening, The Haulgh was semi-rural with no proper access roads. However, within a couple of years Castle Street and the other adjacent roads were built and houses quickly sprang up around the court building. Along with the court, the building housed the Bolton Division of the County Police Force, later part of Greater Manchester Police.

The court handled both summary and capital justice, unlike most Police Courts which dealt only with summary justice and petty sessions. Following the Courts Act of 1971, which abolished Assizes and Quarter Sessions and replaced them with the Crown Court, suitable former Assizes and Quarter Sessions buildings became Crown Courts, Magistrates Courts, or became redundant. The magistrates remained at Castle Street until around 1974 when they relocated to Bolton Magistrates Court and the building was taken over completely by Greater Manchester Police. Following the court's closure around 1974, the courtroom was used as a police briefing and training room. The police station closed to the public in the 1980s or 1990s but remained in active use by the police traffic and scenes of crime units until September 2006 when the police relocated to a new building.

Castle Street Police Station is a distinctive and well-preserved example of a purpose-built, mid to late 19th century combined law court and police station that unusually dealt with both summary and capital justice. Having ceased active use in September 2006 (the court around 1974), the building remains relatively unaltered since its original construction with many original features retained including 4-panel doors, sash and casement windows, cornicing, the ornate main stair used by the justices, and secondary stairs for the use of clerks and the police. Of particular note is the survival of the impressive large first floor courtroom with its distinctive roof structure and intact original plan form and fixtures including the central dock, justices' bench, court clerks' desk, witness box, jury boxes, and public gallery. The survival of the cell area beneath is also noteworthy, with its brick vaulted ceilings and complete cells with metal doors and hatches, high barred windows, and several with their original wooden bunks. Internal space division separating the prisoner, public, justices, jury, and police, and the police accommodation, is clearly readable both internally and externally through the use of separate entrances. In its little altered state, and with the survival of its original enclosing yard walls, gates, and outbuildings including former stabling and vehicle garaging, Castle Street Police Station is of national interest.