County Assembly Rooms

The County Assembly Rooms, now partly a Masonic Temple, were built in 1744, with a front addition and vestibule added in 1908 by William Watkins of Lincoln. The building is constructed of brick and ashlar, with stone dressings and hipped pantile and slate roofs.

The front elevation, in a Baroque Revival style, features a first-floor band, a string course, a moulded dentilated pediment and eaves, rusticated quoins, a parapet and ball finials. A central rusticated square porch has a cornice. The doorway is topped with an enriched keystone and a pair of wrought-iron gates, set beneath a segmental pediment containing a wreathed roundel. Flanking the porch are round-headed windows in moulded surrounds, with a frieze and segmental pediment above. Above the windows is a central Venetian window with glazing bars. The original 18th-century hall has cogged eaves.

The 18th-century ballroom has full-height Ionic pilasters, a modillion cornice and a panelled plaster ceiling. Bay windows have entablatures, and above each, a smaller window with a coved architrave; all windows have glazing bars. At the west end is a central pedimented doorcase, and at the east end two similar smaller doorcases, all with fielded panelled doors. On the south side is a central fireplace with an entablature and pedimented overmantel, featuring a life-size female figure. Opposite, a semicircular recess is defined by a round arch and keystone. An adjoining service room to the east has an elliptical arched plaster vault. Other 18th-century rooms contain friezes, modillion cornices, 19th-century fireplaces, and fielded panelled doors.

The 1908 addition includes an elliptical vestibule with a saucer dome on pendentives. A scrolled datestone is above the east door. The hall within has Ionic pilasters, an enriched cross-beamed ceiling, and a domed oval skylight with enriched borders. The doorcases here have bracketed friezes.