Shire Hall And Attached Railings, Gates And Lamp Standards

Shire Hall and attached railings, gates and lamp standards

A county court house built between 1795 and 1798, extended in 1854. Designed by John Harvey, a pupil of Samuel Wyatt, who may have contributed to the design. The building is in Neo-classical style.

The exterior is constructed of ashlar with a hipped slate roof, with brick rear wings. It follows a double-depth plan and presents a symmetrical facade of 2 storeys with a 9-window range. The ground floor breaks forward under a 3-window centre with an applied tetrastyle Doric portico featuring an Ionic entablature. The ground floor is rusticated, with a sill band at first-floor level and a top frieze, cornice and blocking course. The round-headed entrance is set within a recess and is flanked by similar recesses; it has 20th-century paired doors. The first floor has windows with 6/9-pane sashes; those flanking the centre have wrought-iron window box supports and are crowned with alternately rectangular and round panels. The pediment contains a clock flanked by relief figures.

The right return presents a similar treatment across a 3-window range. The ground floor has 3 round-headed blind windows, 2 with fanlights, with an inserted entrance at the right end featuring studded paired doors. The first floor has a blind window with panel above, flanked by tripartite windows in round-headed recesses with 12:24:12-pane sashes, cornices and round panels to the tympana. The left return is similar, spanning 4 windows, including a tripartite sash to the left end; 2 windows have 2:4:2-pane horned tripartite sashes. The rear left wing features ashlar dressings with windows having wedge lintels over varied sashes, a short elliptical arcade, and a left-end carriage entrance.

The interior contains a double-height Shire Hall spanning the full width of the facade. The top entablature is decorated with bucrania and festoons, and is covered by a segmental barrel vault. One side features a segmental-headed entrance with similar flanking recesses containing cast-iron railings and a central gate. Above this is a canted recess with an Ionic colonnade comprising 2 pairs of columns and single columns to the ends, topped by a balustrade; paired doors with a large fanlight open to the rear. Similar end recesses contain tetrastyle colonnades. The ceiling displays guilloche bands and 3 rosettes, which formerly held chandeliers. A stair to the rear, probably of 19th-century date, has turned balusters and a 19th-century screen with stained-glass panels.

Court No.1 to the left has canted ends and an entablature with swags and a coved ceiling with a large rose. It retains contemporary panelling and fittings including a jury box, public gallery, and prisoner's box with spiked railings. The end wall displays a memorial to Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd (died 1854 while addressing the grand jury), formed as a pedimented panel with a bust in a niche. The right wall has a hipped canopy with a central bowed projection above the judge's chair, topped with the Royal arms. Court No.2 retains mostly 18th-century fittings with flush panels and a 20th-century suspended ceiling, along with a fluted elliptical canopy above the judge's seat. Some original cells survive in the basement.

The subsidiary features include cast-iron railings with spear finials and 4 wreathed panels, together with lamp standards and gates, positioned at the centre of the building. The railings originally extended along the entire facade. The railings, gates and lamp standards were separately listed on 17 December 1971. This is one of the finest public buildings in Stafford.