10, Derby Street

This is a house, originally built in 1760, which was reputedly designed to contain offices alongside domestic accommodation. It was later extended to include a courthouse. The building is constructed of brick with stone dressings and a plain-tiled roof.

The exterior is three storeys and five windows wide, with a prominent, pedimented central bay. A doorway is topped by a pediment supported by decorative brackets; the date “1760” is engraved and painted in the entablature above. A round-arched architrave frames the upper window, with small margin lights. There is a six-pane sash window in the attic storey, and a small bull’s-eye window in the apex of the pediment. The flanking windows on each floor are twelve-pane sashes, with painted stone sills and flat-arched, gauged brick heads containing painted stone keys. A moulded stone cornice runs along the eaves, and there are end wall and axial stacks. Cast-iron spearhead railings with urn finials mark the small front yard. A short rear wing on the right houses the staircase, and this was extended in the mid-19th century. The original full-height stair window has a central mullion and transoms, dividing it into seven vertical divisions of small, leaded panes.

A mid-19th century extension extends beyond the original building, to form a former courtroom. This extension is two storeys and four windows wide, with sixteen-pane sash windows flanking two doorways (the left-hand door providing access to the courtroom) and a tripartite sash window on the ground floor to the left. Similar sixteen-pane sash windows are present on the first floor, with one inserted window to the right of the centre. A single-storey extension to the right has a round-arched doorway and a sixteen-pane sash window. The openings throughout this wing have flat stone lintels and sills, though the doorway to the right of centre has a late 20th-century replica reeded case with a lozenge overlight.

The interior retains the original layout, including a staircase with turned balusters and a moulded rail. Some cast-iron fireplaces may be from the late 18th century. There is also fitted furniture associated with office use, likely from the late 19th or early 20th centuries. The courtroom in the rear wing still contains a bench and dock, plus tongue-and-groove wall panelling. The building was last used as a magistrates' court in the 1950s.