Agriculture House

Agriculture House, dating from 1883, was designed by G R Crickmay of Weymouth. Constructed of brown brick with ashlar detailing, the building is three storeys high and features a moulded eaves cornice and a balcony with urns at each end. It has eight ranges of sash windows. Large pilasters are situated at the corners and also flank bays 3 and 6, which project slightly. The ground floor of bays 3, 4, 5, and 6 is faced with rusticated ashlar, and pilasters above these bays support a full entablature with dentilled cornices and pediments above bays 3 and 6. All windows have shouldered architraves with keystones; those on the second floor of bays 3 and 6 include fishscale ornament and moulded cornices on consoles. Bays 1, 6, and 7 on the ground floor, and bays 3 and 6 on the first floor, have tripartite windows similar to the others, but with moulded cornices and acroteria above. The double doors of bay 3 feature elaborate moulded panelling, flanked by ornamental pilasters with consoles, a pediment featuring a shell motif in the tympanum, and a swag on the frieze. Bay 8 has a six-panel door with a fanlight above. Agriculture House forms a group with numbers 48 to 65A (inclusive), including the Shire Hall, Holy Trinity Church, the Museum, St Peter’s Church, and the monument to William Barnes in the churchyard immediately south of the West Tower.