Court House To Rear Of Number 27 And Attached Wall

MALMESBURY

ST9386 ST JOHN'S STREET 758-1/3/305 (East side) 18/01/49 Court House to rear of No.27 and attached wall

I

Medieval hospital building, Court House from 1623. Possibly late C12, roof early C15, altered 1623. Limestone rubble, rendered gable, brick gable stack and stone slate roof. PLAN: 3-bay plan at right-angles to street, originally extended further to the E. EXTERIOR: single storey; 3-window range. A right-hand doorway with C20 door and C20 buttress to the left, and timber lintels to casements with glazing bars; N elevation has mullion windows with leaded lights. Purlins extend from E gable. INTERIOR: details include a partly open roof with arch-braced collar trusses, mortices for wind braces; steeply-battered inner walls; C18 court fittings include a raised oak bench with panelled back at W end for Warden and Capital Burgesses; desks in front of dais with turned balusters and square newels, the earliest date scratched on desks is 1745; panelled screen or bar separates pit where 24 Assistant Burgesses gathered in front of dais from public; court chest with 6 locks kept in pit, High Steward's chair on dais dates to 1842 with painted panel of Arms dated 1693. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached rubble wall extends approx 3m from NE corner. HISTORICAL NOTE: on site of Hospital of St John and possibly one of the conventual buildings, purchased for the Old Corporation 1580; almshouses from 1597, Court and Free School from 1629. Old Corporation have held meetings here since 1616. The projecting purlins and attached wall suggest the Court House may have extended further. An extremely rare surviving example of a medieval hospital building; the C17 and C18 fittings represent a very rare and significant example of a small provincial Court Room. (Wiltshire Buildings Record: Trowbridge: WLBR B303).

Listing NGR: ST9353386969