Former Skipton County Court and attached railings

The former Skipton County Court, subsequently used as offices and a church, was built between 1856 and 1857 to designs by Charles Reeve. The building has undergone 20th-century additions and alterations and is designed in the Italianate style.

Materials and Construction

The building is constructed of finely dressed sandstone ashlar with rusticated frost-work quoins. The roofs are Welsh slate with hipped profiles and a leaded flat roof section. External features include cast iron guttering, hoppers and railings. The windows have wooden sash frames.

Plan and Layout

The layout comprises a single-storey L-shaped block, composed of north-south and east-west aligned sections with a canted flat-roofed north-west entrance that wraps around a two-storey east-west orientated main block. Attached to the rear (south) of the two-storey block is a small single-storey extension. An internal courtyard to the east contains a small east-west aligned outbuilding, a square 20th-century extension and east boundary wall.

Exterior

The building occupies a south-east corner site at the junction of Otley Street and Court Lane, with elevations facing both these streets and Alma Terrace. The main elevations facing Otley Street (north-west and north) and Alma Terrace (east) are single-storey and built of ashlar with hipped roofs, apart from the flat-roofed north-west entrance. Both elevations have pilaster-framed bays, each bay containing either a single window or pair of windows with segmental arched and shouldered stone surrounds and arched double-hung margin light sashes. Both pilasters and windows rise from a splayed base of rusticated frost-work quoins. A three-stepped eaves cornice runs above, decorated with pairs of neo-Grecian corbel ornamentation at the heads of the pilasters. At intervals the outlet pipes of the overhanging cast iron guttering cut through the cornice to cast iron hoppers decorated with lion head plaques.

The main entrance, the former Judge's entrance, is a flat-roofed north-west entrance block facing the junction of Otley Street and Court Lane. It is accessed by three shallow stone steps with chamfered pilasters either side of a segmental arched, shouldered and keystoned door surround. It retains a two-panel entrance door with a brass door plaque and letter box, and a single-pane segmental arched over-light. Rising above the eaves cornice is the free-standing, gilt-painted Royal Arms with the motto DIEU ET MON DROIT in raised lettering on a narrow plinth. The entrance is flanked to either side by a canted narrow bay containing a slender segmental arched stone surround with a two-over-two horizontal sash. A single-bay return to the west, facing Court Lane, has a similar pair of narrow windows with a shouldered window surround and deeply grooved monolithic mullion.

To the east of the flat-roofed entrance block, facing Otley Street, is a three-bay elevation which projects forward into the street by two bays then one bay (west to east). The western two bays each have a single window, whilst the eastern bay has a pair of windows with a deeply grooved monolithic mullion. The east elevation, to Alma Terrace, is of four bays with an entrance (the former public entrance) in the southern bay. The segmental and keystoned arched door surround is accessed by three shallow steps and retains a two-leaf wooden door with original fittings and a large arched over-light. The bays to the right (north) each have a single window, with mid-19th-century street light brackets attached to the second and fourth pilasters (both now fitted with 20th-century replica Victorian street lanterns). Attached at the south end of the east elevation is a stepped courtyard boundary wall of three bays. The boundary wall has a central segmental arched door, with large blind doorways to either side, one of which contains a 20th-century window punctured through.

Attached behind the main entrance and L-shaped range is an east-west aligned two-storey block containing a double-height courtroom, with a slender ashlar stack at its south-east corner. This forms the principal elevation to the south and west elevation facing Court Lane. At the level of the upper storey are pairs of windows with deeply grooved monolithic mullions, and an ashlar band running through the lintel. The north and south elevations each have three pairs of windows, and the east and west elevations each have two. All have wooden horned double-hung two-over-two sashes with an arched top light. Attached to the south elevation is a small single-storey extension which forms part of the boundary wall to the south. It has an ashlar band running below a capped parapet and one flat-lintelled west window.

Interior

The interior plan form is designed to provide separate access and circulation routes between the north-west entrance (the former Judiciary entrance) and the east (public) entrance.

North-West Entrance

The north-west entrance lobby has wide wooden floorboards, which may survive throughout the building, with a painted Royal Arms wall plaque on the east wall. Late-20th-century stud walling inserted in the south-west corner forms a utilitarian disabled WC and a doorway into an original east-west aligned corridor. The south side of the corridor has two door openings into the former courthouse, both of substantial depth: a 19th-century opening with a late-20th-century door to the east (directly south of the vestibule) and a late-20th-century opening. The north side of the corridor has a bolection moulded door architrave and fielded and panelled door with locks, which leads into a north room, the former Judge's room. This room contains two original cupboards with fielded and panelled doors, both with door locks, and one cupboard with shelving. Deep mid-19th-century moulded skirting boards, dado rails and cornicing remain intact throughout the room.

At the east end of the corridor is an open-plan room, now with stud walling set beneath a suspended ceiling to create temporary rooms. The room was originally divided in two (the Registrar's room and Public Office) and corresponding wall nibs mark the original internal masonry wall. An original brick-vaulted and stone-lined Chubb and Son fire-proof strong room is located in the south wall of the former Public Office, with flagged floor, stone-slab storage shelves and ventilation grates. To the south of the strong room is an access door into a utilitarian 20th-century kitchen area, which retains a wide heavily moulded door architrave (formerly giving access from the east entrance to the public office) with a stud wall set behind.

Throughout the building all the windows retain heavily moulded architraves. Those in the single-storey range rise from floor to ceiling with wood panelling beneath the windows (in 2022 hidden by radiators) and sections of deep mid-19th-century skirting boards. The original moulded cornicing is also thought to remain above the suspended ceilings.

East Entrance

The east entrance vestibule retains a tall heavily moulded door architrave into the entrance hall, the upper half concealed by suspended ceilings and boarded over with inset late-20th-century doors. Two stud walls either side of the vestibule form a 20th-century WC to the left (south) and a blind wall to the right (north) which forms the rear wall to the late-20th-century kitchen.

The entrance hall retains an original low wooden waiting bench with a stud wall inserted to the north to create a small 20th-century WC. Directly ahead (west) is the three-bay by two-bay courtroom, now (in 2022) subdivided, which retains its full Italianate decorative scheme. Square pilasters rise through a heavily moulded string course, the upper part decorated with raised panels, to a heavily moulded cornice and cross-beam ceiling. Between the pilasters are pairs of three-centred arched upper storey windows with heavily moulded surrounds.

The two-storey courthouse has been divided by a 20th-century partition wall to create a first floor across the easternmost bay. Within this bay an enclosed U-shaped staircase at ground-floor level provides access to three small first-floor rooms. A south door, with a bolection moulded architrave and original panelled door with locks, accesses a single-storey south extension which houses a room to the west and boiler room (accessed from the courtyard) to the east. The plasterwork remains in situ throughout, apart from a section of moulded string course and panels which have been re-located to the inner face of the 20th-century partition wall, and the roof structure is thought to be intact above the cross-beam ceiling.

Subsidiary Items

The cast iron railings, with a chamfered plinth and shaped and S-shaped supporting brackets, and a curved double-leaf entrance gate are part of the mid-19th-century design. Within the rear courtyard there is an original single-storey east-west aligned outbuilding containing 20th-century toilets and an early-20th-century fire sprinkler system.