Old Court House, 62 Main Street, Pomeroy, BT70 2QH

Old Court House, 62 Main Street, Pomeroy

This is a late nineteenth-century market and court house built around 1880-1882, substantially preserved in its original condition. It is a robust and functional civic building typical of its era, maintaining a significant presence on Pomeroy's main square, The Diamond. Despite changes in use over time, the building has retained its character and form, reinforcing its importance as a civic structure of special interest. Its urban setting on the main square, alongside the parish church, remains well preserved.

The building is a two-storey rectangular structure located on the south side of Main Street. It was constructed on the site of a pre-1834 dwelling house. According to valuation records from 1882, the lower floor originally housed a corn market, egg and butter market, whilst the upper floor contained the petty sessions court. The upper floor continued in use as a court house until the mid twentieth century, after which the lower floor was given over to private commercial use.

Externally, the front north elevation facing Main Street is rendered in painted roughcast, with a rendered base. The rear and side elevations are constructed of snecked and regular coursed stone and brick. The south-east corner is chamfered at ground floor level. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with two chimneys, one at each gable end, and cast-iron rainwater goods.

The front elevation is four bays wide. The ground floor comprises, from left to right: a segmental-headed doorway with a replacement timber door and timber side panels with a signboard above; a segmental-headed coach arch fitted with a modern steel wire mesh gate; a segmental-headed door with a replacement metal door and glazed overlight; and an elliptical-headed doorway on the right. All ground floor openings are finished with painted bull-nosed brick surrounds and voussoirs. The first floor contains four square-headed window openings: the first, third and fourth bays have 2/2 timber sliding sash frames, whilst the second bay has a 4/4 timber sliding sash. All windows are set on cut-stone sills.

The east gable-ended side elevation contains no openings and is topped by a brick chimney with profiled stepped capping at the apex. The rear south elevation is constructed of rubble stone and contains an assortment of square-headed openings of varying sizes in irregular layout. At the centre of the ground floor is a segmental-headed coach arch, aligned through from the front elevation. Partial steps remain at the second doorway from the left; the remainder have been removed. Above the archway on the first floor is a square-headed door opening with a projecting concrete balcony of matching width, surrounded by a steel balustrade, and a metal window above. The west elevation is obscured by the neighbouring building.