Shire Hall

Shire Hall is a large, two-story civic building dating to the late 19th century, constructed in a decorative Jacobethan style with Classical detailing. The building is faced with snecked rubble masonry, with freestone dressings and quoins to the advanced gabled bays. It has slate roofs with red clay ridge tiles, stone copings and kneelers, and tall, rectangular stone stacks.

The original, main section of the hall is two stories high and features a symmetrical front elevation of five gabled bays. The central and outer bays are wider and slightly advanced; the central bay houses the main entrance. A later wing was added to the right, linked to the main building by a two-story passage; this wing has a front elevation of two gabled bays, with the left bay wider and slightly advanced. Much of the rear elevation is obscured by modern prefabricated office accommodation.

The main entrance is in the central bay of the original part of the building. It is approached by five stone steps with side walls, and features a moulded, round-headed, keystoned arch on plain pilasters, with 16-panelled double doors and a segmental, radiating fanlight. The entrance bay has similarly detailed surrounds to the narrow lights flanking the doorway and its first-floor Venetian window. A moulded roundel bearing the county arms and the date 1899 sits in the gable apex. The recessed bays have a single window to each floor; the outer bays have three windows to the ground floor, the central window being wider, and Venetian-derived first floor windows with pediments over the central light. Windows throughout are horned sliding sash windows with small panes to most of the upper lights, and most have lugged architraves with chamfered reveals. However, first-floor windows in the recessed intermediate bays are round-arched in moulded architraves.

The added wing to the right has two gabled bays; the left bay has tripartite windows with linked, lugged architraves, and the shorter gabled bay to the right has similarly detailed paired windows.

The forecourt of the hall is enclosed by a low rubble wall with a moulded cap and spear-pointed railings and gates, hung on chamfered ashlar gatepiers with moulded capitals.