Former County Buildings

The Former County Buildings is a Tudor Gothic style structure built with roughly coursed and squared stone, featuring freestone dressings and steep slate roofs. The building has coped gables and axial and end wall stacks with chamfered shafts. It is designed around a courtyard plan and has a two-storey, five-bay entrance front, which is flanked by advanced gabled ranges on either side.

The central gable above the main entrance, which is now a glazed loggia, consists of five bays of chamfered depressed gothic arches supported by dwarf buttresses. Above the entrance, there is a four-light oriel window with a leaded roof, flanked by three-light windows on each side, all featuring mullions and transoms. The lower gabled wings are similarly detailed, with the right-hand gable advanced from the main range and housing the entrance to No. 1 court in its own gabled rear wing. The left-hand range clasps the outer angle of the main front and has an additional rear wing parallel to the main range.

There is a projecting stair tower for No. 2 court at the angle of the two ranges. This tower features chamfered buttresses and a deep moulded arched doorway, with the staircase expressed under a sloping, embattled roofline that has stepped windows to the left. The tower culminates in an octagonal turret adorned with miniature crenellations, a slate spirelet, an openwork crown, and a weather vane. The building also has wide gabled returns on each side, leading to rear wings and a lower gabled rear cross range. At the rear angles, there are circular turrets with window loops and conical roofs.

Since 1980, the original layout has been modified through the enlargement of some rooms, the creation of circulation space, and the enclosing of the courtyard.