Boston Sessions House is a judicial structure in Church Close,

Boston, Lincolnshire Boston is a market town and inland port in the borough of the same name in the county of Lincolnshire, England. Boston is north of London, north-east of Peterborough, east of Nottingham, south-east of Lincoln, south-southeast of Hul ...

, England. The structure, which used to be the main courthouse for the north of Parts of Holland, is a Grade II* listed building. The site is also home to County Hall, the former headquarters of

Holland County Council Holland County Council was the county council of Holland, one of the three Parts of Lincolnshire in eastern England. It came into its powers on 1 April 1889 and was abolished on 1 April 1974. The county council was based at County Hall, Boston. It ...

History

The first venue for the

quarter sessions The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388 (extending also to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535). They were also established in ...

in Boston was the

Guildhall A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in som ...

which had been used for that purpose since 1660. However, in the 1830s, the justices complained that the guildhall was too small for them and it was agreed to commission a new sessions house. The site they selected, just to the north of St Botolph's Church, had been occupied by an

Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North A ...

priory. The new building was the designed by Charles Kirk from

Sleaford Sleaford is a market town and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. Centred on the former parish of New Sleaford, the modern boundaries and urban area include Quarrington to the south-west, Holdingham to the nor ...

, built in ashlar stone at a cost of £10,000 and was officially opened on 17 October 1843. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing Church Close. The central section of three bays featured an arched doorway flanked by two bi-partite

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

ed and transomed windows, all with traceried panels above; on the first floor there was a large tri-partite mullioned and transomed window flanked by two bi-partite mullioned and transomed windows. The bays were separated by

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...

es surmounted by statues of lions and, at roof level, there was a

crenelated A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interv ...

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...

which was decorated by a panel bearing the Royal coat of arms. The end bays, which were projected forward, took the form of three-stage towers with doorways in the first stage, oriel windows in the second stage and pairs of narrow windows in the third stage; the towers were also surmounted by crenelated parapets. Internally, the principal rooms were the prison cells on the ground floor, a magistrates' retiring room on the first floor and a strong room on the second floor: the main courtroom was at the back of the building. The building continued to be used as a facility for dispensing justice but, following the implementation of the

Local Government Act 1888 Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

, which established county councils in every county, it also became the meeting place of

. After the county council moved to a dedicated building known as County Hall, which was erected on the same site just to southeast of the sessions house in 1927, the sessions house was used solely for judicial purposes. The county council was abolished when the newly-formed

Lincolnshire County Council Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire an ...

was formed at the County Offices in

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

in 1974. The local public library service relocated to County Hall in the late 20th century, and the magistrates moved to a new courthouse in Norfolk Street in 2003. In 2016, developers, Paul and Amy Wilkinson took possession of the whole site and initiated works to convert County Hall into a complex of shopping units, apartments and commercial offices for local businesses. Further works to convert the prison cells in the sessions house into a gym were initiated in February 2020.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1842 County halls in England Grade II* listed buildings in Lincolnshire Boston, Lincolnshire Court buildings in England

History

See also

References