County Buildings is a municipal building in Market Street,

Forfar Forfar ( sco, Farfar, gd, Baile Fharfair) is the county town of Angus, Scotland and the administrative centre for Angus Council, with a new multi-million pound office complex located on the outskirts of the town. As of 2021, the town has a p ...

, Scotland. The structure, which served as the headquarters of Angus County Council, is a Category C

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The original prison facilities in the town were located in a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

tolbooth A tolbooth or town house was the main municipal building of a Scottish burgh, from medieval times until the 19th century. The tolbooth usually provided a council meeting chamber, a court house and a jail. The tolbooth was one of three essen ...

in The Cross. In 1788, the tolbooth was demolished and prisoners were transferred to cells behind the new Forfar Town and County Hall. After the prison inspectors criticised "the confined and bad state of Forfar Prison" in 1841, the prison commissioners decided to procure a new building on a site in Market Street in the north of the town. The new prison building was designed by David Smith in the

Scottish baronial style Scottish baronial or Scots baronial is an architectural style of 19th century Gothic Revival which revived the forms and ornaments of historical architecture of Scotland in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. Reminiscent of Scot ...

, built in

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

stone and was completed in 1843. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with thirteen bays facing onto Market Street; the end sections of four bays each, which slightly projected forward, were three storeys high and featured

battlement 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 interva ...

s at roof level and

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

s at the corners. The central bay, which also slightly projected forward, was also three storeys high and featured a

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet wi ...

on the second floor and a twin-shaft chimney at roof level. The central bay was linked to the end sections by sections of just two storeys. The sheriff court, which had been based in a building behind the town and county hall, moved to a new purpose built building to the west of the prison building in 1871. The prison building was converted into offices, to a design by John Carver, in 1883 and the gatehouse, which had formed part of the original construction, was demolished in 1884. Following the implementation of the

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 50) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which was passed on 26 August 1889. The main effect of the act was to establish elected county councils in Scotland. In this it foll ...

which established a uniform system of

county council A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Ireland The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irela ...

s in Scotland, the new Forfarshire County Council established its headquarters in the former prison building which became known as County Buildings. It remained the headquarters of the county council after the authority was renamed Angus County Council in 1928. The complex then became the headquarters for

Angus District Council Angus ( sco, Angus; gd, Aonghas) is one of the 32 Local government in Scotland, local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Du ...

when it was created in May 1975 and, following the reorganisation under the

Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 The Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 (c. 39) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which created the current local government structure of 32 unitary authorities covering the whole of Scotland. It abolished the two-tie ...

, which saw the abolition of the district councils in the area, the building went on to become the offices of the new

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

Angus Council Angus ( sco, Angus; gd, Aonghas) is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross. Main industries include ag ...

, in 1996.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1843 Category C listed buildings in Angus, Scotland Forfar

History

See also

References