Elgin Sheriff Court is a municipal structure in the High Street,

Elgin, Moray Elgin (; sco, Ailgin; gd, Eilginn, ) is a town (former cathedral city) and formerly a Royal Burgh in Moray, Scotland. It is the administrative and commercial centre for Moray. The town originated to the south of the River Lossie on the higher gr ...

, Scotland. The structure, which was the headquarters of Morayshire County Council and remains in use as a courthouse, is a Category B

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 first judicial building in the town was a 16th century timber-framed

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 middle of the High Street in which burgh court and county meetings were held. It was rebuilt in stone the early 17th century and replaced by a combined jail, court house and town hall in the early 18th century. This, in turn, was replaced by a dedicated courthouse on the south side of the High Street which was designed by William Robertson and completed in 1837. By the early 1860s, Robertson's courthouse was deemed inadequate, and it was decided to commission a new structure to the immediate east of the existing courthouse to be known as "County Buildings". The new building was designed by Robertson's nephews, Alexander and William Reid, in the

neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The pr ...

, 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 officially opened on 14 January 1866. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto the High Street. The central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured a recessed doorway flanked by two

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

s. On the first floor, the central section was fenestrated by sash windows fronted by

balustrades A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its cons ...

; the central window was flanked by

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite or ...

columns and the outer windows were flanked by Ionic order

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s all supporting an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

, a

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a cornice which it helps to support. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally translated as small teeth). All ...

ed cornice and a

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'). Whe ...

, which was originally decorated by ten

urn An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape or ...

s. The outer bays were fenestrated by sash windows on both floors and were surmounted by an entablature and a modillioned cornice, but no parapet. All the windows on the ground floor, which was rusticated, featured

keystones A keystone (or capstone) is the wedge-shaped stone at the apex of a masonry arch or typically round-shaped one at the apex of a vault. In both cases it is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allo ...

while all the windows on the first floor were surmounted by

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

s supported by

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

. Internally, the principal room was a new courtroom which featured a large portrait of Sheriff-Substitute Patrick Cameron. 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 county councils in every county, the new county leaders needed to identify offices for Morayshire County Council. The new county council initially established its offices in the Reid brothers' building. However, in the late 1920s, it was decided that the county council needed more space for its offices; Robertson's original courthouse was demolished in 1930 and replaced by a new eleven-bay structure which was completed after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and became the new "County Buildings". The Reid brothers' building then became "Elgin Sheriff Court". After the abolition of Morayshire County Council in 1975, County Buildings was taken over by Moray District Council while the Reid brothers' building continued to be used for hearings of the sheriff court and, on one day a month, for hearings of the justice of the peace court. The Reid brothers' building was extended to the rear by three bays in a similar style in 1993.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1866 County halls in Scotland Category B listed buildings in Moray Court buildings in Scotland

History

See also

References