The North Kesteven Council Offices, formerly County Offices, Sleaford, is a municipal structure in Lafford Terrace,

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 ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, 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-we ...

, England. The structure, which is currently used as the headquarters of

North Kesteven District Council North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

, is a Grade II listed building.

History

The structure was originally commissioned as a row of houses known as Lafford Terrace. The name chosen recalled the Rural

Deanery of Lafford The Deanery of Lafford is an historic deanery in the Anglican Diocese of Lincoln in England. Located around the market town of Sleaford Sleaford is a market town and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. Cen ...

which had surrounded Sleaford. The terrace was designed by

Kirk and Parry Kirk and Parry were an architectural and civil engineering practice in Sleaford that specialised in the design of public buildings, housing and the construction of Railways. The practice was initially founded by Charles Kirk (senior) (1791–1 ...

in the

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

, built in coursed stone with ashlar dressings and was completed in 1856. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of 23 bays facing southwest with the central block and end blocks projected forward as

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

s. The central block of five bays featured a portico formed by

Doric order The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of c ...

columns supporting arches with

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 ...

and an entablature. The end blocks of two bays each featured

bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. Types Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or ...

s on the ground floor, and the bays just before the end blocks, which were slightly projected forward, featured round headed doorways. The remainder of the building was fenestrated with round headed windows with architraves and keystones on the ground floor, with segmentally headed windows with architraves and keystones on the first floor and, in the case of the central block and the end blocks which incorporated an extra floor, with square headed windows with architraves on the second floor. At roof level, the connecting blocks of six bays each featured round headed dormer windows, and the whole structure was surmounted by a modillioned cornice and a

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

. Residents in the terrace included Mary Wedd, the first mistress of Sleaford Art School, who lived at No. 6 Lafford Terrace. 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 became necessary to find offices and a meeting place for

Kesteven County Council Kesteven County Council was the county council of Parts of Kesteven in the east of England. It came into its powers on 1 April 1889 and was abolished on 1 April 1974. The county council was based at the County Offices in Sleaford. It was amalgama ...

. The county council initially established its offices in Jermyn Street and council meetings were held on an alternating basis between venues in

Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...

and Sleaford. However, by the mid-1920s, councillors found this arrangement unsatisfactory and, in around 1930, decided to buy Lafford Terrace for conversion and use as its permanent headquarters. 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 building then became the offices of

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1856 County halls in England Grade II listed buildings in Lincolnshire Sleaford