Spalding Sessions House is a judicial structure in the Sheep Market in

Spalding, Lincolnshire Spalding () is a market town on the River Welland in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. The town had a population of 31,588 at the 2011 census. The town is the administrative centre of the South Holland District. The town is ...

, England. The structure, which used to be the main courthouse for the south of

Parts of Holland The Parts of Holland is a historical division of Lincolnshire, England, encompassing the south-east of the county. The name is still recognised locally and survives in the district of South Holland. Administration Parts of Holland was one of th ...

, is a Grade II listed building.

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 Spalding was the old Town Hall in the triangular open space in Hall Place, which was commissioned by John Hobson, and dated back to about 1620. However, in the 1830s, the justices complained that the town hall was too small for them and it was agreed to commission a new sessions house. The site they selected in the Sheep Market was adjacent to a new prison which had been erected in 1825 to replace an earlier House of Correction in Broad Street which had dated from 1619. The new sessions house was designed by Charles Kirk from

Sleaford Sleaford is a market town and Civil parishes in England, 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, Lincolnshire, ...

, 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 at a cost of £6,000 and was officially opened on 30 June 1843. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing onto the Sheep Market. 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 (s ...

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'). Whe ...

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 window An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found pro ...

s 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 courtroom as well as a series of prison cells on the ground floor. The building continued to be used as a facility for dispensing justice but, in 2012, the building was declared no longer fit for purpose and magistrates court hearings were transferred to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. In 2016, food production specialists, Oliver and Dorota Sneath, acquired the building and initiated works to convert the sessions house into a mix of residential accommodation and leisure space. The building was licensed for weddings and civil partnership ceremonies in 2018.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1843 Grade II listed buildings in Lincolnshire Spalding, Lincolnshire Court buildings in England

History

See also

References