The Shire Hall is a public building in Stafford, England, completed in 1798 to a design by John Harvey. Formerly a

court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in acco ...

house, it housed an art gallery which closed to the public in July 2017. The court rooms and cells are preserved. The building, its interiors, and the associated

street furniture Street furniture is a collective term for objects and pieces of equipment installed along streets and roads for various purposes. It includes benches, traffic barriers, bollards, post boxes, phone boxes, streetlamps, traffic lights, traf ...

were grade II* listed on 17 December 1971, when it was described as "One of the finest public buildings in Stafford".

Earlier buildings

The current building is the third of similar function on the site. The county court met in Stafford as early as 1176. A shire hall, home to the county court and other civic functions, stood on the north side of what is now Market Square in the 1280s. In the 1580s, the decision was made to rebuild the shire hall, on a new site, but this was not completed until 1607, probably due to difficulties raising the money needed. By 1793, it had been decided, due to the building’s poor condition caused by inadequate maintenance, that a new building was needed, and the Stafford Shire Hall Act 1794 was passed by Parliament.

Architecture

Designs were submitted by

Samuel Wyatt Samuel Wyatt (8 September 1737, Weeford, Staffs. – London, 8 February 1807) was an England, English architect and engineer. A member of the Wyatt family, which included several notable 18th- and 19th-century English architects, his work was prima ...

, then working at nearby

Shugborough Hall Shugborough Hall is a stately home near Great Haywood, Staffordshire, England. The hall is situated on the edge of Cannock Chase, about east of Stafford and from Rugeley. The estate was owned by the Bishops of Lichfield until the dissolutio ...

, and by John Nash, but the one chosen was by John Harvey - his only significant building. Harvey had worked as Wyatt's assistant or pupil, and Wyatt is believed to have been involved in the final

Neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the 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 prevailing sty ...

design. Building began in 1795, and the hall was completed in 1798. The hall has nine ashlar bays above a rusticated ground floor. The portico has an architrave and

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...

, supported by four

Doric column 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 ...

s. Figures of

Justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

and

Mercy Mercy (Middle English, from Anglo-French ''merci'', from Medieval Latin ''merced-'', ''merces'', from Latin, "price paid, wages", from ''merc-'', ''merxi'' "merchandise") is benevolence, forgiveness, and kindness in a variety of ethical, relig ...

, by John Rossi and his partner John Bingley, recline on the pediment. A clock was placed between them in 1799, instead of the planned figure of Britannia from Harvery's original design. Also abandoned was Wyatt's proposal to include judges' living accommodation.

Interior

Immediately behind the facade is the Great Hall, , with three galleries. Beyond this are the two courtrooms: Court 1 (now open to the public, with displays of museum artefacts related to crime and policing) for the High Court and Court 2, the

magistrates' court A magistrates' court is a lower court where, in several jurisdictions, all criminal proceedings start. Also some civil matters may be dealt with here, such as family proceedings. Courts * Magistrates' court (England and Wales) * Magistrate's Cou ...

. The latter has many original fittings, but the former was enlarged by the

county surveyor A county surveyor is a public official in the United Kingdom and the United States. United Kingdom Webb & Webb describe the increasing chaos that began to prevail within this same period in field of county surveying in England and Wales, with c ...

, Charles Trubshaw, and refitted by local joiner Thomas Bull, in 1854. The 1854 remodelling extended the building over a market for dairy produce, The Butter Market. As a result, a new market hall was built nearby, across the market square. The basement included a guard room (holding cell) for prisoners, and the Mayor of Stafford's office. In 1947, one of the courtrooms was used in the filming of ''

Blanche Fury ''Blanche Fury'' is a 1948 British Technicolor drama film directed by Marc Allégret and starring Valerie Hobson, Stewart Granger and Michael Gough. It was adapted from a 1939 novel of the same title by Joseph Shearing. In Victorian era Englan ...

'', starring Stewart Granger.

Judges

Memorial to Thomas Noon Talfourd in Shire Hall Stafford

John Sparrow was Chairman of Stafford

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 ...

when the new building opened. His portrait, by William Owen, is in Court 2. Another judge,

Thomas Noon Talfourd Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd SL (26 May 179513 March 1854) was an English judge, Radical politician and author. Life The son of a well-to-do brewer, Talfourd was born in Reading, Berkshire. He received his education at Hendon and Reading School. ...

, collapsed and died while in the court. He is commemorated by a bust, sculpted by John Graham Lough, in Court 1.

Trials

Among those tried at the Shire Hall were the forger

William Booth William Booth (10 April 182920 August 1912) was an English Methodist preacher who, along with his wife, Catherine, founded the Salvation Army and became its first " General" (1878–1912). His 1890 book In Darkest England and The Way Out o ...

, who was convicted before Simon Le Blanc and subsequently hanged outside Stafford Gaol. In 1923, George Stagg was convicted of the murder by shooting of Aston Villa footballer

Tommy Ball Thomas Edgar Ball (11 February 1900 – 11 November 1923) was an English footballer who played at centre-half for Aston Villa. He was shot dead by his landlord and neighbour, ex-policeman George Stagg, thus becoming the first and to-date only ...

. His death sentence was commuted, and he died in 1966 in a mental hospital in Birmingham. The trial in the case of the murder of Christina Collins was held there in July 1839.

Colin Dexter Norman Colin Dexter (29 September 1930 – 21 March 2017) was an English crime writer known for his ''Inspector Morse'' series of novels, which were written between 1975 and 1999 and adapted as an ITV television series, ''Inspector Morse'', fr ...

based his eighth

Inspector Morse Detective Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse, GM, is the eponymous fictional character in the series of detective novels by British author Colin Dexter. On television, he appears in the 33-episode drama series '' Inspector Morse'' (1987–2000), ...

novel, ''

The Wench Is Dead ''The Wench Is Dead'' is a historical crime novel by Colin Dexter, the eighth novel in the Inspector Morse series. The novel received the Gold Dagger Award in 1989. Plot summary In 1859, the body of a young woman was found floating in the Oxf ...

'' on the case. In 1970, Raymond Leslie Morris was convicted there, of the

Cannock Chase murders The Cannock Chase murders (also known as the A34 murders and the Babes in the Ditch murders) were the murders of three girls aged between 5 and 7 that occurred in Staffordshire, England, between 1965 and 1967. The bodies of all three children we ...

Shire Hall Gallery

The Crown Court ceased to use the building in 1991. Staffordshire County Council decided to renovate and adapt it, completing the work in 1993 with some funding by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. The Great Hall became an art gallery, featuring visiting exhibitions and temporary displays of material from the Staffordshire County Museum collection, and occasionally part of the Staffordshire Hoard. The former courtyard was glazed over and is now part of a suite of council offices, including the former Grand Jury Room which retains part of its 18th-century dado. The gallery closed in July 2017. The building continues to be used for one-off events and various options for future use have been submitted to the county council for consideration.

References

{{reflist

External links

Shire Hall Gallery official web page archived on archive.org
Buildings and structures in Stafford Former courthouses in England Art museums and galleries in Staffordshire Government buildings completed in 1798 1798 establishments in England