The Castle, formerly known as The Castle Hotel, is a public house and former Georgian courthouse on Halton Hill in Halton, Runcorn,

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England. Its side walls are continuous with the curtain walls of the ruins of Halton Castle. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.

History

The building was originally a

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...

. The court at Halton had been held in the gatehouse of the castle. However, by 1737 its structure had deteriorated so badly that it was decided to build a new courthouse on the site of the gatehouse, using some of the stones from the previous building. The courtroom was on the first floor of the building and prisoners were held in cells in the basement.

Architecture

The courthouse is constructed in red sandstone and it has a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

hipped roof. It has two storeys and seven

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

; the lateral two bays project forward on each side. An outside staircase leads up to the first-floor door to the courtroom. Over its door are the Royal court of arms. Inside the courtroom is a marble tablet containing an inscription commemorating the completion of its building.

History

Architecture

References

See also