County Buildings (also known as the Former County Buildings) is a

Grade II 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 ...

listed building in Wrexham, Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It houses the Wrexham County Borough Museum and

Wrexham Archives Wrexham Archives and Local Studies (simply the Wrexham Archives; formerly A.N. Palmer Centre for Local Studies and Archives) holds the archives for the city of Wrexham. The archives are held at County Buildings, on Regent Street, Wrexham, and run ...

. It is proposed that a

Football Museum for Wales A ''national football museum'' dedicated to Welsh association football in Wrexham has been proposed by various politicians in both the Welsh Government and local councils, with Wrexham County Borough Council being the leading contender for a m ...

be housed in the building. The building is located between Saint Mark's Road and Regent Street in the

city centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

and

Offa Offa (died 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æt ...

, bounded by Wrexham Cathedral to the west.

Description

The building is located on the corner of Saint Mark's Road and Regent Street, in the city centre of Wrexham and in the community of Offa. The Cathedral Church of Our Lady of Sorrows is located to its west also on Regent Street. Former County Buildings is two-stories, with a five-

bay 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 (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

entrance front which is flanked either side by advanced gabled ranges. The building's architecture is of a Tudor gothic style. The building is composed of roughtly coursed and squared stone with freestone dressings and steep slate roofs with coped gables, axial and end wall stack with

chamfer A chamfer or is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces. Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, fu ...

ed shafts. The central gable located above the main entrance in loggia (now glazed) is composed of five bays of chamfered depressed

gothic arch A pointed arch, ogival arch, or Gothic arch is an arch with a pointed crown, whose two curving sides meet at a relatively sharp angle at the top of the arch. This architectural element was particularly important in Gothic architecture. The earli ...

es, between small buttresses. Also above the main entrance is a four-light

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 ...

, with a leaded roof, flanked by three-light windows either side, all with mullions and transoms. The lower gabled wings are also of similar detail, the right hand gable is advanced from the main range and houses the entrance to the No. 1 court in its own gabled rear wing. The left hand range clasps the outer angle of the main front, and there is a further wing located at its rear, parallel to the main range. The building has a chamfered buttressed tower, with a deep moulded arched doorway and a staircase under a sloping, embattled roofline with stepped windows. Forbidding_Architecture_-_geograph

Internally, the building's layout was modified in 1980, with rooms enlarged, a circulation space created and the courtyard enclosed.

History

The building was built as a militia

barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

between 1857 and 1858 to the architectural designs of Thomas Penson. The Royal Denbighshire Militia relocated their armoury from Chester Castle, including their guns and

ammunition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weap ...

, to the upstairs room of the building, now known as Court Room 1. Metal shutters on the armoury windows were initially planned to be installed, however following a reduction in revolutionary sentiment in the area, they were never installed. The building also provided as the home for the militia's officers, whereas the soldiers resided in houses around the then town and trained for one month annually. The militia vacated the building in 1877, moving to the

Hightown Barracks Hightown Barracks is a military installation in Wrexham, Wales. History The barracks were built in the Fortress Gothic Revival Style and completed in 1877. Their creation took place as part of the Cardwell Reforms which encouraged the locali ...

. In around 1879, the building was converted to a divisional police station of the Denbighshire Constabulary and a magistrates' court. The building was remodelled internally and externally to have two court rooms upstairs and a number of cells on the

ground-floor A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US). T ...

for individuals on remand or accommodated overnight when showing signs of

alcohol intoxication Alcohol intoxication, also known as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the negative behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main p ...

. There was living accommodation provided in the rest of the building for the constabulary, including accommodation for the Inspector, Superintendent, Bridewell Sergeant, Constable and four unmarried Constables. Although most eventually lived outside the building, with the Bridewell Sergeant the last the leave in 1960. In the 1901 census, three prisoners were held in the building on

census day A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

. The exercise yard for prisoners is present today and surrounded by high walls to prevent escape. In the 1890s the building was extended and the extension later used as council offices. During World War II, the

Air Raid Precautions Air Raid Precautions (ARP) refers to a number of organisations and guidelines in the United Kingdom dedicated to the protection of civilians from the danger of air raids. Government consideration for air raid precautions increased in the 1920s an ...

were based at the back of the building, and an air raid siren was installed during wartime on the western side of the building and still works. In 1976–77, North Wales Police, which the Denbighshire Constabulary was absorbed into, relocated to Bodhyfryd police station, to the north-east, leaving the County Buildings vacant. Between 1977 and 1996, parts of the building were part of a local art college. In 1996, following the formation of Wrexham County Borough from

Clwyd Clwyd () is a preserved county of Wales, situated in the north-east corner of the country; it is named after the River Clwyd, which runs through the area. To the north lies the Irish Sea, with the English ceremonial counties of Cheshire to th ...

, the building opened as the Wrexham County Borough Museum and Archives. The building was partly refurbished in the 1990s, with a new wing of the building built to replace a World War II-built structure. The wing was called "Satellite" and were to be used to manage and house the Museum's on-site collections and a public study room (the "Collections Centre") for online services to reserved collections not displayed to the public. The new wing costed £398,500, paid with a Heritage Lottery grant of £299,375 and £99,125 from the council. The wing was completed on 15 May 1998. The building was refurbished in 2010–11, adding a front extension and now contains the Courtyard Cafe. It is proposed that the building host the

on the vacant upper parts of the building, and is projected to open in 2024. Wrexham was chosen as the location for a national football museum, due to Wrexham's football heritage which includes the founding of the FAW in Wrexham in 1876, and having the oldest Welsh club, as well as oldest football ground in Wales.

References

{{Wrexham, state=collapsed Grade II listed buildings in Wrexham County Borough Government buildings completed in 1857