Shire Hall is a former judicial facility at Mount Folly Square in

Bodmin Bodmin () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated south-west of Bodmin Moor. The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character. It is bordere ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlan ...

. It was the main courthouse in Cornwall from 1838 to 1988. It is a Grade II*

listed building 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 I ...

History

The county

assizes The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes ...

had been held Launceston since 1201, latterly in the old guildhall in the town centre which had been built in 1647. However, with the completion of Bodmin Jail in 1779, St Lawrence's Hospital in Bodmin in 1818 and Bodmin railway station in 1834, Bodmin was well on the way to establishing itself as the county town of Cornwall. In this context, the justices chose to confirm this arrangement by procuring a new shire hall, in which the assizes would be held, in Bodmin: the site selected had previously been occupied by the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

Franciscan Friary of St Nicholas. The new shire hall was designed by Henry Burt of Launceston in a

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 style ...

and completed in 1838. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto Mount Folly Square; the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured three round-headed archways on the ground floor and three

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s on the first floor; a flagpole projected above the central window and there was a

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 ...

above. Internally, there were two principal courtrooms (the

nisi prius ''Nisi prius'' () (Latin: "unless before") is a historical term in English law. In the 19th century, it came to be used to denote generally all legal actions tried before judges of the King's Bench Division and in the early twentieth century for a ...

court and the crown court). The shire hall was the venue for the trial and conviction of the servant, Matthew Weeks, for the murder of his former girlfriend, Charlotte Dymond, on

Rough Tor Rough Tor (), or Roughtor, is a Tor (rock formation), tor on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, United Kingdom. The site is composed of the tor summit and Rocking stone, logan stone, a neolithic tor enclosure, a large number of Bronze Age hut circles, an ...

in April 1844. Dymond's story was subsequently immortalised in a

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...

by the Cornish writer,

Charles Causley Charles Stanley Causley CBE FRSL (24 August 1917 – 4 November 2003) was a British poet, school teacher and writer. His work is often noted for its simplicity and directness as well as its associations with folklore, legends and magic, espec ...

as well as by a

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies und ...

obelisk which was paid for by

public subscription Subscription refers to the process of investors signing up and committing to invest in a financial instrument, before the actual closing of the purchase. The term comes from the Latin word ''subscribere''. Historical Praenumeration An early form ...

and erected on the Tor in the mid-19th century. It was also the venue for the trial and conviction of

Dennis Whitty Dennis John Whitty (1941 – 17 December 1963) was, along with his accomplice Russell Pascoe, the third-to-last prisoner to be executed by hanging in a British prison. Whitty had been convicted for his part in the murder of 64-year-old Cornish far ...

and

Russell Pascoe Russell Pascoe (1940 – 17 December 1963) was (along with his 22-year-old accomplice Dennis Whitty) the third-last prisoner to be executed by hanging in a British prison. He was 23 years old. Pascoe was executed at 8.00 am in Bristol's Horfiel ...

, two of the last people to be executed in the UK, for the murder of a Cornish farmer, William Garfield Rowe, in August 1963. After the courts moved to a modern court complex in Edward Street in

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro c ...

, the shire hall closed as a courthouse in September 1988. It was refurbished with financial support from

North Cornwall 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 ...

, the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

and

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 ...

in the late 1990s and was re-opened by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

as a visitor attraction on 8 June 2000. One of the courts was restored to its original condition and the other court was converted to serve as a Visitor Information Centre.

References

{{Reflist Grade II* listed buildings in Cornwall Bodmin Government buildings completed in 1838