Hosta

by | Mar 16, 2018 | Hosta

How Can We Help?
You are here:
< Back

The Old Town Hall is a municipal structure in George Street, Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The structure, which is used as a local history museum, is a Category A listed building.[1]

History

The first municipal structure in Stanraer was a tolbooth which was built on part of the local parish churchyard and dated back to the late 17th century: the tolbooth was the host to an Irish pirate known as "Mccairty" who was captured off the coast of Kirkcudbrightshire and imprisoned there in 1699.[2] By the 1770s, the tolbooth was very dilapidated and the burgh leaders decided to demolish it and replace it with a new town hall on the same site.[3]

The new building was designed and built by Edward Wallace and Thomas Hall in the neoclassical style, built in rubble masonry with a stucco finish and was completed in June 1776.[4] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto George Street; the central bay, which slightly projected forward, featured a doorway with a fanlight and a pediment above; on the first floor there was a panel showing the burgh coat of arms which depicted a ship with three sails and the motto "Tutissima Statio" (English: "The safest station"). The outer bays were fenestrated with sash windows on the first floor, while the central bay was surmounted by a tower, with a parapet and a balustrade in the first stage, an octagonal belfry in the second stage and a spire with a weather vane above.[1] Internally, the principal rooms were the guardhouse and the lock-up on the ground floor and the debtors' prison, which was later converted for use as a council chamber, on the first floor.[4] The building was extended to the rear to accommodate a corn exchange and a courtroom in 1855.[3]

After the council relocated to new premises in Lewis Street in 1874, the old town hall was briefly used as a drill hall and armoury for the 2nd Wigtownshire Rifle Volunteer Corps,[5] and was then used as the home of the Athenaeum Club, before being taken over by the fire service in 1879.[6] A clock, which was presented to the town by a former town clerk, William Black, was installed in the tower in 1936.[3] The fire service eventually relocated from the town hall to a new purpose-built fire station in Lewis Street in 1960.[7] The Stranraer Museum, which by the middle of the 20th century had built up a substantial collection of axes and other archaeological exhibits, then established itself in the building.[8] Other significant items which were added to the collection included an 18th century plough,[9] as well as a variety of items relating to the polar explorers, Sir John Ross, and his nephew, James Clark Ross.[10]

Works of art in the building include a painting by Henry John Dobson depicting an old lady spinning,[11] and a painting by George Pirie depicting a boy with a terrier and pups,[12] as well as landscape paintings by Alexander Brownlie Docharty,[13] George Houston[14] and Archibald David Reid.[15]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Historic Environment Scotland. "Old Town Hall, George Street, Stranraer (LB41745)". Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  2. ^ Dobson, David (2009). Scots-Irish Links, 1575-1725. Vol. 6. Clearfield. p. 70. ISBN 978-0806353517.
  3. ^ a b c "Stranraer Town House". Scran. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  4. ^ a b Historic Environment Scotland. "Stranraer, 55 George Street, Old Town Hall (60827)". Canmore. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  5. ^ Westlake, Ray (2010). Tracing the Rifle Volunteers: A Guide for Military and Family Historians. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1848842113.
  6. ^ "Stranraer Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan" (PDF). Dumfries and Galloway Council. 1 May 2018. p. 35. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  7. ^ "Stranraer Fire Brigade". Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  8. ^ "Transactions and Journal of Proceedings". Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society. 1956. p. 202.
  9. ^ "The Chilcarroch Plough". Future Museum. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  10. ^ "Stranraer Museum". Culture 24. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  11. ^ Dobson, Henry John. "Old Lady Spinning". Art UK. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  12. ^ Pirie, George. "Boy with Terrier and Pups". Art UK. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  13. ^ Docharty, Alexander Brownlie. "Highland River Scene with Mountain". Art UK. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  14. ^ Houston, George. "Sunlit Wooded Mountain Scene". Art UK. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  15. ^ Reid, Archibald David. "Landscape". Art UK. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
Categories
Table of Contents