Full Report for Listed Buildings
The list description is not intended to be a complete inventory of what is listed: it is principally intended to aid identification. By law, the definition of a listed building includes the entire building (i) and any structure or object that is fixed to the said building and ancillary to it and (ii) any other structure or object that forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948, and was within the curtilage of the building, and ancillary to it, on the date on which said building was first included in the list, or on 1 January 1969, whichever was later.
Date of Designation
28/11/1950
Date of Amendment
26/03/1985
Name of Property
Shire Hall including Branch Library and Museum
Location
Wide neo-classical public building set into slope.
History
1826-29. By Edward Haycock of Shrewsbury. (Cost £5,570). Replacement building for the Old Shire Hall (formerly on corner of High Street) and provided with court room, judge's lodgings, administrative offices, etc.
Court room first used on 24th August 1829 and closed for assizes in 1970.
Exterior
2 storey and basement 9 bay composition with tetrastyle Tuscan frontispiece flanked by ground floor loggias (alterations to original scheme). Stucco on stone work, rubble to rear, slate roofs, projecting eaves cornice linked to pediment, blind panels over tall double hung sash windows in centre bays. 3 bay wings set back with Tuscan columns and plain entablatures to loggias, original ironwork railings and doorways in return angles of forecourts. Twin hipped rear wings.
Interior
Simple interiors with restrained classical detailing; dog-leg staircase with plain handrail, court room with deep coved ceilling and some decorative plaster work, 6-panel doors in panelled reveals etc. Much of the court room furniture is thought to be later in date. Vaulted cells (now partly occupied by museum) survive from the old goal on the site.
Reason for designation
Group value.
Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]