Old Town Hall, Stranraer
| The Old Town Hall | |
|
Wigtownshire | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Old Town Hall, Stranraer | |
| Type: | Town hall |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | NX05956083 |
| Location: | 54°54’16"N, 5°1’42"W |
| Town: | Stranraer |
| History | |
| Address: | George Street |
| Built 1776 | |
| By: | Edward Wallace and Thomas Hall |
| Town hall | |
| Neoclassical | |
| Information | |
The Old Town Hall stands in in George Street, Stranraer, the major port town of Wigtownshire. Today it is used as a local history museum.
The town hall 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. In 1699, the tolbooth held a notorious Irish pirate known as "Mccairty" who was captured off the coast of Kirkcudbrightshire and imprisoned in Stranraer.[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]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Old Town Hall, George Street, Stranraer (Category A) - Listing detail (Historic Environment Scotland)
- ↑ Dobson, David (2009). Scots-Irish Links, 1575-1725. 6. Clearfield. p. 70. ISBN 978-0806353517. https://books.google.com/books?id=Fw7rVcjbP3QC&pg=PA70.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Stranraer Town House". Scran. http://www.scran.ac.uk/packs/exhibitions/learning_materials/webs/20/towns7cstran.htm.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 RCAHMS record of The Old Town Hall
- ↑ Westlake, Ray (2010). Tracing the Rifle Volunteers: A Guide for Military and Family Historians. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1848842113. https://books.google.com/books?id=F7y__ACbNigC&pg=PA245.
- ↑ "Stranraer Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan". Dumfries and Galloway Council. 1 May 2018. p. 35. https://www.dumgal.gov.uk/media/19215/Draft-LDP-Supplementary-Guidance-Stranraer-Conservation-Area-Character-Appraisal-and-Management-Plan/pdf/Stranraer_Conservation_Area_Character_May_2018.pdf?m=636827085770700000.
- ↑ "Stranraer Fire Brigade". http://www.graemekirkwood.co.uk/DG/B7.htm.
- ↑ "Transactions and Journal of Proceedings". Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society. 1956. p. 202. https://books.google.com/books?id=hh10kaR2BNwC&q=%22Stranraer+Museum%22.
- ↑ "The Chilcarroch Plough". Future Museum. http://www.futuremuseum.co.uk/collections/life-work/key-industries/agriculture/horticulture/the-chilcarroch-plough.aspx.
- ↑ "Stranraer Museum". Culture 24. https://www.culture24.org.uk/sc000065.
- ↑ Dobson, Henry John. "Old Lady Spinning". Art UK. https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/old-lady-spinning-213621/search/venue:stranraer-museum-7322/page/3/view_as/grid.
- ↑ Pirie, George. "Boy with Terrier and Pups". Art UK. https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/boy-with-terrier-and-pups-213645/search/venue:stranraer-museum-7322/page/3/view_as/grid.
- ↑ Docharty, Alexander Brownlie. "Highland River Scene with Mountain". Art UK. https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/highland-river-scene-with-mountain-213622/search/venue:stranraer-museum-7322/page/3/view_as/grid.
- ↑ Houston, George. "Sunlit Wooded Mountain Scene". Art UK. https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/sunlit-wooded-mountain-scene-213631/search/venue:stranraer-museum-7322/page/3/view_as/grid.
- ↑ Reid, Archibald David. "Landscape". Art UK. https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/landscape-213647/search/venue:stranraer-museum-7322/page/3/view_as/grid.