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Summary

Description

Circa 1855 with circa 1904 courtroom addition to rear and later alterations. Symmetrical 2-storey, 3-bay, former sheriff court house with Tudor-Jacobean principal elevation. Large flat-roofed addition, circa 1967-9, to east not considered of interest in listing terms at time of review. Stugged, squared and snecked cream sandstone with ashlar dressings. Steps with coped ashlar balustrade and piers. 2-leaf panelled door at centre in moulded Tudor-arched doorcase. Tripartite windows with moulded ashlar mullions and transoms. Hoodmoulds incorporated into the moulded lintel course at ground floor. Cill course and lintel course to first floor windows with Tudor-arched upper lights. Shouldered gables with finials to slightly advanced outer bays. Smaller gable at centre with blank shield. 7-bay, M-gabled wing (circa 1904) former courtroom wing to rear with corbelled skewputts, linked to Newtown Street block via 2-storey linking block.

Sash and case and casement windows in timber frames. Horizontal panes to front elevation, 12 pane glazing to rear elevation. Grey slates with fish scale courses to front pitch. Ashlar-coped skews to rear. Coped ashlar stacks with octagonal cans. Decorative cast iron rainwater heads.

The interior, seen 2014, has been significantly remodelled and altered (including court room furniture replacement) circa 1989 to accommodate the changing needs of the building and the court service.

Low ashlar boundary wall to Newtown Street with saddleback coping.

Statement of Special Interest

The former Duns Sheriff Court (now county offices) is a mid-19th public building in the Tudor-Jacobean style, prominently located near the centre of Newtown Street, Duns. While the architect of this building is not currently known, the symmetrical Jacobean-influenced principal elevation enhances the interest of the streetscape, bearing some similarities to David Cousin's Corn Exchange in Dalkeith. It is a modified example of a pre-1860 court, dating to shortly before the influential reforms of the Sheriff Court Houses (Scotland) Act of 1860. As a result of this act the building was modified internally and an additional courtroom added to the rear of the building in 1904. The interior has since been comprehensively refurbished in the 1960s and late 20th century as part of the Scottish Courts Service refurbishment programme.

The development of the court house as a building type in Scotland follows the history of the Scottish legal system and wider government reforms. The majority of purpose-built court houses were constructed in the 19th century as by this time there was an increase in the separation of civic, administrative and penal functions into separate civic and institutional buildings, and the resultant surge of public building was promoted by new institutional bodies. The introduction of the Sheriff Court Houses (Scotland) Act of 1860 gave a major impetus to the increase and improvement of court accommodation and the provision of central funding was followed by the most active period of sheriff court house construction in the history of the Scottish legal system, and many new court houses were built or reworked after this date.

The concrete, stone and plate glass extension (circa 1967-9) to the right was not considered to be of special architectural or historic interest at the time of the review (2014-15).

Category changed from B to C, statutory address and listed building record revised as part of the Scottish Courts Listing Review, 2014-15. Previously listed as 'Newtown Street, Sheriff Court with Boundary Wall'.

References

Bibliography

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