Publication Account

Date 1996

Event ID 1017920

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017920

Crail Tolbooth is situated on an island site at the SW end of Marketgate, which originally formed a broad market-place. The rectangular main block, 11.8m in length by 7.9m, is two-storeyed and has a gabled and slated roof. The steeple, situated at the SW end, is 6.2m square and has five storeys, with a distinctive pagoda-like spire 18.3m in overall height.

Although a date of 1517 has been claimed for the rubblebuilt lower portion of the steeple, this part of the building may equally correspond with the 'bigging off ane towbuth' ordered by the burgh council in 1598. To supplement local funds the council applied in 1607 for assistance from the Convention of Royal Burghs. An armorial panel dated 160[-], now built into the NW wall of the main block, may mark the completion of a substantial portion of the building.

Minor alterations were carried out in the mid 18th century, induding the insertion of a doorway in the SE front. This was subsequently obstructed by a forestair and reduced to a window, but it retains a lintel inscribed 1754. In 1776 the Council approved the repairing of the spire 'either by right or mason work'. This involved the insertion of ocular windows at the third stage of the steeple, and the rebuilding in sandstone ashlar of the upper two storeys, which are slightly intaken. Theexisting slated spire with its former belfry-openings was probably built at the same time.

The main block itself, which had become 'old and ruinous' and was of 'limited demensions ', was extensively rebuilt in ashlar in 1814-15, the former date being inscribed on its NE gable. The windows, which have off-set margins, are disposed symmetrically, but those at first-floor level are markedly larger than those below. The SE one in the NE wall has been blocked, probably following litigation with a neighbouring householder which delayed the rebuilding. The council-chamber, which occupies the whole of the first floor, has a coombed ceiling and a SW gallery supported on castiron columns. In the NE wall there is a blocked fireplace with a simple moulded surround.

Although the work carried out in 1776 and 1814 removed much of the early structure, a surviving slit-window between first and second floors at the NE end of the NW face of the steeple may indicate the position of an original staircase. At ground-floor level there has been access from the N angle of the steeple to the main block, at least since 1814, and the original building probably had a doorway in this position.

In 1866 consideration was given to raising the height of the steeple to take the faces of the new clock more visible, but 'the Council did not feel warranted in expending such a sum [£ 180]'. A local architect, John Currie of Elie, was employed in 1887 on alterations which included building a new NW doorway in the steeple and installing a large staircase in its lower storeys. Previously these had been used as cells. Modern fitting out of the ground floor as a library has involved alterations including the insertion of a doorway in the NE end of the SE wall, and a fireplace in the NE wall has been blocked.

The steeple houses a fine Flemish bell which in 1702 was removed from the parish church in exchange for the smaller town bell of 1614, because of the more central position of the tolbooth. It measures 0.66m in diameter and is inscribed: IC BEN GHEGOTEN INT lAER ONS HEEREN MCCCCCXX ('I was cast in the year of our Lord 1520'), between borders of scrolled decoration. Beneath the inscription there are three medallions, one bearing the arms of Mechelen (Belgium), where the bell was probably cast by Willem van den Ghein. The others show the Saviour as a seated child holding a cross, and the Virgin and Child, an appropriate subject for a bell which originally hung in a church dedicated to St Mary.

A 12th-century scalloped capital and base are built into a lean-to annexe added to the SE wall of the steeple in 1814-15, at a time when the nearby parish church was itself undergoing repairs. There is a plain angular sundial at the E angle of the tower.

Information from ‘Tolbooths and Town-Houses: Civic Architecture in Scotland to 1833’ (1996).