Publication Account

Date 1995

Event ID 1019339

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1019339

Nearby, in George Street, stands the old townhouse, completed in 1776 figure 19 &figure 18: C. A fine example of a late eighteenth-century tolbooth, in spite of the claim of a visitor in 1877 that it was a 'very plain edifice' and 'like some ladies very much indebted to paint for its good looks', this two-storeyed building has a symmetrical front with an arched doorway set in the middle, an octagonal steeple and circular windows. The ground floor housed two shops, one now an entrance to the museum. It was in the tolbooth that the tolls, or taxes, for the use of the market were collected, the town weights were kept, the town gaol was housed (until its removal to the castle), and the Council meetings took place. Attached at the rear, in Church Street, is a later town hall building. The tollbooth had been extended to the south by a market house in 1802figure18: D and this, with later ranges surrounding a triangular courtyard, was replaced in 1855 by a large corn exchange with a court-room on the upper floor figure 18: E. The site of the old tolbooth or town hall reflects the dominant role it played in the life of the burgh and the townspeople-at the market place, the focal point of burgh life.

Despite the complex history of this building, the site on which it stands is perhaps more important from an archaeological perspective. This was originally part of the graveyard of the old parish church, originally built in 1649, re-built in 1694, and replaced again in 1841; the discovery of two burials below the existing floor level during alteration work in 1989 confirms its location. Any further development here is highly likely to reveal more burials, and perhaps floor levels associated with the eighteenth-century tolbooth.

Information from ‘Historic Stranraer: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1995).