Newton Stewart, 77, 79 Victoria Street, Old Town Hall

Situated on the E side of Victoria Street, at the junction with a lane leading to the W bank of the River Cree, the town-house is a conspicuous building of two storeys. It is rectangular on plan, measuring 13.Sm from N to S by 6.9m, and is constructed of whitewashed rubble with dressed and raised margins. Set at its SW corner and rising a stage above the main wall-head there is a simple steeple. The building may be ascribed to about 1800, but it has undergone some minor alterations in the early and mid 20th century, including the addition of a two-storeyed outshot to the E.

The main block, which is gabled to the Nand hipped to the S, faces Wand is of three bays. At ground-floor level there are three large round-headed openings with projecting impostand key-blocks, the central one being the principal access doorway and the others windows with modern frames. Their sills have been inserted, suggesting that all three openings originally gave access to an arcaded market-area. Internally, the ground floor has been partitioned for use as an office. The first floor has three tall Venetian windows to the W front, all with impost- and key-blocks, which light a large meeting room with firep laces at each end, presumably the court-room. Access to the first floor is through the base of the steeple, by a staircase which rises to the SE angle of the main room. A cell roofed by a half-barrel vault was contrived below the staircase, and this lock-up was the only prison-accommodation provided.

Externally the steeple has round-headed windows, that in the S face of the second stage being blind, and those at the third stage enclosing clock-faces. It terminates in a leadcovered bell-cast roof with a prominent weather-cock. The clock was made by W F Evans of the Soho Clock Factory, Birmingham, and the uninscribed bell measures 0.3m in diameter.

HISTORY

Despite its rather irregular layout, Newton Stewart was a planned village which developed from a burgh of barony founded in 1677 by William Stewart of Castle Stewart. During the second half of the 18th century it grew at a pace described in 1792 as 'amazing', J and the town-house may be ascribed to this period of rapid expansion. In 1846 it was described as being the property of the Earl of Galloway, and the ground floor was occupied by shops, with 'a session house used] by the Magistrates of the District' above.

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