| Description | The Police Station and Magistrates Court, Jessop Street, Castleford, were built in 1897 and located on land belonging to a Dr Adam Jessop, the town's first magistrate. They were constructed of red brick with window and door surrounds of gritstone, and the roof and gables finished in timber. The composition is largely mock Tudor gothic, similar to other institutional buildings of the period, with mullioned windows, dormers and rusticated composite jambs. Inside the court house is a large courtroom with a high vaulted ceiling and tall slender windows. The walls are covered in plain brown tiles, interpersed with patterned ones and a dado divided the top half of the walls from the bottom. A wooden public gallery overlooks the court and faces the Bench; the magistrates and court officials are seated in original dark brown leather backed chairs, with desks and tables. A flight of narrow stairs lead from the prisoners dock to the cells below which retain original iron doors with the open and close peep hole flaps. Both the Court House and Police Station are [apparently] the oldest operational ones still remaining in England (Joan Prewer, Castleford Heritage Group).
The building is listed in the Local Buildings List for Wakefield (2008) and is also regarded as an important heritage asset by Castleford and District Historical Society and was put forward by them as a local site nomination in 2011. |