| Old Shire Hall, Cardigan | |
| Native Name: | Hen Neuadd y Sir Aberteifi |
| Native Language: | cy |
| Coordinates: | 52.0821°N -4.6615°W |
| Location: | High Street, Cardigan |
| Built: | 1764 |
| Architecture: | Neoclassical style |
| Designation1 Number: | 10488 |
| Designation1 Date: | 16 June 1961 |
| Designation1 Offname: | Old Shire Hall |
| Designation1: | Grade II* Listed Building |
The Old Shire Hall (cy|Hen Neuadd y Sir Aberteifi) is a former judicial building in the High Street in Cardigan, Ceredigion, Wales. The structure, which is now used as a British Red Cross shop, is a Grade II* listed building.
The building was commissioned as a courthouse for the county of Cardiganshire, to replace the inadequate judicial facilities in Cardigan Castle.[1] The site the justices selected, on the west side of the High Street, had been occupied by the Church of the Holy Trinity.[2]
The shire hall was designed in the neoclassical style, built in rubble masonry with an ashlar stone frontage and was completed in 1764.[3] The design involved a narrow main frontage facing onto the High Street with long side elevations stretching back behind the main frontage. It featured a two-storey arch formed by two piers with imposts supporting a series of voussoirs and a raised keystone. Above the arch, there was a band which was surmounted by two rectangular attic windows in a recess. At roof level, there was a frieze, a cornice and a parapet, and there was originally also a small bell turret. Internally, there was a corn exchange on the ground floor and a courtroom on the first floor.
The courtroom was used twice year for the quarter sessions, which were also held once a year at Aberystwyth Town Hall and at the Lampeter Town Hall.[4] [5] [6] The building was enlarged to create a room for the grand jury in 1829.[7]
The courtroom ceased to be used for judicial purposes once Cardigan Guildhall was completed in 1860,[1] and the use of the ground floor as a corn exchange declined significantly in the wake of the Great depression of British agriculture in the late 19th century.[8] The building was therefore sold for commercial use: it served as a garage and motor repair shop, operated by S. T. Jones, from 1926 to 1947,[9] and then served as a furniture shop operated by a firm of drapers, David Jones Watts.[10] It was later used as a warehouse and then as a bookshop, known as Bookend.[11] Since 2015, it has served as a charity shop for the British Red Cross.[12] [13]