Castletown Drill Hall, Main Street, Castletown, Thurso and Northwest Caithness, Highland

Description

Castletown Drill Hall was constructed in 1892, with alterations made by Sinclair Macdonald in 1901 and by Sinclair Macdonald and Son in 1936. It is a 2-storey, 5-bay, approximately rectangular-plan former drill hall, and designed in a Scots Baronial style and is currently in use as a community hall with flats, 2015. In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: the southeast extension built in 1996.

Castletown Drill Hall is built of squared rubble, probably from the local Castlehill quarry, with ashlar dressings which are partly polished and partly stugged. The principal (southwest) elevation has a crowstepped central gabled bay with a wallhead chimney stack and the outer bays have drum towers with bellcast conical roofs with distinctive fishscale slates and iron finials (the finial to the right tower is a weathervane). There is a cill band which in the central bay rises over a recess, where a plaque (now missing) was located, and around the downpipes and there is an eaves course. There is a mix of 2 and 4-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows, a roof of grey slates and corniced chimney stacks with yellow clay cans.

There are low boundary walls to the west and east sides of the site with decorative iron railings and corner piers with squat pyramidal capstones.

The interior, which was seen in 2015, retains some late 19th century interior details including deeply moulded cornices in the hallway and in the drill hall. There is timber boarding to the hall and a low viewing gallery is still in place but is now glazed.

Statement of Interest

The Castletown Drill Hall, built in 1892, for the 6th Corps of the Caithness Artlllery Volunteers, is a small scale and well-designed drill hall in the Scots Baronial style. The principal elevation has not been significantly altered since it was built. It is constructed using the locally quarried pavement stone and has distinctive architectural details, particularly in the broad drum towers with fishscale roofs. It has important and prominent presence on the main street of the village. In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: the southeast extension built in 1996.

Castletown Drill Hall was built around 1892 for the 6th Caithness Artillery Volunteers. This is the first year in which the drill hall appears in Valuation Rolls, and prior to 1892 they only record a house and armoury belonging to the Volunteers. An earlier date for the hall has been postulated in some sources, such as Beaton's 1996 book on Caithness. However, there is no evidence of the hall on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1873, published 1877) but it is present on the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1905, published 1906). In the census of 1901, Robert Richardson, who was the 'Sergeant Instructor in Artillery', is recorded as living at the Drill Hall and House but neither he nor any other sergeant is recorded in the 1891 Census, and this supports a building date of 1892.

Some minor alterations were made to the hall in 1901 (including a new arms cabinet) and again in 1936, involving plumbing work and was therefore probably connected to new or upgraded toilet facilities.

The volunteer corps was formed in Castletown, Caithness in 1866. In the late 1860s and early 1870s there are references in newspapers to meetings and drills of the Castletown volunteers some of which took place in 'the hall'. However, the hall referred to in these is the village hall, which was used for general lectures and volunteer drills – and acknowledged as useful at the time for both the moral and physical welfare of the inhabitants. The village hall, opened on New Year's Day 1867, was presented to the village by Miss Margaret Traill, whose family lived in Castlehill House and whose brother was Vice Lieutenant of Caithness and commander of the volunteers in the 1860s. The village hall was the home of the 5th Corps (and possibly also the 6th Corps) Caithness Artillery Volunteers until the drill hall was built in 1892.

The architect of the drill hall is not certain, but there are two possibilities. Sir John Sinclair of Dunbeath was gazetted as Vice Lieutenant of the County of Caithness from the early 1870s and was commanding officer of the Castletown corps. From the 1880s the practice of David Bryce (then run by his nephew John Bryce (1842-1922

had been involved in making alterations to Dunbeath Castle, involving adding various baronial details to the house. Some of the baronial details are similar to those on the drill hall, so it is possible that the design for the hall was provided by John Bryce as architect while he worked for Sir John. However, as yet there is no documentary proof to support this.

There is a much stronger case for the local architect Donald Leed (c.1844-1903) to have been responsible for the design of the hall. He was architect to the Ulbster estates sometime after the death of David Smith in 1879, and it is clear that Sir Tollemache Sinclair of Ulbster (also owner of Thurso Castle) took a paternalistic interest in the volunteers in Caithness and may have used his architect to provide the design for the Castletown Hall. Donald Leed designed the school in Castle Street in Thurso in 1892, and there are a number of similarities in the detailing of the school and drill hall: the bellcast roofs with fishscale slates, the moulded skews with unusual kneelers and the glazing pattern.

In the late 1850s there was concern in the British Government about the Army's ability to defend both the home nation as well as the Empire. Britain's military defences were stretched and resources to defend Britain needed to be found. One solution was to create 'Volunteer Forces', a reserve of men who volunteered for part-time military training similar to that of the regular army and who could therefore help to defend Britain if the need arose.

In 1859 the Rifle Volunteer Corps (and the Artillery corps in coastal towns) were formed and the Volunteer Act of 1863 provided more regulation on how the volunteer forces were run and it set out the standards for drills and a requirement for annual inspections. Most purpose-built drill halls constructed at this time were paid for by a major local landowner, the subscriptions of volunteers, local fundraising efforts or a combination of all three. The Regulation of the Forces Act 1871 (known as the Cardwell Reforms after the Secretary of State for War, Edward Cardwell) gave forces the legal right to acquire land to build a drill hall and more purpose-built drill halls began to be constructed after this date. The largest period of drill hall construction, aided by government grants, took place between 1880 and 1910. The Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 (known as the Haldane Reforms after the Secretary of State for War, Richard Haldane) came into force in 1908 and the various Volunteer Units were consolidated to form the Territorial Force. The construction of drill halls largely ceased during the First World War and in 1920 the Territorial Force became the Territorial Army.

In the 20th century changes in warfare and weaponry made many of the earlier drill halls redundant and subject to demolition or change to a new use. Around 344 drill halls are believed to have been built in Scotland of which 182 are thought to survive today, although few remain in their original use. Drill halls are an important part of our social and military history. They tell us much about the development of warfare and the history of defending our country. They also, unusually for a nationwide building programme, were not standardised and were often designed by local architects in a variety of styles and they also have a part to play in the history of our communities.

The requirements for drill halls were basic – a large covered open space to train and drill as well as a place for the secure storage of weapons. The vast majority of drill halls were modest utilitarian structures. Most drill halls conformed to the pattern of an administrative block containing offices and the armoury to store weapons along with a caretaker or drill instructors accommodation, usually facing the street. To the rear would be the drill hall itself. Occasionally more extensive accommodation was required, such as for battalion headquarters where interior rifle ranges, libraries, billiards rooms, lecture theatres and bars could all be included.

Listed in 2016 as part of the Drill Halls Listing Review 2015-16.

External Links

Historic Environment Scotland Listing
Wikidata IDs Q77782627 Q77782629

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