Old Photograph Townhouse Crail East Neuk Of Fife Scotland

Old photograph of the Townhouse in Crail, East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. The historic town house, or tollbooth as it is known, in the large marketplace, has a tower dating from about 1600. A tolbooth or town house was the main municipal building of a Scottish burgh, from medieval times until the 19th century. The tolbooth usually provided a council meeting chamber, a court house and a jail. The tolbooth was one of three essential features in a Scottish burgh, along with the market cross and the church. The first record of a tolbooth is at Berwick upon Tweed in the later 13th century, and the earliest known grant of land for construction of a tolbooth is at Dundee in 1325, with many more grants recorded through the 14th century. The oldest tolbooths which survive intact are those of Musselburgh and Canongate. The tolbooth of Glasgow has been described as Scotland's " most remarkable civic building of the 17th century ". Other Renaissance style tolbooths were erected at Linlithgow and Kirkcaldy. By the 18th century, the term tolbooth had become closely associated with prison, and the term town house became more common to denote the municipal buildings. Classical architectural styles were introduced, as at Dundee and Sanquhar. In the early 19th century, increasing separation of functions led to purpose-built courthouses and prisons, and the replacement of tolbooths and town houses with modern town halls, serving as council chamber and events venue. The prison functions of tolbooths were overseen by prison boards from 1839, but the jail cell in the Falkirk Steeple remained in use until 1984.



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