THE SESSIONS HOUSE
Maryport Street
Usk NP15 1AD
Monmouthshire

USK TOWN COUNCIL

Telephone/Fax    01291-673011
E-Mail     clerk.usk@btconnect.com
   

The Sessions House was designed by Thomas Wyatt and opened in 1877 by Samuel Richard Bosanquet, the  Chairman of the Monmouthshire Quarter Sessions.  In 1944, Court No.1 (to the right as one faces the front of the building) was gutted by fire and not rebuilt.  Court No.2, still extant, was its mirror image and remained in use for the administration of justice until the last hearing by the Magistrates in 1995.

As a Millennium project, Usk Town Council decided to buy the premises for use as its town hall.  Since 2000, therefore, it has been used not only for that purpose and as an asset for the Town, but it also includes offices let on a commercial basis and provides facilities for meetings in either the Court Room or Library for local organisations.  In addition, it has been used as the set for television/film productions, not to mention a memorable live production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Trial by Jury in the Court Room
   

ENTRANCE HALL

The Sessions House is
available to hire for meetings, business seminars or small receptions.

      Please contact the Town     
               Clerk for details.

 

Built in Victorian symmetrical style, this has a glazed ceiling dome and has been refurbished in décor matching the colours of the period.
   

 
   

THE COURT ROOM

As previously indicated, the Court Room is the one remaining of the original two Courts.  Apart from the addition of electric light, it is virtually unchanged since 1877.  There is an impressive judge’s chair and the benches retain their original labels for Counsel, Solicitors, Reporters, Jury, etc.

Below the dock is the passageway that once led to Usk Gaol next door.  

 

In the Court Room there are imposing portraits of:
  
   Samuel Courthope Bosanquet (1832-1925), Chairman of the Quarter Sessions from 1890 to 1912;
   Samuel Richard Bosanquet (1800-1882), father of the foregoing and Chairman of the Quarter  
    Sessions from  1848 to 1882;
   Granville Henry Somerset Q.C. (1824-1881) Deputy Chairman of the Quarter Sessions from 1867 t0 1881;
   Sir Henry Mather Mather-Jackson C.B.E. (1885-1942), Chairman of Monmouthshire County Council from
   1905 to 1928,    Chairman of the Quarter Sessions from 1912 to 1935, and Lord Lieutenant of 
      Monmouthshire  from 1934 until 1942. 
It was on his initiative that the collection of books belonging to his father (the second Baronet) has been preserved in the Library.

While many cases heard at the Usk Quarter Sessions were routine, those of Viscountess Rhondda (a prominent suffragette) and of Josef Garcia, convicted of the murder of a family of five in Llangibi, became notorious.  

 
   

THE MATHER-JACKSON LIBRARY

With windows on two sides, this light airy room could just as easily be the library of a large Victorian country house.  It has bookcases along three of its walls and an imposing marble fireplace on the fourth.
   The impressive collection of legal books comprises almost 3000 statutes, commentaries and law reports dating from 1698 to 1971.  It now extends into the adjacent Magistrates’ Room.  Its nucleus comprises the personal collection of Sir Henry Mather Jackson (1831-1881) – who was a Queen’s Counsel and, briefly, a High Court Judge – supplemented by volumes relating to the premises’ history in hearing cases at Petty and Quarter Sessions and before the Magistrates.

Responsibility for the management and care of the volumes is vested in a Trust, separate from the Town Council, originally extant from 1886 to 1942 and reinstated in 2006. Further information is available from the Honorary Curator.  

 
   


The Sessions House is open to visitors.

The Usk Town Council is very proud of the Sessions House, which can now be visited by tourists and used regularly by the townspeople.  However, in order to preserve the fabric of this beautiful Victorian building for posterity, the Council has set up a ‘ring-fenced’ Fund to contribute towards its maintenance.  All monies donated to this fund will be devoted exclusively to the preservation and ongoing restoration of the building.
   If you would like to make a donation to this Fund, please place contributions in the collection box, or post to the Clerk to the Council, at the address above,with any cheques payable to:     
                                                                Usk Town Council – Sessions House Fund