Dean of Guild Court
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TitleDean of Guild Court
ReferenceBM/6
Date1893-1975
Archive creatorBurgh of Milngavie Dean of Guild Court
LanguageEnglish
SubjectArchitecture
Level of descriptionsub-fonds
Admin history/BiographyDean of guild courts were specialised burgh courts with building control powers in Scottish burghs. They developed from merchant guilds where the dean of guild had jurisdiction over certain aspects of burgh life, including trade and commerce, regulation of weights and measures, property boundaries and good neighbourhood. As a result, the dean of guild developed as a building control authority, first in Edinburgh, where by the mid-seventeenth century anyone who was intending to build had to submit a plan for approval to the court. Other burghs imitated this jurisdiction in the nineteenth century. Dean of guild courts continued as the building control authorities in burghs until their abolition in 1975 (Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, c.65).
Repository nameEast Dunbartonshire Archives - Bearsden