The building was commissioned to replace a 16th-century guildhall which, by 1765, had become very dilapidated and had to be demolished in 1766. Some £4,000 towards the cost of the new building was donated by the future local
Member of Parliament,
John Adams. The foundation stone for the new building was laid on 10 April 1767: A double curving flight of steps to the assembly hall was added in 1811, an extension to the rear incorporating jury rooms and offices was completed in 1829 and a large
portico, replacing the flight of steps, was added to a design by W. H. Lindsey in 1862. Following his decision to vote against the
First Reform Bill, the local Member of Parliament,
John Jones, was attacked and injured in rioting at the guildhall on 29 April 1831 during a
general election; polling in the constituency had to be postponed until August 1831 when Jones was successfully re-elected. The Epiphany, Easter and Michaelmas
quarter sessions were held in guildhall, while the Midsummer quarter sessions were held in the
Shire Hall at Llandeilo. Several important trials took place in the guildhall. Two of the leaders of the
Rebecca Riots,
John Jones (Shoni Sguborfawr) and
David Davies (Dai'r Cantwr), were convicted in the courtroom in December 1843 and sentenced to be
transported to
Australia. The trial of the
solicitor, Harold Greenwood, for the
murder of his wife, Mabel, took place at the guildhall in November 1920: Greenwood's defence barrister,
Sir Edward Marshall Hall, was able to demonstrate that
arsenic may not have been the cause of death after all and Harold Greenwood was acquitted. A war memorial, designed by E. V. Collier and W. D. Jenkins and intended to commemorate the lives of service personnel who had died in the
Second Boer War, was unveiled outside the guildhall by Major-General
Henry Mackinnon on 27 April 1906. The building was the main location for undertaking public business for the borough The guildhall was also the venue in July 1966 for the acceptance speech given by
Gwynfor Evans, the first politician elected to represent
Plaid Cymru at
Westminster. After
HM Courts and Tribunals Service decided to cease using the building as a courthouse,
Carmarthenshire County Council took ownership of the building in summer 2016. Scenes from the television series,
Keeping Faith, were filmed in the building in October 2017, and a programme of refurbishment works, which involved the conversion of the ground floor into a restaurant and cafe, was carried out at a cost of £1 million and completed in 2019. Works of art in the guildhall include a portrait by
Martin Archer Shee of General
Sir Thomas Picton. Following revelations about Picton's links to slavery, Carmarthenshire County Council agreed to install an appropriate information plaque alongside the portrait. There are also portraits by
Thomas Brigstocke of General
Sir William Nott and of the local Members of Parliament, John Jones of Ystrad and
David Morris. ==See also==