[2] The building was commissioned to accommodate the quarter sessions for Monmouthshire which had previously been held on the first floor of the Old Town Hall in Old Market Street.

[3] The court was designed by Thomas Henry Wyatt in the Italianate style, built in mauve sandstone with dressings of Bath stone,[1] and was officially opened by the chairman of the quarter sessions, Samuel Bosanquet, in 1877.

[6] The case of Josef Garcia, a Spanish seaman, was reputedly heard there;[6] he was eventually tried and convicted of the murder of William and Elizabeth Watkins of Llangybi and of their three youngest children Charlotte, Alice and Frederick at the Gloucestershire Assizes in 1878.

[2] The building continued to serve as a magistrates' court until June 1995 and then remained empty and deteriorating until it was purchased by Usk Town Council to mark the millennium in 1999.

[9] Following an extensive programme of refurbishment works costing £200,000, the building was re-opened by the High Sheriff of Gwent, Lady Hayman-Joyce, in May 2011.