County Hall was built next door to Oxford prison in New Road in 1841, and the inscription simply gives the name of the building and that year:

COUNTY HALL. A.D. MDCCCXLI.

This building was designed in the Norman style by Plowman and has been described as "quite the most abominable pseudo-Gothic Assize Court in all England".

The building was used for the assizes and the Crown Court until the new court opened in St Aldate's in 1986.