The courts of justice

The Town Hall at Bourne was also used as a courtroom or Sessions House from the time it was built in 1821, for the petty sessions or police courts, usually held weekly, and for the quarter sessions, convened every three months for the hearing of more serious cases and the imposition of heavier sentencing. These hearings continued for almost two centuries but were finally phased out in 2008 when the courtroom was closed and arrangements made for cases to be heard elsewhere in the county.

The courtroom was originally used for criminal cases but a court convened under the County Courts Act to hear civil cases, notably the recovery of debts under £20, was established in 1847, the jurisdiction covering an area of South Lincolnshire with a population of 23,000, thus increasing the importance of Bourne within the county. This was known as the Bourne Small Debts Court and Mr J D Burnaby was appointed judge with Maurice P Moore, of Sleaford, clerk of the court.

The busiest time for the courts was in the 19th century when crimes and misdemeanours kept the magistrates busy with hearings at least once a week for the police courts or petty sessions and the quarter sessions being held for the more serious crimes and heavier sentencing once every three months. Justice during this period was swift and punishment severe with imprisonment and even deportation for what would be regarded today as minor offences. In 1811, for instance, the magistrates sent an unmarried girl, Elizabeth Whitfield, of Stainfield, to the House of Correction at Folkingham for one year for having an illegitimate child, her third within five years, and leaving them to be looked after by the parish.

A sixteen-year-old servant girl, Priscilla Woodward, came before the court in 1832 accused of setting fire to a haystack belonging to her master, farmer Isaac Teesdale, of Haconby, and although the magistrates were told that she was backward and ignorant and unable to read or write, she was sentenced to be deported to Australia. Other transportations included Augustine Chamberlain, aged 23, a labourer, who was accused in 1825 of stealing 24 chickens and ducks, the property of John Wilson, of Grimsthorpe, who was sent to Bermuda for seven years, and Sarah Marvin, aged 15, also a servant girl, who was found guilty in 1836 of stealing five bed sheets from Elizabeth Seward, of Dyke, and was transported to Tasmania for seven years.

In 1854, William Henry Marshall was accused of breaking into the dwelling house of William Elfleet, a farmer, of Eastgate, and stealing bacon, ham, liquor and two sovereigns and sent to jail for four months and in 1879, Frederick Rouse was sentenced to three months after being found guilty of stealing gin, wine and food from the North Street grocery shop where he worked.

Cases of drunkenness were a regular occurrence and in 1888, the chairman of the bench, the Rev George Carter, Rector of Folkingham, told a sitting of the magistrates on Thursday 27th September that 11 out of the 16 police cases that had been heard that day were directly due to drink and that if it were not for that, the justices of Bourne would have very little or nothing to do. However, figures produced to the court revealed that during the previous three years, convictions for drunkenness were declining, from 223 in 1885 to 159 in 1886 and 127 in 1887 and so it was believed that the punishments being meted out were having an effect.

Those who have sat as magistrates for Bourne include many prominent people from our past history who were also actively involved in other spheres of civic, religious and charitable work. Among those who served with distinction on the bench and also became chairmen were William Wherry (1841-1915), whose family firm survives to this day, Thomas Mays (1856-1934), father of Raymond Mays, the motor racing pioneer, and Robert Gardner (1850-1926), bank manager and talented artist whose paintings were exhibited by the Royal Academy.

The appearance of the courtroom remained virtually unchanged from 1821 until the layout of the upper floors of the Town Hall was altered during refurbishment in 1974-75, thus reducing its size, but it continued as the seat of justice in Bourne and the magistrates' court was held there weekly for summary jurisdiction with a public gallery for anyone who wished to watch the proceedings. The courtroom was also used for regular meetings of the town council and there was an adjoining library or committee room where the magistrates adjourned to consider their decisions when necessary.

An assessment of the use of the Town Hall as a courtroom was issued in January 2003 by Lincolnshire Magistrates Courts Committee:

• In 2001, the court sat for 330 hours compared to an average of 334 hours between 1993 and 1997.

• Fifty people attended court in September 1997, 79 in June 1998 and between January and March 2002, a total of 224 people attended.

• There were 23 Justices of the Peace on the Bourne and Stamford benches and four of the five categories of work - adult crime, youth crime, fine enforcement and family - were handled at Bourne.

• Annual running costs were £1,595. The average cost per sitting in the county was £35.48, at Bourne it was £6.17.

While Lincolnshire County Council now owns Bourne Town Hall, it is South Kesteven District Council which leases it and in turn allowed the Magistrates Courts Committee to make use of the facilities on payment of a peppercorn rent. This arrangement came to an end with the final sitting of the magistrates which was held on Monday 1st April 2008 when tributes were paid by the various officers who had been using the courtroom.

Mr Greg Cejer, the presiding magistrate, who had been sitting as a justice for 15 years, expressed regret at the closure. "It is sad for all of us working in the judicial system but times change", he said. "The facilities are not the best, we have not got disabled access, for instance, and we have not got the levels of segregation required."

Shelley Wilson, from the Crown prosecution Service, said that she had found working in such an historic interior an enjoyable experience while duty solicitor, Andrew Cogan (of CWW Solicitors) acknowledged that although progress must be made, the closure was a great shame for our tradition.

The phasing out of Bourne was part of a major reorganisation of the justice system in Lincolnshire which also brought about the closure of courts at Sleaford, Louth and Gainsborough. The  courthouse in the town hall at Stamford had already shut in 2005 when cases were moved to Bourne.

A spokesman for Her Majesty's Court Services, Mark Kram, said that cases normally held at Bourne would in future be held at Spalding and Grantham. He added: "Unfortunately, this means that a small number of people will be travelling a little further for hearings. But the courthouses where their cases will be dealt with have better and more appropriate facilities. Witnesses will be able to claim for travelling as normal."

REVISED AUGUST 2016

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