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Chester Crown Court

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Chester Crown Court
Chester Crown Court - geograph.org.uk - 1334374.jpg
LocationChester, Cheshire
Coordinates53°11′09″N 2°53′30″W / 53.1858°N 2.8918°W / 53.1858; -2.8918Coordinates: 53°11′09″N 2°53′30″W / 53.1858°N 2.8918°W / 53.1858; -2.8918
Built1801
ArchitectThomas Harrison
Listed Building – Grade I
Designated1 June 1967
Reference no.1271823
Chester Crown Court is located in Cheshire
Chester Crown Court
Location of Chester Crown Court in Cheshire

Chester Crown Court is a judicial facility at Castle Square in Chester, Cheshire. The building, which forms part of a series of imposing buildings at Chester Castle, is a Grade I listed building.[1]

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Chester

Chester

Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011, it is the most populous settlement of Cheshire West and Chester and serves as its administrative headquarters. It is also the historic county town of Cheshire and the second-largest settlement in Cheshire after Warrington.

Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is an ancient and ceremonial county in northwest England. It is bordered by the counties of Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south, while the western boundary consists mostly of the England–Wales border with smaller sections leading into the Irish Sea via Liverpool Bay. Cheshire's county town is the cathedral city of Chester and its most populated town is Warrington, while other towns include Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Knutsford, Macclesfield, Nantwich, Runcorn, Widnes, Wilmslow, and Winsford. The county is split into four administrative districts: the Borough of Halton, the Borough of Warrington, Cheshire West and Chester, and Cheshire East.

Chester Castle

Chester Castle

Chester Castle is in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England. It is sited at the southwest extremity of the area bounded by the city walls. The castle stands on an eminence overlooking the River Dee. In the castle complex are the remaining parts of the medieval castle together with the neoclassical buildings designed by Thomas Harrison which were built between 1788 and 1813. Parts of the neoclassical buildings are used today by the Crown Court and as a military museum. The museum and the medieval remains are a tourist attraction.

Listed building

Listed building

In the United Kingdom a listed building is a structure of particular architectural and/or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, Cadw in Wales, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency in Northern Ireland. The term has also been used in the Republic of Ireland, where buildings are protected under the Planning and Development Act 2000, although the statutory term in Ireland is "protected structure".

History

The current building replaced a previous shire hall which had been built just outside the main gate in 1310 but which was in a derelict state by the late 18th century.[2] In 1785 the justices insisted that an architectural competition be held for a new shire hall as well as a new prison to be located behind the new shire hall: the site selected for the new complex formed part of the outer bailey of the castle.[2]

Work on the new complex began with the demolition of the old buildings in 1788.[2] The new shire hall was designed by Thomas Harrison and completed in 1801.[1] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nineteen bays facing onto Castle Square with the end bays projecting forwards slightly; the central section of seven bays featured a large hexastyle portico with twelve Doric order columns (in two rows), projecting forwards by about 10 feet (3 m) with a plain tympanum above.[3] Its two-storey façade was about 250 feet (76 m) long and 25 feet (8 m) high.[3] Internally, the principal room was an imposing main courtroom which was inspired by the School of Anatomy in Paris.[4] It was described by Charles Dupin as "most assuredly the handsomest of this kind that is to be seen in Europe."[5] The prison, which Harrison had also designed and which had been located behind the shire hall, was demolished in 1902.[2]

A statue of Queen Victoria, designed by Frederick William Pomeroy, was unveiled outside the share hall by the Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire, Wilbraham Egerton, 1st Earl Egerton, on 17 October 1903.[6]

The building was used as a facility for dispensing justice from the early 19th century and was latterly used as a Crown Court.[7][8] Famous trials at the court have included those of the Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, known as the Moors Murderers, in April 1966.[9] Bullet proof glass was erected around the dock to ensure the two defendants were protected during the trial.[9] The court was also the venue for the trial of Peter Reyn-Bardt, accused of murdering his estranged wife, Malika de Fernandez in December 1983; Reyn-Bardt was convicted based on his confession even though the human remains which had been dug up and which had led to his arrest were subsequently dated to the Roman period.[10] The court also saw the trial and conviction of Howard Hughes for the murder of Sophie Hook in June 1996.[11]

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Thomas Harrison (architect)

Thomas Harrison (architect)

Thomas Harrison was an English architect and bridge engineer who trained in Rome, where he studied classical architecture. Returning to England, he won the competition in 1782 for the design of Skerton Bridge in Lancaster. After moving to Lancaster he worked on local buildings, received commissions for further bridges, and designed country houses in Scotland. In 1786 Harrison was asked to design new buildings within the grounds of Lancaster and Chester castles, projects that occupied him, together with other works, until 1815. On both sites he created accommodation for prisoners, law courts, and a shire hall, while working on various other public buildings, gentlemen's clubs, churches, houses, and monuments elsewhere. His final major commission was for the design of Grosvenor Bridge in Chester.

Bay (architecture)

Bay (architecture)

In architecture, a bay is the space between architectural elements, or a recess or compartment. The term bay comes from Old French baie, meaning an opening or hole.

Doric order

Doric order

The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of columns. Originating in the western Doric region of Greece, it is the earliest and, in its essence, the simplest of the orders, though still with complex details in the entablature above.

Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km², making it the fourth-most populated city in the European Union as well as the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2022. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, gastronomy, and science. For its leading role in the arts and sciences, as well as its very early system of street lighting, in the 19th century it became known as "the City of Light". Like London, prior to the Second World War, it was also sometimes called the capital of the world.

Charles Dupin

Charles Dupin

Baron Pierre Charles François Dupin was a French Catholic mathematician, engineer, economist and politician, particularly known for work in the field of mathematics, where the Dupin cyclide and Dupin indicatrix are named after him; and for his work in the field of statistical and thematic mapping. In 1826 he created the earliest known choropleth map.

Statue of Queen Victoria, Chester

Statue of Queen Victoria, Chester

The Statue of Queen Victoria stands in front of Chester Crown Court in the forecourt of Chester Castle, Chester, Cheshire, England. It was unveiled in 1903, the sculptor was Frederick William Pomeroy, and the statue is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.

F. W. Pomeroy

F. W. Pomeroy

Frederick William Pomeroy was a prolific British sculptor of architectural and monumental works. He became a leading sculptor in the New Sculpture movement, a group distinguished by a stylistic turn towards naturalism and for their works of architectural sculpture. Pomeroy had several significant public works in London and elsewhere in the United Kingdom, notably in Belfast. His work in London includes the figure of Lady Justice (1905–1906) on the dome of the Old Bailey.

Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire

Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire

This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of the County Palatine of Chester. Since 1689, all Lords Lieutenant have also been Custos Rotulorum of Cheshire.

Moors murders

Moors murders

The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around Manchester, England. The victims were five children—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward Evans—aged between 10 and 17, at least four of whom were sexually assaulted. The bodies of two of the victims were discovered in 1965, in graves dug on Saddleworth Moor; a third grave was discovered there in 1987, more than twenty years after Brady and Hindley's trial. Bennett's body is also thought to be buried there, but despite repeated searches it remains undiscovered.

Lindow Woman

Lindow Woman

Lindow Woman and Lindow I are the names given to the partial remains of a female bog body, discovered in a peat bog at Lindow Moss, near Wilmslow in Cheshire, England, on 13 May 1983 by commercial peat-cutters. The remains were largely a skull fragment, which was missing its jaw, but with soft tissue and hair attached. The remains were subsequently dated to the Roman period. The remains became more technically known as Lindow I after the discovery of other remains in the same bog, which were identified as Lindow Man or Lindow II in 1984 and Lindow III in 1987.

Roman Britain

Roman Britain

Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered was raised to the status of a Roman province.

Murder of Sophie Hook

Murder of Sophie Hook

The murder of Sophie Hook was a widely reported child murder which took place in Llandudno, North Wales, in July 1995.

Source: "Chester Crown Court", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 6th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_Crown_Court.

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See also
References
  1. ^ a b Historic England. "Assize Courts Block, Chester (1271823)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d Barrow, J S; Herson, J D; Lawes, A H; Riden, P J; M V J, Seaborne (2005). "'Major buildings: Castle', in A History of the County of Chester: Volume 5 Part 2, the City of Chester: Culture, Buildings, Institutions". London: British History Online. pp. 204–213. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  3. ^ a b Champness, John (2005), Thomas Harrison, Georgian Architect of Chester and Lancaster, 1744–1829, Lancaster: Centre for North-West Regional Studies, Lancaster University, pp. 47–49, ISBN 1-86220-169-2
  4. ^ "Chester's architecture in Grosvenor Museum exhibition". BBC. 15 November 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  5. ^ The Builder, volume 21, p. 204
  6. ^ Morris, Edward; Roberts, Emma (2012), Public Sculpture of Cheshire and Merseyside (excluding Liverpool), Public Sculpture of Britain, vol. 15, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, p. 66, ISBN 978-1-84631-492-6
  7. ^ "Courts". Cheshire Live. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  8. ^ "Chester Crown Court". Gov.uk. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  9. ^ a b "How The Chester Chronicle covered the infamous Moors Murders trial". Chester Chronicle. 20 April 2016. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  10. ^ Sammut, Dave; Craig, Chantelle (23 July 2019). "Bodies in the Bog: The Lindow Mysteries". Distillations. Science History Institute. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  11. ^ "Sophie jury visits murder site". Herald Scotland. 2 July 1996.

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