Lincoln Crown Court is a judicial facility in

Lincoln, England Lincoln () is a cathedral city, a non-metropolitan district, and the county town of Lincolnshire, England. In the 2021 Census, the Lincoln district had a population of 103,813. The 2011 census gave the Lincoln Urban Area, urban area of Lincoln, ...

. It is located on the western side of the grounds of

Lincoln Castle Lincoln Castle is a major medieval castle constructed in Lincoln, England, during the late 11th century by William the Conqueror on the site of a pre-existing Roman fortress. The castle is unusual in that it has two mottes. It is one of only ...

and is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

Court hearings have taken place within the grounds of

since the castle was built in the 11th century. A

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

shirehall on the site was demolished and replaced by a new county hall in 1776. After finding that the 18th century county hall was subsiding due to a mixture of local quarrying and poor construction, the justices ordered its demolition using prison labour and the commissioning of a new facility on the same site. The current building, which was designed by

Sir Robert Smirke Sir Robert Smirke (1 October 1780 – 18 April 1867) was an English architect, one of the leaders of Greek Revival architecture, though he also used other architectural styles. As architect to the Board of Works, he designed several major ...

in the

Gothic style Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

and built at a cost of £40,000, was completed in 1823. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with thirteen bays facing the east gate of the castle; the central section of three bays featured an arched doorway with a triple Gothic window on the first floor; the roof was

crenellated A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

and there were

octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

al corner

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

s. Internally, the principal rooms in the building were the two courtrooms, one for hearing criminal cases and the other for hearing civil cases, both approximately square, decorated with wainscot panelling and located on the first floor. There was also a grand jury room containing an ornate fireplace guarded by lions bearing shields. In March 1872 the courthouse was the venue for the trial and conviction of William Frederick Horry, accused of murdering his wife: Horry became the first person to be executed in the UK using the " long drop" method of execution, a technique developed by

William Marwood William Marwood (1818 – 4 September 1883) was a hangman for the British government. He developed the technique of hanging known as the " long drop". Early life Marwood was born in 1818 in the village of Goulceby, the fifth of ten childre ...

which was faster and therefore considered more humane than the previous method, and which was subsequently universally used. The building continued to be used as a facility for dispensing justice but, following the implementation of the

Local Government Act 1888 Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

, which established county councils in every county, it also became the meeting place of

Lindsey County Council Lindsey County Council was the county council of Parts of Lindsey in the east of England. It came into its powers on 1 April 1889 and was abolished on 1 April 1974. The county council was initially based at the County Hall, Lincoln Castle and then ...

. After the County Council moved to County Offices, Lincoln in 1932, the building was retained for the

assize The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...

courts and, since 1972, for the Crown Court. In the early 21st century

Her Majesty's Courts Service Her Majesty's Courts Service (HMCS) was an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and was responsible for the administration of the civil, family and criminal courts in England and Wales. It was created by the amalgamation of the Magi ...

announced proposals to move the Crown Court out of the castle grounds: this scheme was abandoned on the basis that it would not be value for money in November 2010. The idea of re-locating the Crown Court, possibly to the magistrates court building on the High Street, was briefly resurrected again but not progressed in March 2014.

References

{{Reflist Grade II* listed buildings in Lincolnshire County halls in England Government buildings completed in 1823