Lewes Crown Court is a

Crown Court The Crown Court is the court of first instance of England and Wales responsible for hearing all indictable offences, some either way offences and appeals lied to it by the magistrates' courts. It is one of three Senior Courts of England and W ...

venue in Lewes High Street,

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of t ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East ...

, England. It forms part of the Lewes Combined Court Centre which it shares with Lewes

County Court A county court is a court based in or with a jurisdiction covering one or more counties, which are administrative divisions (subnational entities) within a country, not to be confused with the medieval system of ''county courts'' held by the hig ...

. The building, which was known as the "County Hall" from an early stage, was also the headquarters of

East Sussex County Council East Sussex County Council is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of East Sussex. East Sussex is divided into five local government districts. Three are larger, rural, districts (from west to east: Lewes; Wealden; and Rother ...

from 1889 to 1938: it 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 Ir ...

History

The building, which was designed by John Johnson in the classical style, was built in

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building ...

between 1808 and 1812. The design for the building involved a symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing the High Street; the central section of three bays featured a recess with six

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 c ...

columns supporting the upper floors; there were

casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a cas ...

s on the first floor and flanking wings which slightly projected forwards. Above the first floor windows were reliefs which depicted

Wisdom Wisdom, sapience, or sagacity is the ability to contemplate and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. Wisdom is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledg ...

Justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

and

Mercy Mercy (Middle English, from Anglo-French ''merci'', from Medieval Latin ''merced-'', ''merces'', from Latin, "price paid, wages", from ''merc-'', ''merxi'' "merchandise") is benevolence, forgiveness, and kindness in a variety of ethical, relig ...

. The building was extended by two bays to the east in a similar style later in the 19th century. The building was known as "County Hall" from an early stage. The structure was originally 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

. The county council moved Pelham House in 1938, from when the building in Lewes High Street was used solely for accommodating the Law Courts. The county council then moved on from Pelham House to St Anne's Crescent in Lewes in 1968.

Cases

Notable cases held at Lewes Assizes, later Lewes Crown Court, include: * 1920: The " Crumbles Murder case" in which Jack Field and William Thomas were convicted of the murder of Irene Munro * 1930: The trial of Sidney Harry Fox for the murder of his mother for insurance money * 1934: The acquittal of Tony Mancini for the "Brighton Trunk Murder" of Violet Kaye, to which he later confessed * 1949: John Haigh, the "acid bath murderer" * 1956:

John Bodkin Adams John Bodkin Adams (21 January 18994 July 1983) was an Irish-born British general practitioner, convicted fraudster, and suspected serial killer. Between 1946 and 1956, 163 of his patients died while in comas, which was deemed to be worthy of ...

, previously acquitted of murder at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

, was tried at Lewes for collateral offences * 1998: Trial of Sion Jenkins for the murder of Billie-Jo Jenkins (later acquitted) * 2001: Roy Whiting was tried and convicted of the murder of Sarah Payne * 2004: Graham Coutts was tried and convicted of the murder of schoolteacher Jane Longhurst * 2004: Andrew Wragg was acquitted of murdering his son and sentenced to two years for

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...

* 2009: Martin and Nathan Winter, and their company Alpha Fireworks Ltd, were found guilty of the manslaughter of two East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service firefighters in the 2006 Marlie Farm Fireworks Explosion * 2010: Bridget Kathleen Gilderdale was acquitted of the attempted murder of her daughter, Lynn Gilderdale (an ME sufferer)

References

{{Reflist

External links

Court information
Crown Court buildings Buildings and structures in East Sussex Lewes Court buildings in England Government buildings completed in 1812 L