A History of Grantham courthouses

THE system of lay magistrates, by which small crimes are tried, goes back to 1195, the reign of Richard I.

He appointed knights known as Keepers of the Peace to ensure the King’s peace was upheld.

By Victorian times, most magistrates were members of the borough council, and the chairman of the bench was usually the Mayor.

It was a throwback to past centuries when the Mayor and the first 12 comburgesses ran the town and dispensed justice a practice which officially disappeared in the 1970s.

The Sessions Hall, inside the Guildhall, later becoming a theatre

Grantham had two courts. One was the Grantham division, at the Guildhall Sessions Hall (now the theatre) and the other Spittlegate division, which looked after non-town matters. This was administered at the old Court House, London Road, built in 1830 and at one time doubled as a police station.

The superintendent of police also lived there and stabled his horse in outbuildings. Two adjacent cottages in Rycroft Street were home to a sergeant and a constable.

Grantham was not the only settlement in the area to have a court. The Belvoir Petty Sessions were held at Belvoir, and Kesteven Quarter Sessions in the grand ballroom of the Greyhound Hotel, Folkingham.

The magistrates’ courts in town ran under several names, including Police Court, Borough Court and Petty Sessions. There were also the higher Grantham Quarter Sessions, presided over by a visiting recorder in the Sessions Hall four times a year. Serious offences were dealt with by Lincoln Assizes, replaced by Crown Courts in 1972.

Former magistrates Court then Belvoir Lettings, London Road

That year Spittlegate and Grantham courts merged, taking up residence in the London Road building.

A £30,000 improvement in 1978 saw a two-storey extension to replace the outmoded offices for the 11 staff. Until then, solicitors had to interview clients in the corridor, the clerk shared an office with his deputy and there was no accommodation for probation officers, police or witnesses.

There was no holding accommodation for prisoners as the cells were used for storage. The staircase and landing were used as waiting rooms. While work was carried out, staff, moved into St Vincent’s.

Over the years, mergers saw closures of smaller court offices which led to the creation of South Lincolnshire Magistrates, based in Grantham. Bourne, Stamford, Sleaford and the Elloes (Spalding and Long Sutton) courts were administered from the town and space finally ran out.

An unsuccessful attempt was made to secure the former St John’s Vicarage next door.

In 1993, a courtroom at the London Road court was gutted when an arsonist struck. Four fire crews fought the blaze. Supt Paul Holman said at the time: “It was clearly arson, there were separate seats of fire.” The arsonist was never caught.

The gutted No 2 Courtroom at Grantham Magistrates Court, London Road, following an arson attack in 1993.

The last link with the old justice roots in Grantham ended in June 1995 when two fine defaulters were dealt with at the old Spittlegate Court building before the heavy, studded door was locked and was put up for sale at £165,000.