When a hanging meant party time

February 23, 2004

JUDGE’S DRIVE and JUDGE’S WALK
(Unthank Road and Newmarket Road)

ASSIZE Week in old Norwich, when the judges arrived to sentence those who had fallen foul of the law, was a time of celebration for the toffs from both the city and county.

It was a good excuse for all kinds of jollifications and banquets, dances, concerts and the like were held at places such as the Assembly House.

Eaton Hall, the place where the judges are thought to have stayed during Assize Week.

The judges — respected and feared — lodged at Eaton Hall where they took their exercise and were driven by coach to the courts.

But in January of 1886 Mr Justice Hawkins was less than impressed with his surroundings.

He said: “It is a bleak house in a frozen waste.

“It is redolent of putty and paint; workmen were tapping — in the same way as I would expect to hear tapping in the bleak manufactory of an undertaker’s shop.”

He went on to accuse the county magistrates of furnishing the rooms “with a view to economy and discomfort with a show of luxury, skilfully, but not very judiciously combined”.

Woe betide anyone who appeared in the dock before Mr Justice Hawkins in the winter of 1886. He was not a happy judge.

And remember that in those days when a judge put on his black cap, the defendant was on his way to the gallows.

Mr Justice Field, on the other hand, was more easily pleased. He took a fancy to Eaton Hall.

He said of his accommodation: “It is exceedingly nice and extremely comfortable.”

And I suspect most of those brought before the courts — where the public galleries were packed for a free day out — would have preferred to appear before Justice Field.

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