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CaSPIR Info |
Pevensey Courthouse & Jail
Investigated 20th May 2006  Pevensey, East Sussex Telephone: 07845 758213 A Brief History
Pevensey Courthouse & Jail, now a museum, dates from the thirteenth century and was the old town hall. Courts met there until the dissolution of the borough in 1866. The Courthouse is a step back in time to Medieval England. Bailiff and Jurats were holding "the queens majesties court" at Pevensey in 1590 and we also know that the Court House was built
by 1595. By this time the Cinque Ports organisation was the only one in the Borough capable of initiating a project of this kind.
By early Tudor times the Castle had fallen into disrepair and was no longer inhabited, but Pevensey, like the rest of England,
was recovering from the series of disasters which befell it during the 14th and 15th centuries, The Black Death, the Peasant's
Revolt, the Hundred Years War, and the Wars of the Roses and sea trade was making the country prosperous.
The end of
Queen Elizabeth's reign was a comparatively prosperous time before the harbour finally silted up, and Pevensey ceased to be a
port. Even after its trade was finished, Pevensey remained a member of the Cinque Ports and the Bailiff and Jurats continued to
function in the Court House.
With its cells at ground level, and Court Room and Robing Room above, the Court House is clearly
purpose built, and we must assume that the Bailiff and Jurats held Courts here from the time that it was built. This was before
1595, as the museum holds a copy on the walls of the Court House of a rough plan of Pevensey, drawn in that year, which shows a
building on the site with what is obviously a flight of steps like those of the present Court House.
On the ground floor are small prison cells and a small yard, while on the upper floor is the court house with its benches, dock and magistrates robing chamber. Previous Reported Activity
© County Society for Paranormal Investigation and Research - 2008
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