Pub history

The Chief Justice of the Common Pleas

This former magistrates’ court and police station were built in 1901–2, remaining in use until 2000, built on the site of a ‘workhouse’, founded in the will (dated 1642) of the eminent lawyer and judge Sir John Bankes. Born in 1589, he was called to the bar, elected as an MP and knighted in 1631. Three years later, he was appointed Attorney-General and, in 1640, became Chief Justice of the Common Pleas – one of the highest judicial officials in England – until his death, in 1644.