Branch Golden Jubilee 1956 - 2006
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Extracts from Minutes of the First Meeting of The Ad Hoc Committee
of the Leicestershire & Rutland Members
of The Magistrates Association
Held
on 9th March 1956
Members present:
Mrs Bonney Market Harborough Bench
Mr G Talbot Griffith
Mr C Hadley
Mr R Ingram Loughborough Bench
Mr F Oldham Hinckley & Market Bosworth Bench
Mr K Veasey
Leicester
Mrs G M Bishop
Mr C Hadley was elected Chairman and Mrs G M Bishop elected to be Secretary of the Branch, to be called:
“The Leicestershire & Rutland Branch of the
Magistrates Association.”
The Committee decided that the Lord Lieutenant of
Leicestershire, The Lord Cromwell, should be asked if he would accept the
nomination as President of the Branch. It
was further agreed to ask Mr Codrington, the Lord Lieutenant of
Mr K Veasey accepted the nomination as Hon. Treasurer.
It was decided to recommend a sum of five shillings (25 pence) per annum as the Branch subscription and that there should be a minimum of two meetings annually in Leicester in the Spring and the Autumn.
Extracts from Minutes of the second Meeting of The Ad Hoc Committee
of the Leicestershire & Rutland Members
of The Magistrates Association
Held on 23rd March 1956
Lord Cromwell, Lord Lt. of Leicestershire had written to
accept nomination as President of the Branch and the Lord Mayor Of
A letter from W M Carrington Esq. raised a difficuly over
the suggestion that he should be nominated as a Vice-President and this was
referred to Lord Cromwell for advice.
Model rules for Branches were discussed and amendments were
made to read as follows:
“The officers of the branch shall be a President, one or more Vice-Presidents, a Chairman of the Executive Committee to preside at Branch Meetings in the absence of the President, an Honorary Secretary and an Honorary Treasurer.
At the Annual General Meeting, an Executive Committee of 12 members in addition to the Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary shall be elected in the following proportion:-
Four members to be elected from Leicester City Bench.
Seven Members to be elected from Leicestershire County Bench.
One member to be elected from the
Mr C W Hadley Esq. accepted nomination as Chairman.
Mrs G M F Bishop accepted nomination as Secretary .
The following arrangements were made for the inaugural meeting of the Branch were confirmed. The meeting to take place on Monday May 14th at 2.30 pm in the Ballroom of the County Rooms
2.30 – 3.00 pm. Business
3.00 – 4.00 pm. Address “Do’s and Don’ts of Magistrates by Leslie Pugh Esq. President of the Magistrates Clerks Society.
4.00 – 4 -30 pm. Tea provided by the Leicestershire County Council in the Dining Room of the County Rooms.
Extracts from Minutes of the Third Meeting of The Ad Hoc Committee
of the Leicestershire & Rutland Members
of The Magistrates Association
Held on 16th April 1956
C W Hadley Esq. –
in the chair.
The Secretary reported that a suggestion had been made that
J G S Hobson Esq., OBE TD JP, Chairman of the Rutland Quarter Sessions should be
invited to accept nomination as a Vice-President of the Branch instead of the
Lord Lt. of
It was suggested that Mr Madden be asked to add a paragraph after the name of Mr Leslie Pugh, giving some idea of his work and thereby adding interest to the meeting. The question of Mr Pugh’s expenses was discussed and it was agreed that the secretary should find out whether these were to be borne by the Magistrates Association.
Extracts from the Minutes of the First Meeting of Members held on the
1st
October, 1956 in the Ballroom of the County Rooms –
at 5.30 pm.
Lord Cromwell in the Chair
and 49 Members.
105 Members had now joined and this was sufficient to
enable the Branch to be recognised as a full Branch of the Magistrates
Association.
The Hon. Treasurer reported a balance in hand of Sixteen
Pounds fourteen Shillings and Five pence.
Speaker. Mr C A
Joyce was to have addressed the Meeting but owing to an accident he had not been
able to come. A welcome was given to
Mr John Power of
Extracts from the Minutes of the Second Meeting of Members held on the
11th March 1957 in the Council Chamber
of
the Town Hall,
Members of the Branch were welcomed by the Lord Mayor of Leicester, Alderman A Halkyard CB MC TD DL LL.B
The Chair was taken by the President of the Branch,
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Cromwell DSO MC JP,
Lord Lieutenant of
Leicestershire.
Speaker
The Speaker at the
Annual Meeting was:-
W T C Skyrme Esq. CBE TD JP
Secretary of Commissions and Secretary to the Lord Chancellor
Whose subject was:-
“The work of the
Lord Chancellors Office in relation to Magistrates”.
Mr Skyrme told
members of the Branch that the Lord Chancellor had sent the following message–
“I am glad to
hear of the formation of the Leicestershire and Rutland Branch of the
Magistrates Association and wish success to its activities in the future”.
Thanks were expressed on behalf of the meeting by F Oldham Esq. JP Member of the Executive Committee.
Extracts from the Minutes of the Third Meeting of Members held on the
30th September 1957 in the Council Chamber
of
the Town Hall,
Present
In the Chair -
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Cromwell DSO MC JP,
Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire
also 44 Members,
Representatives of
Probation Staff of the City and County and Childrens’ Officers.
Apologies were received from _
J C
W A
Fearnley-Whittingstall
Recorder
of
was welcomed as
Vice-President of the Branch in place of Sir Gilbert Paull, who has become a
Judge.
Speaker
The members welcomed
C A Joyce Esq. MBE MA
who addressed them on the subject
“The community has as much crime as it deserves”.
Thanks were expressed for what would be described as “a fascinating address” by the recorder, W A Fearnley-Whittingstall Esq. QC.
Extracts from Minutes of the 82nd Meeting of the Branch Executive Committee
Held at 2.30 pm on Friday 21st January 1983.
Present:
Miss W L Bratt (Chairman)
Mrs O M Barkby
Mr E E Davis (Hon. Secretary)
Mrs D A Dickinson
Dr L Howard
Mr R C Robert-Smith
Mrs E H Taylor
Apology received
from Mrs M F Adcock, who was indisposed.
The Chairman welcomed new Committee Members;
Mrs Barkby
Mrs Dickinson Ashby-de-la-Zouch
Dr Howard
Matters arising
(b) (ii) Circulars regarding the Leicester Anchor Club and
the Probation Service Hostels had been distributed to members in November 1982.
Item 6. It was agreed that Mrs Barkby be nominated
to attend a Royal Garden Party and
she was given the relative application form for completion and submission direct
to HQ Office London.
Item 7. Distribution of Meeting notices to members:
The Secretary was authorised to purchase computer-printed
gummed address labels from HQ., at an approximate cost of £15 if Mrs A Roberts
should at any time be unable to type the names and addresses on the individual
envelopes used for sending out notices of Branch Meetings.
(Approximately 400 Ordinary and Associate Members).
Item 8. Co-option of Minutes Secretary:
It was agreed that Mr Ormond K Smyth of Leicester City
Bench be co-opted and that he should be nominated for this appointment at the
Branch Annual General Meeting.
Item 10. Miss Bratt asked the meeting to consider a suitable Speaker for the Autumn Branch Meeting. After some discussion Miss Bratt stated that Mrs Bishop was trying to arrange for the Lord Chief Justice to visit the Anchor Club and therefore it might be a good time for the branch the Lord Chief Justice to be the speaker at the Autumn Branch Meeting. The Committee readily agreed to this suggestion and Dr Howard offered to ask Sir David Davenport-Handley to approach the Lord Chief Justice for this purpose.
The branch executive committee wish to thank all of the local MA members for their contributions to the "time line" set out below
1958
1959
Sixty Three Magistrates on the
Castle Bench.
1960
Each “City Day Bench” consisted of ten to twelve members.
Friday Bench had seven magistrates plus two others from the new intake
and two more allocated to the day bringing the number up to eleven.
There were no rotas – just turn up and if as a consequence there were
too many more than necessary some would take the morning off or we could sit
four to a court. There were only two
courts but sometimes we had an overflow into the magistrates’ room.
We would start at 10.00am and finish in time for lunch (no courts in the
afternoon).
Number
1 Court was usually the more serious offences and Number 2 Court mainly dealt
with motoring and unpaid fines.
Parking
offences were unending. Prosecution
was by a Police Inspector who was as anxious as we were to get them dealt with.
The cases would follow a set plan – Inspector: - “the defendants car
was seen in an area where parking was restricted (or prohibited” thereby
causing unnecessary obstruction”. Chairman “Anything from the defendant?”
No Sir. Chairman
“Case proved, fined £2”. Time
per case was less than two minutes with 50+ cases per session being not unusual.
As light relief one solicitor in court on other business became the
defendant for his own case. Like the
others he was fined £2. Asked if he
could pay now or did he wish for time to pay, he paid cash on the spot.
Number
two Court had a warm corner in the public gallery often occupied by three
obviously retired elderly gentlemen. We
never knew who they were but they followed many cases with great interest.
In defended motoring cases we were given indications of their approval or
disapproval of our verdicts and penalties by their nods to each other.
Solicitors
were and probably still are variable. Mostly
authoritative and courteous but a small number less so.
One who shall be nameless obviously wanted his case to be heard quickly
and after bouncing up several times said “may I remind you Sir that whilst I
am sitting here I am not being paid!” Our
Chairman – also to be nameless – replied “neither are we; your turn will
come. Sit down please”.
Vestry
Street Court was used for domestic proceedings, usually with not very
satisfactory results. Bishop Street Courts were an improvised addition.
Two courts with curtains draped behind the bench, one green and the other
orange. Ladies were quite concerned
that the colours would clash with their hats!
Basil Coulthurst.
1961
1962
1963
Castle Bench sat on Wednesdays and
Saturdays. Many cases were about
offences on the motorways. There was
no speed limit. The common offences
were stopping on the motorway or dangerous driving.
One
Castle Bench lady magistrate punished a student for drunken behaviour by sending
him to cut the aggrieved person’s lawn.
Jim
Chamberlain & Walter Higgins
1964
1965
Lady Magistrates wore hats in 1965.
Very
little training, we were sworn in by the chairman of Quarter Sessions (Col.
Freer). We had two initial short
sessions of training and two more later.
I
was sworn in on Monday afternoon and “sat” on the Tuesday morning (having
found the court building in Market Bosworth). On this very first sitting there
were five of us on the bench.
I
recall a Bench Chairman who had great difficulty in keeping awake after lunch
and had to be gently prodded to do so.
One
lady when responding to her solicitor’s questions kept saying “Yes Sir”.
At his next question he paused half way through it and she immediately
said “Yes Sir”. He said “I
have not asked the question yet”.
I
was always very surprised as to how low the wages received by people were when
we asked them to pay their fine or maintenance. Iain Selkirk
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
Appointment - only
one interview -we did not know the name of the person who proposed you, - I
guessed and eventually asked him after he retired but he still wouldn't confirm
it.
Training
- very little compared to to-day
1973
Ladies not now required to wear hats, although one or two still did.
Up
until recently the large sideboard in the Magistrates room held a bottle of
sherry and glasses for Magistrates - when they needed it!!
Also
a table was booked every morning at Simpkin and James for 11am. - for
magistrates when they had finished the morning court!!
100
magistrates on the bench
Day
chairmen always took the number 1 court, sometime for years!
No
chairmanship training
No
Crown Prosecution Service -- the Police handled all the cases. There was
always a good police presence in court
Any
suggestion of tea or coffee was frowned on --- most definitely not!
If
we had a meeting at the Castle there was always tea or coffee and biscuits!
JPs sitting there always had a break for a drink!
After
2 years – (sometimes before) – you were asked if you were interested in
serving on the juvenile or domestic panels.
Comparatively
very little training.
Common
sense was the important thing and the most quoted phrase was - What would
the man on the Clapham omnibus do?
Very
small hand-book 3"x4" and about 52 pages.
This
held all names of officers, all magistrates’ names and addresses and all
useful penalties!
Olive
Barkby
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
Back in 1980, as a newly appointed magistrate on the Rutland Bench, I was
keen to show my enthusiasm for the work of the Magistracy and so I volunteered
for the position of Bench representative on the Leicestershire & Rutland
Branch of the MA. Little did I know
what a fascinating time lay ahead and how, a quarter of a century later, I would
be invited to become its President.
My
first impressions of the Branch Executive were of a rather august body run with
great efficiency by Miss Bratt, a retired head teacher.
My attempts to inject a little humour into the meetings, held in the
formal surroundings of the magistrates meeting room at the Town Hall, were not
met with universal acclaim and I soon learned to keep my head down.
The
discussions, as always, centred around two main themes, (1) parochial, including
invitations to likely guest speakers and (2) national, involving consultation
over new legislation. Our
Justices’ Clerks, notably Michael Meadows and Robin Nottridge gave freely of
their time and often attended meetings to proffer their advice.
Particularly memorable on the national front, was the consultation
process surrounding the passage of the Police and Criminal Evidence Bill in the
early nineties. If my memory serves
me correctly the process was in two stages, an initial consultation bound in
green and a final one bound in red. An
enormous amount of discussion and writing went into our response to these
documents but the sceptical amongst us were agreed that the red copy had already
been decided upon before the consultation on the green had taken place.
Such a pity because the opinions and experience of magistrates is so
valuable to the judicial process.
On
a lighter note I recall with affection, the friendships I have made with
magistrates from the City and across the
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
Creation of the new Crown Prosecution Service. “DNA fingerprinting”,
developed at
Ormond
K Smyth.
1986
The Home Office announced that a new courthouse for
1987
Planning permission was sought for a £5 million building in Pocklingtons Walk
“with adequate car parking facilities for magistrates and essential staff”.
A magazine for
1988
A report in the Leicester Mercury of an allegation made by the National
Association of Probation Officers that
1989
Court users met “for the first time in history” to discuss problems
associated with listing and delays. Records
showed that on each court day, on average, 50% of all cases were adjourned and
of these 5% had had as many as seven adjournments.
“Something must be done”, said the Clerk to the Justices.
The Le Vay Scrutiny of magistrates courts reported that the existing
administration machinery was out of date and beyond repair.
OKS.
1990
Leicestershire MCC announced that a merger of the two magistrates courts in the
city would take place in 1992, forming one court for the city and suburban
areas, as recommended by Dr John Raine of
1991
Unit fine system, based on “units of spare income”, to go national
next year. To ensure some measure of
consistency, the Magistrates Association agreed to issue guidelines indicating
“starting points” based on average offences by first offenders of average
means. OKS.
Extract
from the Court page of the Times.
“Reception
Magistrates’ Association.
The
Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh attended an evening reception at St James Palace
London SW1 on Wednesday July 10 1991, where they were greeted by the Lord
Chancellor, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, President of the Magistrates’
Association and Mrs Joyce Rose, Chairman of Council of the Magistrates
Association. Seven hundred Justices
from
A
small group from Leicestershire were among the seven hundred mentioned at this
Royal Reception and some were officially presented to the Queen and the
Duke of Edinburgh. Then Mrs Rose presented the Queen with the
Association's Armorial plate. Following this, other magistrates including
myself, had the opportunity to speak to the Duke. I remember he was
rather scathing that I was talking with a magistrate from Loughborough
(whom I did not in fact know) when I should have been net-working with
magistrates from other parts of the country! Marilyn Switzer.
1992
Inaugural joint annual meeting of Castle and City Benches.
Responsibility for management of magistrates courts passed from the Home
Office to the Lord Chancellor. Lord
Mackay of Clashfern opened the new
1993
Leicestershire branch of the Magistrates Association launched its first
participation in the National Association’s Schools Project.
OKS.
1994
Appointment of
1995
The 19-strong Magistrates Courts Committee was reduced to 12 members, no
longer chosen as Bench representatives. Chairman
Terry Higgins was succeeded by Peter Jacques.
There
was a Service in Westminster Abbey to mark the 75th Anniversary of the
Magistrates' Association on Tuesday 7th November 1995. The historical
notes in the front of the service sheet include a paragraph as follows
-
The
Association's 75th anniversary, in which we also celebrate the 75th anniversary
of the appointment of women to the Bench, provides the opportunity to rededicate
ourselves to our work, to reaffirm essential values and to recommit ourselves to
the demands of our judicial oath.
I
remember it was a moving occasion with many important people present, including
the Lord Chancellor, The Lord Mayor of Westminster and Her Royal Highness The
Duchess of Gloucester as well as various Bishops. Rosemary Thomson, who
was Chairman of Council at the time, read one of the lessons.
Afterwards
we were invited by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, to a Reception
in Westminster Hall, The Palace of Westminster, in the presence of the
Duchess of Gloucester.
On
this occasion there was a bus-load from Leicestershire and
1996
MA Branch Chairman Iain Selkirk was succeeded by Ormond Smyth, who had
been the committee’s Minuting Secretary for 14 years.
Court users were “lukewarm” about a suggestion that courts might meet
on weekday evenings or Saturdays to reduce delays.
OKS.
1997
Plans were announced for a £4.4 million court building at
1998
The Judicial Studies Board announced a new approach to justices training.
The Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Committee for
On
Saturday 1st August 1998 the Leicester Mercury printed nearly a whole page
article, with the head-line "Judgement Day for historic
courthouse", and underneath "closure due to lack of cash".
This was of course referring to the closure of
I
remember gathering at the courthouse for the closing ceremony following the
court's final sitting. It was particularly poignant for Zoe Hyde-Thomson,
chairman of Market Harborough and Lutterworth at the time, and other colleagues
who had originally been appointed to Lutterworth Bench before the amalgamation
with Market Harborough. Sadly, the end had come because the government
turned down bids for cash to improve the building which was really not equipped
to be a 21st century court-house. MS.
1999
The MCC announced that it would be moving to purpose-built premises
adjacent to the new court at
2000
Janet Higgins was appointed chairman of Leicestershire & Rutland
Branch of the MA. Robin Nottridge
retired as Director of Training. The
Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham of Cornhill, officially opened the new court at
2001
Stipendiaries became “District Judges (Magistrates Courts)".
2002
The Auld report proposed that Crown Courts and Magistrates Courts should
form one single unified criminal court. Community
Service Orders were renamed Community Punishment Orders.
OKS.
2003
Leicestershire MCC spearheaded opposition to certain aspects of the
Courts Bill, which they thought threatened “local justice”.
Branch president Tim Brookes, Leicestershire’s Lord Lieutenant, was
made KCVO in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
OKS.
2004
Alan Eccles was appointed first Midlands Regional Director for the
Unified Courts Agency. Mark Swales
was appointed Leicestershire Area Director.
OKS.
2005
2006