Inside Long Crendon Courthouse

Image: © Tiger Taken: 22 Sep 2019

Located immediately west of St Mary's Church, the courthouse has an oversailing or jettied upper storey of timber frame above the lower floor of stone. Dendrochronologists have dated some of the timbers to the ninth decade of the 15th century. It is likely that the building was originally used as a wool store before the upper floor, reached by a steep timber staircase direct from the street, was appropriated for the manorial court where rents were fixed, misdemeanours penalised and other village affairs settled, though the first documentary evidence of its use (as "Cherch Howse" or "Towne House" or "Court Close") date from the mid-16th century. Pevsner in his survey of 1960 notes that "the whole upper floor was built as one long room with one small adjoining one" and that "the big room has an open queenpost roof". A fireplace was provided at the west end for the comfort of the twelve jurors who heard the court proceedings. The present windows are 19th-century replacements for the originals. The courthouse was threatened with demolition in 1900 but was saved by the intervention of the National Trust, who acquired it as their second property and instigated a thorough restoration by Charles Robert Ashbee. Further restoration was carried out in the 1980s under Caroe & Partners, who replaced the heavy brick infilling (itself a substitute for the original wattle and daub) by insulated wooden panels. The room now contains a display of illustrations and artefacts documenting the history of the village. The National Trust https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/long-crendon-courthouse Long Crendon Courthouse is listed Grade II* https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101214040-courthouse-long-crendon

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