TAKING A PEEP INSIDE THE OLD ECCLES MAGISTRATES COURT

Today Carl and I visited Salford CVS based in Eccles to discuss how Salford Media can go further with our community reporting and help required, regarding community grants, office space etc with Jeremy Engineer a Development Officer there, who couldn't have been both more useful and friendly to us.

I mentioned that the old Eccles Magistrates Court which was established in 1890 was once housed in the Eccles Town Hall building and was delighted when he told us that their main office was housed in one of the Court rooms and would we like a tour?

It was wonderful to walk around the empty court and marvel at the mahogany wood panelling, huge doors, the benches in the public gallery complete with original graffiti!, the press bench, the ornate decorated ceiling and most of all the prisoners dock, accessed by a flight of stairs from the cells below with it's cast iron railings to deter felons from leaping over and escaping.

The court closed in the mid 1990s and cases were transferred to Salford Magistrates Court in Bexley Square, that too has closed and is now apartments.

Many people will have memories of Eccles Court and it's proceedings, I do know that several friends of mine would sit in the public gallery on a Monday morning and watch the goings on shall we say, and more often than not familiar faces would appear before the Magistrates.

Obviously I have to mention that this court room has been used several times for filming television shows and most notably in March 1998 when an episode of Coronation Street saw Deidre Rachid sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for her alleged part in a fraud, which led to a public outcry in the newspapers, remember, "Free The Weatherfield One", campaign?  which even politicians voiced their opinions...

Once again many thanks to Jeremy for allowing us access to take photographs of this magnificent building, it certainly made my day!