Silence in court!

On a rather miserable and rainy afternoon we called in at the Courthouse Museum in Ripon.
It opened in 1999 and is virtually unchanged from when it was built in 1830.
This shot is of the Court Room taken from just behind one of the two docks. Opposite are the seats for the Justices raised in a high position over the rest of the court. In the well sat the Clerk to the Court and any advocates representing the defendants. Just to the left of the docks is the witness box in the lower left corner of the photo. From these boxes men and women were fined, sentenced to hard labour and transported to Australia.
We also paid a quick visit to the Prison and Police Museum where I blipped the Police box in today's extra.
Earlier in the year I blipped the workhouse museum in Ripon too. All are fascinating places.