YOUR photograph Here Comes the Judge – York Assizes in 1913, showing the arrival of the Assize Judge in 1913, was by no means the last such occasion in York.
There was an account in the Yorkshire Herald of June 26,1924, describing how the High Sheriff of Yorkshire, Captain Henry Whitworth, Pocklington, decided to reintroduce what was described as “a state coach” for the purpose of conveying Acton J at the York Summer Assizes in 1924 from the Judges’ Lodgings in Lendal to the Mansion House (a distance of about 80 yards) to attend the Lord Mayor’s breakfast and thence to the Castle to proceed with the day’s work.
According to this account: “The bright livery dresses of the coachman and attendants was an interesting feature of the proceedings, and the ancient mode of travel was more in keeping with customs and environment of an assize.”
Not to be outdone by York in the matter of a coach and horses, Norwich was apparently still using them for this purpose in the 1960s but whether it was competing in the provision of ‘breakfasts’ (courtesy of the Co-Op) and ‘musical selections’ (courtesy of the National Union of Railwaymen and their band) I cannot say.
Tony Lawton, Skelton, York.
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