Judge's Day and the Judiciary Service

THE JUDICIARY SERVICE IN WORCESTER CATHEDRAL AT THE BEGINNING OF THE HIGH COURT JUDGE'S SITTINGS IN THE SHIRE HALL

The Service and its associations with The King's School, Worcester, England
'Judiciary' means to do with the Law, so the service in the Cathedral is presumably for the right outcome of a trial, for justice to be done. A High Court Judge comes on the regular circuit to Worcester to try criminal cases which are considered more serious than those normally tried by the magistrates.
The service is always held in the Cathedral, with trumpets, choristers, the Headmaster, the Second Master, the King's and Queen's Scholars processing with all the dignitaries of the Cathedral, as well as the Judge and the officials of the court. It is spectacular and quite short. After the service the Judge will drive to the Shire Court (near Foregate Street station) and the next day it is the task of our senior King's Scholar, to ask, in Latin, on our behalf for a half day's holiday. This is known as the Judge's Half. With any luck, the Judge will grant it as he or she seems to have done for centuries - we don't know how long exactly.

The History of Judges visiting Worcester
Judges travelling to chief county towns began when Henry II, in the 12th century, tightened his control of the English nobility through the law. Up until then, important lords held their own courts and acted as Judges in them. Henry introduced the scheme whereby royal judges travelled from London to county towns to judge difficult cases in what was called an Assize Court. Although the Assize courts were abolished in the 1970s, the tradition carries on through the Crown Courts which require a High Court Judge, as opposed to a magistrate who normally deals with local crimes in the Magistrates Court. Particularly serious crimes are tried in the Crown Courts.

The 'College School' and Assize Sunday and Mrs. Henry Wood
We have no idea when King's became involved with the arrival of the important Judge in the city on what was called Assize Sunday, but we do know it was a very old tradition by the 1830s or over 170 years ago. Mrs. Henry Wood, who had lived in Sidbury as a girl and whose five brothers went to The King's School in those years, began to write novels in the 1860s when she needed the money. Her stories were based on Worcester and her brothers' school. The novels were a great success and, although probably not to our taste now, they do tell us something about the school, its traditions and problems in the 1830s.

She describes the whole school (fewer than a hundred) attending the Assizes Service and the granting of the Judge's Half. The senior scholar will ask in the language of the College School (as it was called then) namely Latin which, with some Greek, was the only curriculum for school boys in the early 19th century. Naturally, the Judge will reply in Latin. Interestingly, in Mrs. Henry Wood's description it is all in English, perhaps because as she suggests elsewhere, standards had fallen and the boys' knowledge was at a particularly low ebb.

However, the editors ot the Vigornian in the summer of 1954 could run a competition for the best translation of the Latin request and reply, although of course, we don't know how many responses there actually were.

Link to external site on Mrs Henry Wood

Edgar Tower painted in 1781

This 14th century gateway was the entrance to the monastery, known as St Mary's Gate, but in the 18th century it was thought to have been built in the reign of King Edgar in the 10th century and the name stuck. Notice the hoop, the shop and the glimpse of houses in College Green.

The County Gaol
Perhaps the connection of the school with Assize Sunday has something to do with the fact that the County Gaol was next door to College Green, exactly where the playground is now. On Assize Sunday, the gaolers would exhibit the prisoners to the public, and no doubt, the boys of the College School. For an extra 6d, they would point out the ones who were due to be hanged. The hangings were publicly carried out in front of the prison which could be reached via Castle Place. The prison finally closed down in 1813.

An 1822 plan of the County Gaol, where the playground is now. The wall was built in the 14th century but later increased in height to stop prisoners escaping into the monastery grounds. It doesn't appear to have succeeded. Notice the cells where the Wolfson Building now stands.

Whatever the origins, the service and the Judge's Half is something unique to King's and therefore very special - of course, no other local school has anything similar. We experienced a Judiciary Service in 2002, and in the previous year, after a long gap, when the case of Celine Figard, the murdered French girl, was due to be heard. The French journalists were surprised and not very impressed with the Latin start to the trial.

The following extracts are from the novels which Mrs. Henry Wood set in the school. Her son, who was obviously very proud of her, came to the Cathedral in 1916 on the centenary of her birth to attend a ceremonial unveiling of her memorial. He gave the Cathedral Library a copy of all her novels, which were later given to the school by the Dean in 1924 and are now in the School Archive. He also gave some money for the Mrs. Henry Wood History Prize which is still awarded for the best history project usually to someone in the Lower Remove.

College Hall, or the school room, before it was restored at the end of the 19th century. Notice the desks, blackboard and roof. Four classes were taught here at once.

College Hall from an early 19th century print

The Norman refectory (dining hall for the monastery) was rebuilt in the 14th century. The hall has been used by the King's School since about 1560. Facing west, this view shows the roof and gallery before it was modified in the later 19th century.

From Mildred Arkell:
'The next day was Assize Sunday. A dense crowd collected early round the doors of the cathedral, and as soon as they were opened, rushed in and took possession of the edifice, leaving vacant the pulpit, the bishop's throne and the reserved seats. It was the custom for the bishop, if in Westerbury (Worcester), the Dean and Chapter, and the the forty king's scholars to assemble just within the front entrance and receive the Judges, who were attending state to the Cathedral, just as they had been attended into Westerbury the previous afternoon, the escort being now augmented by the mayor and corporation, and an overflow of barristers.

The ten choristers were the first to take up their standing at the front entrance. They were soon followed by the rest of the King's Scholars, the surplices of the whole forty being primly starched for the occasion. They had laid in their customary supply of pins, for it was the boys' pleasure, during the service on Assize Sunday, to stick pins into people's backs, and pin womens' clothes together; the density of the mob, permitting full scope to the delightful amusement, and preventing detection.

The thirty King's Scholars bustled in from the cloisters two and two, crossed the body of the Cathedral to the grand entrance and placed themselves the head of the choristers,Then there followed a long argument with the senior scholar and the head chorister about who should lead the procession, backed, of course, by their supporting scholars and choristers and a certain amount of shoving took place until the headmaster intervened.

"King's scholars, move down, and be quick over it: and I'll flog you all round," concluded Mr. Wilberforce, 'if you strike up a dispute in college again."

The master turned tail and strode back as fast as his short legs would carry him: for the Dean and Chapter, marshalled by a verger and the bedesman, were crossing the cathedral: and a flourish of trumpets without, told of the approach of the judges.

Taken from the-other side of the river in the early part of the twentieth century. This area was farmed as meadow land from the Middle Ages, but is now the King's School playing fields and the County Cricket Club.

from The Channings
'Before seven o'clock the whole school, choristers and king's scholars, assembled in the cloisters. But instead of entering the schooIroom (College Hall) for early school, they formed themselves into a dense mass (If you have seen school boys march otherwise, 1 have not) and, treading on each other's heels, proceeded through the town to the lodgings of the judges, in pursuance of a time-honoured custom. There, the head boy sent in his name to the very chamber (room) of the Lord Chief Justice, who happened to have the Helstonleigh (Worcester) circuit. "Mr. Gaunt, senior of the college school (head-boy), craving holiday for himself and the whole fry who accompanied him."

"College boys?" cried his lordship; for it was not the first time he had been to Helstoneleigh. "Give one of my cards to the senior boy, Roberts. My compliments to the headmaster and I beg he will grant the boys a holiday."

Roberts did as he was bid - he also had been to Helstoneleigh before with his master - and delivered the card and message to Gaunt. The consequence of which was, the school tore through the streets in triumph, shouting "Holiday!" to heard a mile off, and bringing people hot, and in white garments, from their beds to the windows. The least they feared was that the town had taken fire.

Back to the house of the headmaster for the pantomime to be played through. This usually was (for the master, as wise on the subject as they were, would lie that morning in bed) to send the master's servant into his room with card and the message: upon which the permission for the holiday would come out, and the boys disperse, exercising their legs and lungs.'

The west end of the Cathedral by the Watergate. The canon's house, built on top of the monastery ruins, was demolished from 1843 and the cathedral gardens laid out. The tall pinnacles were taken down later.