To express my feeling of extreme geekiness I have decided to put up photographs of obscure county courts in northern england (see below). Pontefract turned out to be a rather pleasent old town (well, apart from the bit with the court in). it has very wide cobbled and pedestrianised streets in the centre. The population of Pontefract are at the extreme end of friendly. After parking Cecilia, I asked the first old man I passed whether I was in fact in Pontefract. He was significantly taken aback by the question and replied that it had been Pontefract since 1138AD and as far as he knew, it still was. He then proceeded to provide me (briefcase full of White Book in tow) with a short tour of 'Historic Pontefract'. I had asked him if he knew where the County Court was. He said that he did, and the tour culminated with him introducing me to what he thought was the County Court, though it was infact the rather grander Magistrates' Court.

When I found the County Court (and it took several passes to convince me that the sign was not lying, such was the utilitarian depravity of the facade) I was, as usual, ridiculously early. This gave me the opportunity to note that there were over 70 posters displaying information to the public on the third floor alone. County Courts across the land are facing a crisis of wallspace. The cause is an insatiable desire on the part of court staff to display not only every public service available in the county, but also the entire financial breakdown of the courts in that town, right down to the sums spent on postage (I say 'right down to': rather suprisingly, the spending on postage seems to be higher than any other single expenditure by the court).

What was all set up to be the most straightforward hearing in the entire known universe took a turn towards complexity when I recieved a last minute telephone call from an uncorroborated source alleging that the defendant was in tens of thousands of pounds debt. This required me to launch into some quick legal research. Fortunately the judge was easily persuadable and I got my order not withstanding this mysterious interjection.

Note to self: Dont drive like I am in the Italian Job.


Pontefract County Court. Blink and you'll miss it. That chap in a white t-shirt did. Can you count the posters inside?