19th Century courtroom to be opened to the public

The former magistrates court will be opened for public tours

A courtroom where criminals from as far back as the 1870s were sentenced for offences including stealing pigeons is set to be opened for public tours.

The room in the Grade-I listed Rochdale Town Hall, which is now used as the council chamber, operated as a magistrates court from 1872 until the early 1980s.

It will be opened for monthly tours from October, during which people will be able to learn about the people who appeared there, as well as the magistrates and police officers who brought them to book.

Rochdale Borough Council said it decided to extend the initiative after a recent series of tours planned for the national Heritage Open Days celebrations sold out.

A spokeswoman for the authority said local historian Ruth Darling and the town hall's volunteers were tasked with researching the history of the court for the tours, uncovering a series of interesting cases.

One of them was of a woman called Rebecca Pike, born in 1861, who once threatened to knock a man's head off with one of her clogs.

Rebecca Pike is one of the criminals members of the public will learn about on the tour

Another was of Joseph Fish who was sentenced to 14 days in a reformatory after stealing four pigeons as a young teenager in the 1880s.

Councillor Sue Smith, cabinet member for communities and cooperation, said: "These courtroom tours will give visitors yet another opportunity to get an insight into the history of this fantastic building, which is essentially the history of Rochdale and its people."