Town Mayor, Jenny Collis and Booths Assistant Manager with the blue plaque

New blue plaques highlight town’s judicial heritage

Two new blue plaques have been installed in Knutsford town centre, highlighting the town’s historic role as a major hub for county justice over the past 500 years.

A blue plaque on Café Nero highlights the site of the original home of justice in Knutsford. It was on this site that a building which was used as a court room stood until 1818, when the new courthouse was built. This blue plaque replaces a long-removed slate plaque which was affixed to the building some decades ago.

Quarter Sessions were held in Knutsford from 1575, and from 1760 it was one of just two places where this level of justice was dealt in the county. Quarter Sessions were an intermediate tier of justice between lower magistrates courts and higher assize courts. Justices were empowered to enforce national political, administrative and religious policy, the criminal law (including committal proceedings to the Assize courts), taxation, rating, the poor law, maintenance of gaols, roads and bridges, regulation of wages, prices and alehouses and the hearing of petitions. Courts were held four times a year – Epiphany (January), Easter, Midsummer and Michaelmas (Autumn). In Knutsford the Quarter Sessions moved in 1818 to the new Sessions House on Toft Road. The Quarter Sessions were replaced by Crown Courts in 1971.

The second plaque was installed on Booths, which was the site of Knutsford House of Correction. The gaol was built in 1820 alongside the new court building and housed up to 700 prisoners. The prison was demolished around 1935 and in the 1980s Booths supermarket was built on the site.  Local historian Jenny Collis proposed the blue plaque to highlight the town’s judicial history following her sell-out talks on the prison in 2025. The location of the plaque was chosen to give a sense of the scale of the site.

Town Mayor Cllr Peter Coan said “For almost half a millennium Knutsford was a major centre for justice in Cheshire. Whilst these two buildings no longer remain, the blue plaques highlight what once stood on these sites and help passersby connect with our town’s rich judicial heritage”

The Town Council would like to thank Booths supermarket, and the landlord of Café Nero fo their permission to install the two new blue plaques.

The Town Mayor, trustees and residents of the Marjorie Hurst almshouses gather to unveil the new plaque

Philanthropist behind Knutsford almshouses honoured with blue plaque

A blue plaque dedicated to the founder of a local almshouse charity has been unveiled on Silk Mill Street.

Town Mayor, Councillor Peter Coan, and former Town Mayor Valerie Young JP MBE, the longest serving Trustee of the Charity, cut the ribbon to unveil the new plaque dedicated to Marjorie Hurst.

The Charity of Marjorie Hurst provides almshouses for older residents of Knutsford and owns a row of flats and cottages on Silk Mill Street. The plaque was installed following extensive research by Jenny Collis of Knutsford Heritage Centre into the origin of the town centre almshouses and the life of Marjorie Hurst.

“We knew very little about Marjorie Hurst and how she established the almshouses so we are delighted with the research put in by Jenny Collis and the support from the Town Council in providing the plaque which is now there for everyone to see” said Rick Dallimore, the Chair of Trustees.

The plaque commemorates Marjorie Hurst who was a spinster and life-long Knutsfordian who spent much of her life looking after her parents. Her father, Frederick Hurst, had been the manager of the Union Bank on King Street but it was through the line of her maternal grandfather that Marjorie inherited property. In her will she left property and money upon trust to the then Knutsford Urban District Council with the bequest that the dwellings she owned on Silk Mill Street be used as “almshouses for the deserving” of the town.

Initially the almshouses were provided rent free to the occupiers, but over time the dwellings fell into disrepair. In the 1980s the Town Council received permission from the Charity Commission to charge the residents a weekly maintenance contribution provided that a separate new trust was set up. The Charity of Marjorie Hurst was established and in the 1990s the Trustees secured a Housing Corporation grant to renovate the four remaining cottages and to build the six flats that exist on Silk Mill Street today.

Town Mayor Cllr Peter Coan said “It was an honour to unveil our new blue plaque honouring the legacy of Marjorie Hurst with the trustees and residents of the charity that bears her name. Through Marjorie’s philanthropy, Knutsford has a charity providing housing to those who might otherwise not be able to afford a home of their own – what a forward-thinking Knutsfordian.”

The Charity of Marjorie Hurst is today managed by a board of five trustees. More information about the charity can be found on their website: www.marjoriehurstcharity.org.uk