Cambridgeshire nine-bed home with two prison cells and former magistrates court listed for £800,000

A unique nine-bedroom home in Cambridgeshire featuring a former courtroom and two prison cells has gone up for sale for £800,000.

The Old Courthouse in Linton was previously a police station, magistrates court and local prison.  

The property, which was dated as a police station in September 1855, has many of its original features, including a prison cell with the original toilet, paint on the walls and original flooring. 

There are also inscriptions on the walls of the intact cell, some which date from 1821.

The other prison cell has been turned into a bathroom but still has its original form.

The former courtroom is vaulted and still has the original flooring and large sash windows.

Unique: The Old Courthouse in Linton is on sale via Cheffins for £800,000

According to Cheffins, the estate agency selling the home, the site saw thousands of cases of petty crime while it was a magistrates court, including the case of Robert Swann in 1865, a Linton labourer who assaulted his mother with a dung fork and was sentenced to three months hard labour.

Eugene Stamp, a trainee teacher at the Linton church school who threw a stone at a train also served a 14-day jail term in the building. 

Another case was in 1857 when Charles Whittaker, a 30-year-old labourer was found guilty of stealing 25 pounds of brass from his employer in West Wratting. 

He was sentenced to four years' transportation and sent to Australia or a penal colony. 

As a police station, the building was the centre of the Linton division of Cambridgeshire police, covering over 20 local parishes. It was reportedly built for £1,040 and staffed by 10 police officers.

The property was closed as a police station in 1958 when the Cambridge Road police station was opened, but it remained a magistrates court into the 1970s before being converted into a residential home. 

The Old Courthouse was purchased by the current owners in 1993, who have retained as many of its original features as possible. 

The house now spans more than 4,000 sq. ft. and has two kitchens, a large lobby, the courtroom, a separate sitting room, dining room and integral garage on the ground floor. It has seven bedrooms on the first floor with four bathrooms.

The house is set around a courtyard garden with a further lawned area leading down to the River Granta.

The house is being sold by the widow and son of Robert Williams, one of the founders of Unipalm, later Pipex, the first British internet provider in 1992.

Linton has four schools, a handful of pubs, some independent shops, a Co-op and The Linton Kitchen, which is a bakery newsagents, sweet shop and florist. Cambridge is about eight miles away. 

The fictional Linton Travel Tavern appears in the sitcom 'I'm Alan Patridge' with Alan Patridge describing it as equidistant between London and Norwich. Linton is also home to Chilford Hall, a former vineyard and a zoo. 

Dream bathroom? One of the prison cells at the property remains in tact, complete with writing on the walls and the original toilet

Renovation: Another of the former cells has been turned into a bathroom

Space: The Old Courthouse spans more than 4,000 sq. ft.

Options: The property has nine bedrooms in total

Owner: The property was owned by the late Robert Williams and his wife

Moving on: Robert Williams' widow and son, Merrick Williams, are selling the unique home

This is Money speaks to the late owner's son

The property in Cambridgeshire was owned by the late Robert Williams. It is now being sold by his widow and son, Merrick Williams, who works in software development. 

Merrick told This is Money: 'My parents were drawn to Linton because it offered something increasingly difficult to find: the character and community of a traditional English village, while still being practical enough that the everyday essentials were within walking distance.

'The house itself was another matter entirely. There was simply nothing else quite like it. 

'Its history, architecture and rather extraordinary collection of spaces made it feel less like an ordinary house and more like a small piece of the village's story.'

Merrick was not born when his parents purchased the house but remembers being 'fascinated' by it when he first saw it.   

He said: 'I was thrilled by the idea of having so much of the building to explore, particularly the old courtroom and cells.

'I've moved back and forth from the property at various points throughout my life, and I currently live here while the sale is underway. 

'Spending so much time in a building of this age has given me an appreciation for history and architecture that I doubt I could have developed anywhere else.'

One of Merrick's favourite features of the property is the garden.

He said: 'Having the garden extend directly towards the River Granta gives the property a wonderfully unusual relationship with the surrounding landscape. 

'Despite being within the village, there is a real sense of privacy and connection with the countryside.

'I think that combination is what makes the house particularly special: it is deeply rooted in Linton's history, but it is also a genuinely interesting and enjoyable place to live.'

Merrick is selling the property so he and his wife can settle in the US.   

He said: 'It is less a case of wanting to leave the house than an opportunity for us to begin the next chapter of our lives somewhere new.

'I've been fortunate to have lived in an extraordinary building, and I hope that whoever eventually buys it will appreciate not only its practical qualities, but also the history and character that make it so distinctive.'

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