Visiting TNA tomorrow......bit of help RE criminal trials please

[yorkshirecath]

Hello
Am thinking of visiting the TNA tomorrow to look for details of my grandfathers trial.
I need a little help with reference numbers if anyone know about them?

His trial was in 1945 at Leeds Assizes. Am i right in thinking ASSI 52-55 is the correct circuit(North/North Eastern)?

ASSI 51 states 100 yr closure so i guess i wouldn't be able to look at that???

What area would the trail transcripts be kept in? Would that me the Indictments which i can't see?

Also i have a great uncle who was on the Reformatory ship Akbar in the 1901 census. He was born in Sheffield. Any ideas where to start looking for info on his imprisonment/trial etc....

Many Thanks

Cath x

[uksearch]

Re Akbar

Well...it depends when he was living at the time of the "crime". If he was in Sheffield you could start looking in the local papers. However you will not know when he was sentenced, so depending on his age, he could have served several years. If it is possible, and I haven't checked what records are available, you would be better to find the details of his release.

UK

[yorkshirecath]

Am pretty sure he would have been living in Sheffield at the time.
In 1901 while he is on the Akbar he is only 18yrs old so must have done his crime very young.
Did they have the equivalent of Borstal in those days?

[Lindad]

Can't help you specifically, I'm afraid - but I had cause to look up a criminal court case at the TNA some while back and found the staff very helpful in pointing me in the right direction.

Having said that, some staff at the TNA are more helpful than others. I've learnt now to ask one, and if they're not much help I go in search of someone else!

The crucial thing I found was that you need to start your search as early as possible in the day as by the time you've found the record you want, ordered it, waited for it, collected it, trawled through it and ordered copies you begin to run out of time - especially when, as I did, you find there was another related case and you have to start all over again...

[Peter Goodey]

My advice is to make sure that you're as certain as you can be about the documents you want to examine before you set out.

Kick the problem around here if necessary. It's a bit of a trek for you so you want the visit to be successful. Don't forget to order documents in advance. If you haven't yet got a readers' ticket, pre-register to save a few minutes.

With any luck someone knowledgeable about assize records will turn up!

[yorkshirecath]

Thanks everyone
I've put my trip on hold til next Weds so i can be sure about what i need

[uksearch]

Am pretty sure he would have been living in Sheffield at the time.
In 1901 while he is on the Akbar he is only 18yrs old so must have done his crime very young.
Did they have the equivalent of Borstal in those days?

Not necessarily so, he may have been in there for less than a year, although I have seen records of very young children who have been sentence to 7 years plus in a reformatory. Depending on their crime they could serve a short prison sentence of up to 21 days maximum, receive several strokes of the birch and x years in a reformatory.

Here's an example from the Strangeways Prison registers:

5261: Martha STANDING. Appeared July 6th 1870 before James Butterworth and James Hope. Offence: Unlawfully and wilfully deserted and escaped from the Certified Industrial School at Bolton. She the said Martha Standing [,]not having any such cause for escaping from such school [,] the period of detention not having expired. Sentence: 21 days hard labour + five years to Toxteth Reformatory School. Age last May 13 2/12. Height 4 ft 5 ins. Weight In 4 st 9 lbs. Weight out 4 st 10 lbs. Fresh complexion. Light hair. Grey eyes. Marks etc: Mole above left wrist. Bites her nails. Left thumb nail slightly fractured. Trade: Factory operative. Place of birth: Rochdale. Last residence: Father, Alexander Standing, Nelson St, Rochdale. Religion and Education: [CofE] R + W (reads & writes). Single. If in prison [before] committed here: 4 years Industrial School, Bolton. So this poor young tiny girl had been in an Institution from the age of nine.

If you search Reformatory and then Borstal you will find plenty of hits. I don't think this girl was much of a criminal when she received this sentence...but I'm not sure that she wouldn't have been by the time she had served her full term.

UK

[Geoffers]

Is your chap's case one of those individually indexed on TNA's catalogue?

Try just putting in a surname in the ord of phrase field, then in the document or series code, enter ASSI.

Was he definitely tried at the Assizes? Try repeating the search and enter the code CRIM in the department or series code.

Any records held in the local record office which would save a journey?

If you can narrow the dates down - any newspaper reports?

Any record for which closure is 100 years, you may be successful in requesting a review to release information - if you don't ask, you don't get.

[yorkshirecath]

Hi Geoffers
No he's not on the TNA website unfortunately, i have looked previously(and just now again).
He was definitely tried at Leeds assizes. Wakefield Archives kindly gave me a bit of info.
Harry Gower, prisoner number 8161, the date of appearance at the Leeds Assizes given as 13 November 1945, the offence noted as wounding with intent to murder, the sentence given of 21 months and discharge date as 13/1/1947. He was in Wakefield Prison apparently but this is all the info that is at Wakefield.
I have details from the newspaper but not all entries and would like more info i guess. I'm hoping it may give me some clues to his past too.

UK, thanks for that. I'm currently trawling through court records at Sheffield Archives but it's like looking for a needle in a Haystack!