The building in which Brecknock Museum & Art Gallery is now housed was once the Shire Hall in which the assize courts were held.
The assizes heard the most serious criminal cases and a High Court Judge would visit Brecon to hear them. The Judge, after hearing the verdict of the jury, would decide the defendants fate, which in cases of murder, could be public hanging.
Part of the original court room is on display and visitors can listen to an audio reconstruction of an actual case from the 1880s, where a woman is standing trial, accused of stealing a cash box.
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