Take your seats because the court is now in session. No, not a real court. A historical one. The Old Guildhall Museum and Gaol in Looe is set inside a former legal building which served as the East Looe Town Hall and Magistrates Court between 1587 and 1878. It makes for a pretty unique museum experience in the heart of this famous town.
The museum is housed in a 15th century building that’s retained many of its medieval features and contains an interesting glimpse of Looe’s storied past. Learn all about the old smugglers of days gone by, as well as the town’s historic fishing and boat-building industries and its role as a tourist hotspot. Exhibits devoted to Looe Island, the Looe Valley Railway Line, the town in the Second World War and the courtroom itself also serve to fascinate young and old visitors alike.
Bronze Age artefacts, model boats, 17th century porcelain, local domestic machinery and even the remains of a US bomber from the Second World War are on display throughout the two-storey museum. There doesn’t seem to be a historical stone left unturned. And there are the ancient cells that you can experience which used to hold Looe’s ne’er-do-wells, plus the original raised magistrates bench from all those years ago. Local laws were once made and enforced under the timber-framed roof here and, if you try hard enough, you can imagine what it was like to hear the hustle and bustle of the courtroom back in the day.
New to the museum are the ‘Smuggling Immersive Cabinet’ that looks at the history of ‘free trade’ in the area and the ‘Looe Island AR Model’ which takes visitors on a virtual tour with a Benedictine monk and a pilgrim around the island back in the year 1160. Frankly, if you go to Looe and don’t spend some time learning about its past and its courtroom in this excellent museum, you should do some time in the cells instead. It’ll be criminal to miss out.