Former Spalding Magistrates Court is now reborn as The Sessions House
Exactly three years before Oliver and Dorota Sneath took ownership of what was then still Spalding Magistrates Court, the last ever day of cases there ended with words from presiding magistrate Richard Spinks.
He said: "We could say that ends a chapter in the history of this court building and a new chapter is about to open up.
"But we don't know what that chapter is."
The Sneaths, following their engagement, marriage, the birth of two children and more than 900 people having passed through the doors of what is now The Sessions House - all in the last three years - have written that "new chapter" largely by themselves.
Oliver said: "When we first moved in, our view was that we would live upstairs.
"But after two or three months of living here, we thought that wouldn't be a good idea.
"Hindsight is a brilliant thing and a few times we've gone ahead and done something without really taking our time to think about it.
"Then a few months down the line, we said to each other: 'I really wish we'd thought about it a bit more'.
"But we wanted to preserve the building and that's what we've done."
The Buffalo Room was once a sideroom where magistrates would meet with their legal advisers is now The Buffalo Room. Photo supplied.
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The Sessions House, once the home of law and justice in Spalding and south-east Lincolnshire for 170 years, is now a very different kind of home that also offers once-a lifetime moments for those who choose to take them.
Civil marriages and partnerships were licensed to take place there in October 2018, with the Sneaths going much further in their aim of making The Sessions House a place "that people get to enjoy as much as we do".
Wedding receptions, engagement celebrations, corporate events, amateur dramatics, classical recitals, art exhibitions, private dining events and even funeral wakes are all allowed at the Grade II-listed building that has been described as "a massive stone structure in the form of a castle".
Dorota said: "We started a project 18 months ago to make The Sessions House a venue for civil wedding ceremonies after we struggled to find a place for our wedding party.
"We created invites for the venue we'd originally booked, but also for The Sessions House where we eventually decided to have it.
"Everyone said we should think about using it as a venue and now we're really pleased that people get to enjoy the building as much as we do.
"One lady held her wedding here after coming to a wreath making event at The Sessions House.
"But what we really love is when people come here for the first time, people who have worked here and used it to register a change of name."
Apart from a new kitchen being installed and some carpentry work, the transformation of The Sessions House has been done by Oliver and Dorota themselves.
"We're not developers but we both love the building and it's been a labour of love spending many hours on doing things to it," Dorota said.
"I've learned how to gild (applying gold leaf, powder or paint to surfaces such as wood, stone, or metal to give it a thin coating of gold), plaster, fix gutters, sand and stencil wooden floors, line a chimney, plumbing and wallpapering.
"The first room we restored was the library because it wasn't very big, but we thought differently after spending weeks on painting it.
"One floor took us 60 hours to restore by sanding and preparing it, but we really believe in what we like and what we think is right."
In some respects, the Sneaths have been backed by South Holland District Council whose planning officers have supported their ambitions of "continued conversion and sympathetic renovation" for The Sessions House.
Oliver said: "I'm not surprised that we haven't heard much comment on our plans because before we bought this place, and before it was for sale, I didn't notice the building for years.
"We thought it was hidden in the line of sight as it wasn't used a lot by the majority of the public who never got involved in this building as a court.
"It was just masked from view, but now that we're here and we're doing our thing with it, The Sessions House has plenty of character, probably even more with how we've maintained it."
The Sneaths, who both work in the food produce industry, have also learned how to compartmentalise the building into a venue, a landmark and a family home.
Dorota said: "We were so inexperienced when we started doing it, but there's an understanding now that we can't do it all at once and if something needs to be done on the house, we have to plan it in.
"When the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) was selling the building, it didn't consider it to be a historical asset to the town that dates from 1843.
Oliver added: "It was quite a novel thing for the MoJ to sell the building to a private buyer who wanted to turn it into a house.
"The fact that we wanted to keep a lot of the contents was also novel and, in the end, we had a series of constructive conversations about anything the MoJ wanted for its museum."
The Sneaths plan to continue with their restoration project and hosting of private events, including a murder mystery dinner that is currently in development.
But their plans continue to be fitted around work commitments and their children, Morgan and Monty.
"Our daughter loves it here and she calls it 'our castle home'", Dorota said.
"She loves running around the courtroom, playing hide and seek and we've even had an Easter egg hunt here.
"I'd think that must have been the first time ever that an Easter egg hunt has happened in the courtroom."
Brief history of The Sessions House
Designed by Leicestershire-born architect Charles Kirk and built by Booth and Walker, of West Yorkshire, The Sessions House first opened in June 1843 and was delisted by Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunal Service in 2013.
It cost £6,000 to build, nearly £770,000 in today's money, and covers about half an acre in Sheep Market, Spalding.
