LAST week’s closure of Fenland �Magistrates’ Court has been called “an outrage” by 91-year-old Joan Mulgrew, who worked at the court when it was opened more than 50 years ago.

Joan was one of the guests at the �closure ceremony and has fond memories of her time working at courts all around �Fenland.

She said: “We took the courts to the �people, so no one had to travel. We took an old-style typewriter, court registers and legal documents with us.

“Over the years all the other courts have closed, Wisbech courthouse was the last bastion.

“It is false economy to close the court – it is indefensible.”

When the court was built, it housed the Wisbech Isle Court that sat on Saturdays and the Wisbech Borough Court that sat on Wednesdays.

Mrs Mulgrew said: “I worked at the courthouse when it opened, but I remember my reaction being great criticism.

“The counter had a polished surface and every time I returned the carriage of the typewriter it slipped and moved.”

Mrs Mulgrew, who lives in March, worked at various courts as an assistant to the clerk from the 1940s to the 1960s.

As well as working at Wisbech, she assisted at courts in Chatteris, March, Whittlesey and Ely.