The structure, which used to be the main courthouse for the eastern part of the county of Cheshire, is a Grade II* listed building.

[4] The new building was designed by George Moneypenny in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1818.

The central section of three bays featured a tetrastyle portico formed by four Ionic order columns supporting an entablature, a cornice and a parapet.

[2] Notable cases included the trial and conviction of the cryptographer, Alan Turing, in 1952, for gross indecency in relation to acts with a 19-year-old unemployed man, Arnold Murray, with whom he was in a consensual, private homosexual relationship.

[11] The building continued to be used as a facility for dispensing justice but, in May 2010, magistrates court hearings were transferred to Chester and Warrington.