Registers for the court held at Didcot. This court closed in 1988 and merged with Wantage and Faringdon Petty Sessions Division (please see PS17 for records of this court) to form Didcot and Wantage Petty Sessions Division (please see PS14 for records of this court). Earlier records for Moreton and Wallingford Petty Sessions can be found at Berkshire Record Office.
The records mainly comprise of Registers of the Magistrates Court and Registers of the Juvenile Court.
Quarter Sessions were held four times a year, Petty Sessions much more frequently. The latter had civil jurisdiction, such as the licensing of premises for the sale of alcohol. Most, of their time spent on criminal cases involved trials of the vast amount of minor non-indictable crimes. However, under the Magistrates Courts Act of 1952 the magistrates could also try some indictable offences, especially those involving persons under the age of eighteen. Under Childrens and Young Persons Acts 1933-63 a bench of magistrates trying a child or young person was termed a Juvenile Court.
Petty Sessions was used as a Court of Summary Jurisdiction, held before two or more magistrates in a sessional court-house. However, a defendant could choose to go before a jury at Quarter Sessions or Assizes, if he felt he had a better chance of acquittal.
Quarter Sessions acted as a Court of Appeal from Petty Sessions, as well as a court of original jurisdiction in its own right for many indictable crimes. More serious cases, such as murder, were removed to Assize hearings. These courts were abolished on 1 January 1972: Petty Sessional Courts are now known as Magistrates Courts. Separate Borough Courts remained in existence until the Local Government Act of 1972.
Further records were deposited as part of Acc 6568 in April 2017 and Acc 6816 in December 2019. Catalogued by Alison Smith in August 2021.