Look ahead for a small, weathered stone house with an almost magical charm. It's got chunky, pale stone walls that look like they’ve stood here for centuries, and there are two rows of tall, leaded windows with delicate criss-cross panes. The roof is low and tiled with a gentle slope, and you’ll spot the original old wooden door on your left with carvings of royal arms and a Tudor rose above it. If you see a sturdy building that seems like it’s offering secrets from the past, you’re right in front of the Tribunal!
Now, while you're here, imagine the sound of medieval shoes shuffling along the cobbles. This place doesn’t just look ancient-it’s been watching Glastonbury for over 500 years! Built all the way back in the 15th century as a merchant's house, it’s picked up a few scars, secrets, and stories along the way. It even stands on the spot where a wooden house from the 1100s once sat!
You might think, with a name like “The Tribunal,” this was the booming center of trials and courtroom drama. Spoiler alert: there’s no proof any big court tales actually happened here. But hey, never let the truth get in the way of a good story, right? Rumor once had it Judge Jeffreys held his Bloody Assizes here-he’d probably love the drama of the place, but it’s just a myth!
Step up and peek at that door. It’s an original, the same one merchants, schoolboys, and even nuns have walked through. Picture the everyday bustle of a medieval shop, the crisp words of a teacher or maybe the gentle echoes of a nun’s prayers carrying through these stone halls.
Don’t miss the upstairs room either, with its beautiful old timbered roof, or the Elizabethan ceiling panels on the ground floor-decorated to impress, and thankfully, not replaced during home renovations! Today, the Tribunal is keeping its stories alive as Glastonbury’s Museum run by the Antiquarian Society. Inside, you’ll find mysterious treasures from the Glastonbury Lake Village, famous for the perfectly-preserved “Glastonbury Bowl”-which is at least 2,000 years older than me.
So enjoy the sight of this proud old house. For hundreds of years, it’s been everything from a shop to a school to a would-be courthouse. If its stones could talk, we’d probably never get them to stop! Ready to walk on before the walls start gossiping?
