BUILDING an unauthorised billiard room led to a Malvern homeowner appearing before the High Court in London, the Malvern News reported 100 years ago.

It seems the Hon Ernest Arthur George Pomeroy of The Chase, Malvern Wells, and his sister, Miss Hilda Evelyn Pomeroy, had both been prosecuted previously by Malvern Urban District Council for breaching a bylaw by erecting the billiard room and subsequently failing to remove it.

The Pomeroys appealed against the convictions, and the case made its way to the King's Bench Division of the High Court, where it came before none other than the Lord Chief Justice himself, sitting with Justices Wills and Channell.

The relevant bylaw said that buildings had to be enclosed in brick or stone; the billiard room at The Chase was made of corrugated iron lined with match boarding.

The Pomeroys' barrister, Mr Amphlett KC, said the bylaw was "ultra vires (beyond legal power), unreasonable and repugnant to the common law".

He also said he "could not form an idea" as to why Miss Pomeroy had been charged or convicted at all.

The Lord Chief Justice, in giving judgement, des-cribed the case as "very unsatisfactory", not least because there did not seem to be evidence as to which of the Pomeroys had committed the offence.

"In this case the present convictions must be quashed and the case go back to the magistrates to deal with it from the point of view of ascertaining by satisfactory evidence who was responsible for the offence, if any," he directed.