Judge Tindal is looking bronzed and fit after a £9,000 clean-up.

His Portland stone plinth has also been renovated and pieces of it repaired during the 12-week restoration.

Now the judge, who overlooks Shire Hall, glistens in the summer sun -- when there is any.

The judge, born in 1776 at number 199 Moulsham Street -- and who later lived at Coval Hall -- is one of Chelmsford's most famous sons.

He became Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1829.

His most celebrated case was in 1846 -- the trial of McNaughton, who shot a Mr Drummond in mistake for Sir Robert Peel.

The statue erection date is 1850, but the judge did not appear on his plinth until October 23, 1851, said Dot Bedenham, keeper of social history at Chelmsford and Essex Museum .

There had been protests about the judge being sited opposite Shire Hall where the conduit -- a pergola-shaped construction with a fountain -- stood.

The conduit is now in Admirals Park.

The judge, whose father was a solicitor, died in 1846, in Folkestone, Kent, after suffering from paralysis.

An Essex County Council spokesman said that the judge's current bronze look would eventually weather and that he would return to his darker colour.

Picture by STEVE CLOW

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