Located adjacent to the site of the first and the current police station and opposite the former courthouse, the former Lock-Up at Bulls is part of a landscape of local legal history. Bulls was the Rangitikei County's first township, and was therefore one of the first towns in the region to have its own judicial facilities. The first courthouse in Bulls was constructed in 1865 and a baliff with the powers of a police constable was appointed to assist the Resident Magistrate when the court was in session. The town's first full-time police officer, District Constable Francis McAnulty, was stationed at Bulls from 1866. In 1874 the first police station was constructed on Bridge Street. The Resident Magistrate's Court (Category II historic place) was rebuilt in 1882 opposite the police station, which was itself rebuilt the following year. It is unclear where Bull's offenders were held prior to 1883. The first record of a lock-up at Bulls is the call for tenders in the local newspaper for the construction of the two-cell style lock-up typical to police stations of the time. A lock-up was constructed shortly afterwards at the rear of the police station's rectangular section, in front of the stable and chaff room. District Constable William Manning moved into the new station building in February 1884, and payment for the newly completed lock-up was authorised in June of that year. The lock-up was built from solid native timbers and had a roof of corrugated iron. Rectangular in shape, the small building consisted of two cells with doors that opened directly into the yard. The doors were 7.6 centimetres (3 inches) thick and were hung on sturdy iron hinges. There were no windows, but light filtered into the cells via the bars at the very top of the doors. The cells were too small to hold prisoners for any length of time. Serious offenders appear to have been transferred to larger prisons in either Palmerston North or Wanganui, and the cells were probably used only to hold those awaiting trial at the Magistrate's Court, or as overnight 'coolers'. In 1910 a police residence was constructed on the section immediately behind the police station. By 1921 the station had been relocated to Criterion Street, rolled down the street on power poles, and the fourth police station was then constructed on the site behind the original cell-block and the residence. This station was itself replaced in 1965. Prior to 1971, when new cell-blocks were constructed, the 1884 lock-up was removed and placed behind the house next door. It is unclear when the lock-up was relocated, but it appears to have been when the house was in the ownership of a Mr Logan. Member of the Logan family owned the house between 1921 and 1960. Given that the fourth police station was built behind the one constructed in 1910, which was itself built back from the road, it is possible that the cells were relocated at this point to make way for the new structure. If the reference to the Logans is incorrect, then it is also possible that the cells were relocated when the new cells were constructed in 1971. The house behind which the cells were relocated was a two-storey cottage built in 1875 for Richard Hammond and his wife Edith Tyerman. Hammond was the third son of the well-known local Mathew Hammond, who established Killeymoon Farm and Homestead. Richard Hammond moved into Killeymoon in 1876, selling his humble cottage to E. H. Dorkin, who later sold it to the entrepreneur F. J. Mansell after whom Mansell's Corner was named. The lock-up has since been incorporated into the house. It was converted into a wash-house and bathroom, and the walls and floors of the cells were relined. The doors of the cells continue to hide the house's washhouse, and they now open up into the present owner's living room. However, the community remains aware of the lock-up's presence and it is visited by tourists and school children.