The building.
HMP Lancaster is a Grade 1 listed building and is Europe’s oldest
working prison dating back to 1196. It has a capacity of 240 prisoners
and is a Category C training prison. It is due to close in March 2011. Parts of the Castle are open to the public,
including the Crown Court - it is well worth the visit.
In the late 18th century the Castle began
to be converted into the prison you can see today. The first phase commenced in
1788 with the erection of the Gaoler’s House, followed by the female prison in
1792 and in 1794 the new male prison.
A new and larger Female Penitentiary,
designed by Joseph Gandy, which was finished in 1821 and was based on Jeremy
Bentham’s “panopticon” principle of wings radiating
out from a central point where the staff could keep watch. There were 48 single
occupancy cells, as at this time it was considered essential for each prisoner
to have their own cell. Additionally a two storey debtor’s prison was
constructed. Imprisonment was used much more for debt at that time than
as an ordinary criminal sanction. The prison was taken over by the Home
Office in 1877. In 1916 Lancaster
Castle was temporarily
closed as a convict prison and used for German prisoners of war. It
reopened as a normal prison in 1954.
It has been said that more prisoners were sentenced to death at Lancaster
Assizes than at any other court outside London,
Lancaster
becoming known as “The Hanging Town” in consequence.
The gallows at Lancaster.
From 1800 - 1865 executions were carried
out at "The Hanging Corner”, a small round tower on the east side of the
building. (Click here
for photo)
On the ground floor of the tower is the "Drop Room" which contains
relics of the many executions, and can be visited today. It is quite
eerie standing in this room looking at the exhibits and listening to what
happened within it. The French windows have also survived and one can
look out to the bank opposite where the crowd, often 5,000 – 6,000 strong,
would have assembled to watch.
The prisoners were brought into the Drop Room from the condemned cells to be
pinioned and say their final prayers before being led forward through the
inward opening French windows straight onto the balcony style gallows.
The gallows would have been erected the previous afternoon and consisted of two
uprights that were seated into holes cut into the flagstones of the
courtyard. A heavy cross beam ran between the uprights with a platform
containing the trap doors beneath it at the level of the bottom of the French
windows, the platform being draped in a black cloth to hide the legs of the
prisoners. High railings surrounded the drop area and the spectators were
allowed up to these, within a few feet of the gallows. Many more crowded
onto the opposite bank to get a good view of the proceedings. All the
public executions used the short drop method of course, so death seldom came
without a struggle. After the bodies had hung for an hour they was taken
off the rope and taken in through the small lower window that can be seen in
the picture.
After 1868 the law required all executions
to be in private and these took place in the Chapel yard up again the chapel
steps. A purpose - built execution shed was erected circa 1900 in the yard
immediately behind the wall of the Hanging Corner, and I am told that this
still existed when the prison re-opened. It is possible that the gallows may
have still been in existence in this shed until the late 1950’s.
Executions at Lancaster.
Between 1800 and 1865, a total of 213
people were executed at Lancaster
Castle (also said
elsewhere to be 235, due I think, to the inclusion of 32 executions at Liverpool and a further 6 at Manchester, all within the county of Lancashire.)
Six men were hanged in private between 1875 and 1910. Prior to 1800, all Lancashire executions had taken place on Gallows Hill, on
the moors outside Lancaster’s
southern gate, in what is now Williamson's Park. It was here that the
hangings of nine of the ten Pendle Witches were carried out in 1612 (the other
one was hanged at York).
They were convicted of witchcraft on the basis of having caused the deaths of
seventeen people in and around the Forest
of Pendle. As in
most other county towns at the time, the condemned were taken to the gallows in
a cart, seated on their coffin and “turned off” from the back of the cart.
Prior to 1834 there as many as twenty felonies, not just murder, that typically
resulted in execution. Of the 213 hangings between 1800 and 1865 only 43
(20%) were for murder. 44 people suffered for burglary, others for
highway robbery, uttering, arson and sheep and horse theft.
The first hangings at the Castle took place
after the Lent Assizes of 1800, when six men were to die on Saturday the 19th
of April of that year. They were Messrs. John Brady, John Burns and James
Weldon for robbing the mail all three of whom were afterwards hanged in chains
at Ashton and Samuel Bradford, George McDonald and Paul Hargreaves for the crime
of uttering (passing forged bank notes). Saturday was the normal
execution day at Lancaster,
to be sure of attracting the largest audience for the purpose of maximum
deterrence, presumably. This was the only hanging day that year.
However 1801 saw the biggest mass hanging, which took place on Saturday the
12th of September, when eight men were launched into eternity simultaneously,
three of them being brothers who had been convicted of burglary. Ten
further executions were carried out in this year.
The highest single year total was 1817,
with no fewer than 20 hangings.
On the 19th April 1817,
nine men were “turned off” together for various crimes, up to and including
highway robbery. A further multiple execution took place later that year,
when on 8th of September 1817, four men were to hang. They were James
Ashcroft senior, his brother David, his son, also James and his son in law
William Holden. All four had been convicted of murder and robbery at a
house in Manchester.
The execution caused much excitement as many people believed that they were
innocent. There was to be another family execution in 1827 when George
Heyworth and his two sons, William and Roger, were hanged together for highway
robbery.
Ten women were to suffer at Lancaster. They were
Hannah Eastwood who was hanged on Saturday the 2nd of May 1801 for forging £1 notes at Manchester. She was the
first woman to be executed in the county since 1772 and was executed alongside
three men who were also convicted of forging bank notes. Mary Jackson was
hanged for stealing in a dwelling house in 1806 and Mary Chandler for the same
offence two years later. Hannah Smith was put to death for the crime of
riot in 1812, together with seven men. Susanna Holroyd suffered for the murder
of her husband in 1816 (her body being afterwards dissected). Jenny Cheatham was
hanged on the 20th of September 1817 for uttering together with four men. Margaret Dowd was hanged for uttering in 1818
and Rachael Bradley for murdering her child in 1827.
22 year old Jane Scott was hanged on the 22nd of March 1828 for
poisoning her parents in Preston. She had
also poisoned her own children and her sister’s child. She was so weak at the end that she was wheeled to the gallows in a
modified office chair and supported by two warders until the drop fell.
The special chair is still on display. For a detailed account
of this case click here. The last woman to be hanged at Lancaster was 29 year old
Mary Holden, on the 19th of
March 1834, for the murder of her 40 year old husband, Roger with
arsenic at Hurst Green on 24th
February 1834.
After 1835, Lancaster’s role as an Assize town was
reduced to serve just the northern areas of the county. Liverpool
was allowed its own Assizes, with those condemned there being hanged at
Kirkdale prison. From 1864, Manchester
also became an Assize town with its executions being carried out at Salford and later Strangeways prisons. Lancaster executions
diminished sharply as a result of this and also the huge reduction in the
number of capital crimes on the Statute Book from 1838 onwards. There were no
further executions at Lancaster
until 1853.
In 1862, Walker Moore who had murdered his
wife at Colne, managed to commit suicide on the
morning of execution, the 30th of August. He had previously told the
court that there was no rope in existence that would hang him. On that
morning he asked permission to use the toilet and managed to drown himself in
the large cistern that served several cubicles. The waiting crowds
outside the prison were greatly disappointed at being robbed of their
entertainment!
The last public execution at Lancaster took place on March the 25th 1865, when
Stephen Burke was put to death by William Calcraft for the murder of his wife
at Preston.
After that, there were only to be six more
executions, all in private.
William Marwood officiated at the first of
these, on Monday the 16th of
August 1875. This was the double hanging of 36 year old
William M’Cullough who had murdered his lodger,
William Watson and 24 year old Mark Fiddler who had killed his wife. This was
to be the only double hanging in private.
On Monday the 11th of February 1879, Marwood was to hang
another wife murderer – this time it was 40 year old William McGuiness.
Alfred Sowery,
24, shot his girlfriend, Annie Kelly for which he was sentenced to death.
In Lancaster’s
condemned cell he was gripped by the terror of his situation, and according to
James Berry, became “seriously ill”. On the morning of execution, Monday the 1st of August 1887,
Sowery had to be dragged to the gallows crying and
screaming. Here he kicked Berry
in the leg with such force that Berry
was permanently scarred by it. However his execution proceeded as normal.
On Friday the 9th of February 1886, Joseph Bains was hanged by James Berry for the murder of his wife
at Barrow.
After a gap of 24 years, 31 year old Thomas
Rawcliffe became the last person to be executed
within the Castle. He too was hanged for the murder of his wife, 27 year
old Louisa, whom he had strangled at 7.00
p.m. on the evening of the 6th of September 1910. He called a policeman
into his house, confessing to him and showing him his wife’s body. Rawcliffe was tried at Lancaster before Mister Justice Avory and it transpired that he had sustained a serious
head injury as a child which may have accounted for his violent streak.
The jury made a recommendation to mercy with their verdict, but this was
rejected and on Tuesday the 15th of November John Ellis, assisted by William
Willis, carried out his sentence.
Lancaster’s hangmen.
Lancashire employed its own hangman, as did most counties in 1700’s and early
1800’s drawn from the inmate population. The only one of these about whom any
information remains was Edward Barlow, a Welsh “gentleman” known as “Old Ned”.. Barlow died in the Castle on the 9th of December 1812, according to Castle
records, having been imprisoned there for stealing a horse. Horse theft
was a capital crime itself at the time, but executing Barlow was a problem for
the authorities as hangmen were difficult to obtain. So they commuted his
sentence to 10 years imprisonment on condition that he continued to carry out
executions and floggings. He is estimated to have carried out 71 hangings here
between 1782 and 1812
It is unclear who succeeded Barlow, it may have been
the hangman from neighbouring Yorkshire.
Samuel Haywood was active here in the 1830’s and it is probable that he
officiated at the triple hanging of murderers William Worrall, Ashton Worrall
and Moses Fernley on the
14th of March 1831. On the scaffold William Worral deliberately kicked off his shoes. This was thought
to be a form of message to his mother who had apparently told him that he would
never die with his shoes off unless his behaviour improved (an allusion to
being hanged). Haywood carried out as many as 18 executions here up to the 26th of March 1835,
when he hanged John Orell for the murder of his eight
year old daughter.
William Calcraft’s first execution at Lancaster was that of
wife murderer, Richard Pedder on the 27th of August 1853. The rope he
used for this hanging is still on display in the “Drop Room”, although sadly
deteriorated. (click here to see
photo). As with the rest of the country, Calcraft was succeeded in turn
by Marwood, Berry, and Ellis.
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