Lincoln Castle was originally constructed on the orders of William the Conqueror in 1068. By the early 17th century the castle had became a prison and inmates were kept in dungeons. The famous prison reformer, John Howard, visited Lincoln in 1776 and was appalled by the inmate’s living conditions. He persuaded the magistrates to raise funds to build a new prison which … Read more
Like most of the older county prisons Maidstone prison stands close to the town centre in County Road, Maidstone. It is also close to the court, as before the days of motor vehicles, it was difficult to move prisoners over long distances between the court and the prison, with the ever present danger that they would escape or be … Read more
The evolution of the building. The Roman city of Londinium was a walled city originally with four gates. Newgate was London’s 5th gate and was situated at the corner of Newgate Street and the Old Bailey at the site of a previous gate in the Roman city wall. As was the norm at the time for gatehouses, it contained a dungeon and a guard … Read more
Norwich Castle had been the main prison for the County of Norfolk and the last execution there took place on the 13th of December 1886, when George Harmer was hanged for the murder of Henry Last. The Prison Act of 1877 brought prisons under the control of the Home Office and led to the closure of a number of prisons that … Read more
The first modern prison opened in London in 1816 – the new Millbank prison. It had separate cells for 860 prisoners and proved satisfactory, to the authorities at least, thus commencing a programme of prison building to deal with the rapid increase in prisoner numbers occasioned by the ending of capital punishment for many crimes … Read more
