Prison – Musings of a curious individual

Oxford Castle and Prison

On: 01/07/201904/12/2019 By: JA

I am a sucker for old churches, castles, prisons and buildings that have that weight of ages hanging over them, and Oxford Castle and Prison really meets that criteria very well. My first real encounter with it was when I spotted the mound on my first trip to Oxford in May 2019.

I flagged it as a possible target for my next visit and having an extra 2 hours to spend in the city I was able to investigate further. The first surprise is that you cannot just “climb the mound” as it is locked and is part of the Castle and Prison tour. The area behind it is not really visible unless you deliberately walk around the mound, and there you will find the buildings that comprise the former castle and of course the associated prison. The castle has its roots in 1071 when Robert d’Oilly built a “Motte and Bailey” castle in Oxford. A motte-and-bailey castle is a fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised earthwork called a motte, accompanied by an enclosed courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. The mound is really what is left of the motte. I am not even going to attempt to provide a history of the site, it is way too complicated for me, and its easier to read it off the Wikipedia page anyway.

There is a model of what it may have looked like in the reception area and it may not seem very impressive now, but way back it must have looked like a formidable construction.

Most of the castle was destroyed in the English Civil War and by the 18th century the remaining buildings had become Oxford’s local prison.

The image above shows St George’s Tower as well as the Prison D-Wing and Debtor’s Tower. Entrance to the building is just behind the 2 people in the image. The building was formally constituted as a county gaol in 1531 and it was used to house prisoners of war during the Civil War in 1642. The D-Wing was built in 1795 and the last hanging in the prison was in 1952. A new prison complex was built on the site from 1785 onwards and expanded in 1876; and this became HM Prison Oxford. The prison closed in 1996 and was redeveloped as a Malmaison Hotel.

I arrived 15 minutes before the 11am tour so decided to take in the mound. The entrance fee is £1 but it does form part of the tour price anyway. The mound does not seem like much of a climb but it was a scorcher of a day and that winding path was surprisingly steep. The view is not too bad, but I was hoping for a better view from St George’s Tower.

By the time I was done on the mound it was time for my tour and behind the narrow door we were met by a guide wearing the appropriate lags uniform (His name was Michael and he is recommended for his knowledge and hard work).

A short talk about the tower followed, and it was more about the history of the tower and the suffering of the men imprisoned in it. Unfortunately there is nothing really to photograph and even if there was we were too many people squashed into too small a space. The upper area of the tower houses a water tank as well as a viewing platform which is reached by one of those infernal spiral staircases.

The view from the viewing platform is much better although still not ideal.

From there we went through to the central wing of the prison which looked grim enough without imagining what it must have looked like with almost no natural light and poor ventilation.

Underneath the building is a Norman Crypt that somehow escaped the various alterations of destruction, and it is one of those places that leaves a lot to the imagination. I would not however have liked to have been in there in the dark.

Then we went upstairs again to hear some tales from the history of the prison in some of the cells. It is doubtful that they were as clean and well tended back then and I suspect the pillory is a reproduction.

The debtors tower was divided by steel bars and it was here where you served out your time until your debt was paid, although how you raised the money to pay the debt if you were beyond bars escapes me. It too is a grim place although I do suspect this is not what the original looked like.

It was in this area where we heard about the story of young Julia Ann Crumpling, aged 7, who was sentenced to seven days’ hard labour at the prison in 1870. She allegedly had stolen a pram from a Mr and Mrs Edmund Smith of Witney, who had left it outside while going into a shop. She would have been housed in the B wing that housed housed women and teenagers. Did she just make a stupid mistake by taking the pram? or was she really just a rebellious child? and what effect did the sentence have on her? Back in those days prison was not seen as a holiday rest camp and justice was served to young and old. The Victorians believed that prisons should deter people from committing crimes, with the punishment of hard labour dished out to crush inmates’ spirits. You did the crime you did the time! However, I could not help feel empathy for that bewildered girl who was thrust into this terrible place. I was unable to find any information as to what happened to her after she was released so her future life is a mystery. It is rumoured that a young girl haunts the prison, it may even be her. Strangely enough she has reached out over the centuries and her mug shot still remains to tell us about her.

We went outside onto a small landing that butts onto a former (and more modern) cell block of HM Prison Oxford and which has now been turned into a boutique hotel of all things. There is a window through which you can see the interior of the cell block. Just what would the old lags have to say about that state of affairs?

and the back (or front?) of the hotel.

And then we were done and dusted and I looked over the exhibition in some of the other cells before turning my bows towards the exit. I still had a lot of ground to cover on this day and time was marching.

Random images

Crime and Punishment

On: 26/06/201921/11/2019 By: JA

In my many travels throughout the UK I have often encountered oddments that relate to “Crime and Punishment”, many of these would be considered barbaric in our politically correct times, but way back then it was a total different ballgame. The most obvious artefacts that tend to stick out are the village stocks. I have seen 4 sets (that I can remember) and they are interesting curiosities that are often very old.

The stocks at St Nicholas Parish Church in Ashchurch, Gloucestershire

You have to admit they look like reasonably benign articles of punishment, but the opposite is true. Attitudes were very different in those olde days, when you were bunged in the stocks it was not seen as some idyllic rest period. Perpetrators locked into them faced all manner of additional torments, ranging from weather, children, drunks and the real threat of mob justice. You could also have your clothing stolen and of course could have been pelted with vegetables, faeces, dead animals and of course verbal and physical abuse would have been the norm, especially if you were a well known miscreant.

However, many of the people bunged into the stocks were anti-social, or thieves or somebody on the receiving end of a grudge, and of course pissing off (and on) the church/mayor/town hall/local lord etc. would have brought the might of the “law” onto your head. They were also not restricted to men; women and children could also spend some time being on the end of justice. There was no such thing as “extenuating circumstances” either.

England’s Statute of Labourers 1351 prescribed the use of the stocks for “unruly artisans” and required that every town and village erect a set of stocks. Sources indicate that the stocks were used in England for over 500 years and have never been formally abolished.

Stocks in Minstead in the New Forest, Hampshire

Another chance discovery I made in Salisbury one morning on my way to work really left me scratching my head.

Some investigation revealed a plaque close by, although it was not all that easy to read.

And of course Salisbury also had a reminder of the bad olde days affixed on the side of one of the walls of a local building

And in Lichfield I spotted the plaque below.

and I spotted the following in Oxford:

Of course London has a grim past and if you know where to look it is often right in public view. One of the many macabre sights that I recall was close to Tower Hill Merchant Navy Memorial.

I was recently in Liverpool and was able to visit the local holding cells associated with the Assizes court that was in the building and it was an interesting aside to my visit. But I also came up close and personal with a items used in punishment, namely:

Birching was a common punishment handed down to young offenders, and a flogging with a light cane or a heavy cane was actually quite a common punishment in South Africa until it was abolished too. The barbarity of the act of flogging or caning should really be seen from the position of the one being caned or flogged or the person committing the act.

Women were often on the receiving end of punishment, and the use of the “Brank” or “Scold’s Bridle” was an easy way to silence what were seen as nagging women, it was really about power though and subjugation of females. I have seen two examples in the Clink Prison Museum in London, but it is doubtful that this pair were ever used and they are probably reproductions.

Children were equally at risk from “the law” and there is a good example in the old castle/prison in Oxford:

Julia Ann Crumpling, aged 7, was sentenced to seven days’ hard labour at the prison in 1870. She allegedly had stolen a pram from a Mr and Mrs Edmund Smith of Witney, who had left it outside while going into a shop. She would have been housed in the B wing that housed women and teenagers. Did she just make a stupid mistake by taking the pram? or was she really just a rebellious child? and what effect did the sentence have on her? Back in those days prison was not seen as a holiday rest camp and justice was served to young and old. The Victorians believed that prisons should deter people from committing crimes, with the punishment of hard labour dished out to crush inmates’ spirits. You did the crime you did the time!

So far I have managed to visit 3 prisons/jails in the UK:

The holding cells at the Assizes court in Liverpool
HMP Gloucester
Oxford Castle and Prison

And they have all been grim places, and as a curious visitor I got to go home at the end of the day whereas this was “home” to the inmates. Many of those inmates were there because they deserved to be there; unfortunately rehabilitation is not always as successful as the authorities would like to admit.

The military however had it’s own set of rules known as the “The Kings Regulations” and they were the official policy and were used as the basis for “justice” in the military and to “enforce discipline”. A number of men were “shot at dawn” for offences relating to military law, and in many cases the trials were a travesty of justice. Of over 20,000 who were found guilty of offences carrying the death penalty, 3000 soldiers received the death penalty and 346 were carried out. The circumstances of many of the offences were often ignored by those who sat on the courts martial, and often the accused would have very little inkling of what was waiting for him once he faced the wrath or indifference of those in charge.

The British Army also used what was known as “Field Punishment # 1” which consisted of the convicted man being placed in fetters and handcuffs or similar restraints and attached to a fixed object, such as a gun wheel or a fence post, for up to two hours per day. Of course that was preferable to being shot at dawn. As an aside, the former South African Defence Force was well known for it’s iron discipline, and while there were no cases of execution by firing squad there were many cases of abuse by detention barracks staff and of course daily abuse by “instructors” of national servicemen. It was rumoured that there was an unofficial acceptable body count allowed for in training. Had the SADF been allowed to use a firing squad you can bet they would have!

Our so called “liberal world” cringes at the idea of shooting or flogging anybody, but in some parts of the world these are still in daily use.

However, in some “civilised countries” the “rights” of the offender seem to be overtaking those of the victim, and in the UK even slaps on the wrist would bring out a horde of lawyers and organisations dedicated to preventing the punishment of those found guilty of crime. Had poor little Julia Ann Crumpling been around in 2019 she would have probably have been sent for counselling and paid compensation for having been arrested because she was a minor. The people who left the pram outside would have been fined for littering.

Crime will always be with us. There will always be those who consider themselves above the law, and of course those who get a vicarious thrill from violence and murder. There will always be corrupt politicians and policemen, and alcohol and drugs will always remove any sense of right or wrong when used incorrectly. Thankfully a lot of the draconian punishment has fallen by the wayside and a lot fewer innocent people end up incarcerated, and these relics from bygone ages should serve as a reminder that in many 3rd world countries things are still in the dark ages and justice can be harsh and the dungeons of the past are still the dungeons of the present

HM Prison Gloucester

On: 04/06/201710/03/2020 By: JA

It was time to go to jail; although in this case I am innocent I tell you! I was framed! call my lawyer!

HM Prison Gloucester had recently unlocked it’s doors to the public and was accepting visitors to the disused facility. It was then added to my bucket list and it was one of the reasons I was in Gloucester yesterday.

The prison lies on the east bank of the Severn and was built on the site of a 12th century castle. The keep was demolished in 1787 and a prison was built in it’s place in 1879 while a debtors prison was added in 1826. A new wing was added in 1884 and the governors house was built 1850’s, although it is outside the walls.

Once past the front door of the prison there was a labyrinth of passages to navigate, fortunately one of them led to the toilet! The first area I explored was where “closed visits” were conducted. There were 3 cubicles where the prisoner was able to talk to his visitor without having physical access to them.

This is a holding cell, and it would be where arriving prisoners could be kept while they were booked in or until such time as they were allocated a cell, or if there was a shortage of space. It is a temporary solution though, and ideally overcrowding in this space would be avoided as much as possible.

Once I had cleared the admin block I entered into what was known as a “sterile area” which was really a fenced in area behind the block with gates leading to an exercise yard.

Make no mistake, you will not be able to scale that fence easily because it may look flimsy but it is not. I expect the sterile area is used to cordon off the gate house from the rest of the the prison. There is a vehicle entrance in this sterile area and I suspect it was from here that prisoners were removed from vehicles for processing.

For some reason prisoners always walked in an anti-clockwise direction in the exercise yards. There were three yards in total and this one leads into B wing. However I did not go into B wing immediately but went to the debtors prison instead. This was originally built to house people who could not pay their bills although this area has changed a lot since the Georgian era when it was built. In fact there was not all that much to see.

It was now in use as the healthcare centre, so was in a reasonable condition and the only real way you would know it was part of a prison would be the many lockable doors and barred windows.

Opposite the old debtors prison was the A&B wing which is probably the most spectacular part of the prison. Photography in there was difficult because of the varying light conditions and small cells, but I have to admit some of the images I took were stunning. Let us go inside before the screws find us….

To the left is the “A” Wing, and to the right is “B” wing.

“A” Wing.

“A” Wing is probably where the general population were housed. The cells that I went into had a double bunk and a washbasin and toilet in them. These facilities were only installed into the cells in 1995/96. Prior to this prisoners would have to “slop out” at the start of the day.

The cells are small, even with such a narrow bed frame in it. The toilet is out of frame but is on the other side of the washbasin in the left hand photograph. Imagine being locked in here for a long time, staring at the same walls day after day.

The wing has 3 levels to it and there is access to “C” block via an overhead walkway on the 2nd floor of this wing. The 3rd level was roped off so I could not investigate it.

There is one curiosity that is not immediately obvious and I did not take too much notice of it at the time. Outside each cell is a coiled serpent and they represent evil. Above them are lion claws which represent justice bearing down on evil. It seems to be just the sort of symbolism that the Victorians would have used.

Returning to the central entrance I went into “B” Wing/Segregation. Two levels of this wing housed remand prisoners, and one housed “VP” prisoners and the segregation unit.

Unfortunately I could not go into the chapel as the access to it was closed off. Instead I crossed over into “C” Wing and explored there for awhile. It was built in the 1970’s, and in the 1990’s was a “young offenders” unit until it was closed in 2013. It does not have the heaviness that I felt in the other block, although I am sure it must have been a rough place when occupied.

Having had a look at the interiors it was time to look at the exteriors. The only view you have of the outside is the sky; a very high wall surrounds the prison and there was no getting over it too easily.

It kind of reminded me of the garden walls in South Africa.

The execution shed is long gone, but it was built at the end of “A” Wing, the Governor able to watch it from the luxury of his home. The last hanging in this prison took place in 1939. It is thought that there are over 100 prisoners buried in unmarked graves under the prison.

And then it was time to leave. I have to admit the prison is an interesting place to visit, and they offer guided tours too. Personally I prefer doing my own thing and having a post mortem afterwards. Make no mistake, this place is not a holiday camp, it is a grim cold building that must have been noisy, crowded and violent. It is the nature of the inmates that they tend to be amongst the worst of the human race.

I have visited two other prisons: the first is the “Women’s Jail” as well as the old “Number 4” Jail in Johannesburg, but it appears as if I never did blogposts for them (since retrospectively rectified).

Random Images.