|
Date: |
|
Description: | House of Correction and Prison Museum
A redbrick building with barred windows in St Marygate was a well-equipped Victorian prison. Its origins go back to the 17th century when Houses of Correction were being set up of vagrancy and unemployment. In 1629 Ripon Corporation asked the Archbishop of York to provide a House of Correction, but it was finally made in 1686 on the initiative of local magistrates. The building has rows of mullioned windows and was built on land belonging to the Dean and Chapter. The first Master was appointed in 1686 with a salary of ã15 a year and in the 1770s it was reduced and the then Master Michael Gregg left in 1778 to take over the Sign of the Minister. Punishing vagrants was the prime function of the House of Correction in the 18th century, but in 1800 the Liberty magistrates decided to build a new prison block on the north side of the original House of Correction, which then became the Governor's private residence. The work was completed in 1816. The Liberty Gaol (now the Old Curiosity Shop) near the Cathedral, was demoted to a debtor's prison and all other categories of prisoners were transferred to St Marygate.
About 40 to 50 offenders passed through its cells each year mainly petty offenders rarely serving more than three-month sentences and often less than two weeks. The prison was mixed, but the majority of inmates were male, mostly aged 17 to 30 and convicted for theft or under the Vagrancy, Game and Bastardy laws. In these early years those sentenced to Hard Labour suffered the rigours of the Treadwheel. The diet consisted of carefully measured portions of bread, meat, potatoes, soup and oatmeal gruel. However, by the 1860s the emphasis was on reform and there was a matron, surgeon, barber and chaplain to attend the inmates. There was a library and sick bay.
In 1878 Ripon's House of Correction and Liberty Gaol finally closed but within ten years it had become the Police Station until 1956. In the early 1980s the cellblock was put to a very appropriate use as a Prison and Police Museum, and hopefully the House of Correction building will soon become part of this complex. | Subjects: | Social History | Source: | Cornucopia - Discovering UK Collections | Address: | 27 St Marygate
Ripon,
HG4 1LX | FAX: | 01765 603 006 | Telephone: | 01765 602 142 | Identifier: | oai:www.cornucopia.org.uk:1081 | Go to resource |
|
|