Norfolk Prisons
 

Norwich City Gaol

Norfolk Prisons

Proposed New Gaol at Great Yarmouth 
The plan of the new gaol has been submitted to the inspection of the town council. Mr. H.H.Barker, the town surveyor, has designed the proposed structure. The building is to be constructed on the open corridor principle, similar to that adopted at Pentonville. It will comprise three stories. On the ground floor is the chief entrance, the gaoler's and officials apartments, room for the visiting justices, receiving rooms, bath-rooms, punishment cells, washing cells, debtor's ward, exercising yard, treadmill, shot - drill yard etc. 

The whole will be enclosed by a wall about 20 ft. in height. The first floor contains the chapel, bedrooms, school-room, turnkey's room, store-room, debtor's dormitory etc. The second floor will consist of infirmaries for males and females, stores, etc. Both front and back elevations are unpretentious. 
Source: The Builder 1869 Vol XXVII pp174 27th February 1869 
Submitted by Alan Longbottom. 

Wymondham Bridewell History
The Wymondham Heritage Museum is located within the Bridewell, with its imposing Georgian facade, and the main gallery occupies what was the courtroom from 1878 to 1991. Displays tell the story of the Bridewell which has served as a prison, police station and courthouse.

Standing on the site of an earlier prison condemned by John
Howard, the penal reformer, as "the vilest prison in England", the two prison wings were built in 1785. Here prisoners were housed in the first English prison to have one prisoner to each cell, an idea that later spread to American prisons. In spite of being well used, housing at one time 71 prisoners, by 1825 the prison was empty and up for sale.

However the building did not sell and from 1831 to 1878 it was used as a Norfolk County women's prison.

Later the cells in the laundry block were converted for police use and the town's police station occupied the rest of the building from 1878, when the south block was converted to the Court Room for Petty Sessions. The Police Station moved to the new building nearby in 1963. In 1991 the Magistrates' Court closed at the Bridewell and the County Council put the complex on the market. The Wymondham Heritage Society looked at the possibility of purchasing the
site for community use. The building was bought in 1994 and the Wymondham Bridewell Preservation Trust was set up to manage the project.

Wymondham Bridewell Prisoner List 1841 Census

Having learned that a Bridewell is a prison for those committing minor offences here's who was there in 1841:

STAFF

PRISONERS:

Source: Submitted by Pat Kitteringham

Page updated August 06, 2007 by Rossbret