Oxfordshire Prisons
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Her Majesty's Prison, Oxford Erected in 1805, at a cost of about £19,000, from designs by Mr. Blackburn,
architect; the buildings are placed immediately within the southern precincts of
Oxford Castle, and have incorporated with them some portion of the ancient
fortress, at the extreme south-west corner stands the famous Saxon Tower,
generally known as "Maud's Tower" and once forming the chief of a
series of six placed at different angles of the castle walls; there is a round
turret at the south-east angle, and the parapet is crenellated; about 70 feet
from this Tower is a small but highly interesting Saxon crypt, 20 feet square,
with a vaulted roof, supported on dwarf columns, with elongated and singularly
carved capitals; forming part of the western boundary of the castle is the great
mound, raised in the ninth century for the double purpose of defence and
observation; the ancient vaulted well is 54 feet deep from the floor of the well
room, or from the summit of the mound about 70 feet; the whole mount is now
thickly grown with large trees.
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