Synopsis
Prison overcrowding is nothing new - in 1811 there were so many prisoners in Cheshire that the authorities decided to build a new Sessions House, Grand Jury Room and House of Correction "in a convenient situation near the town of Nether Knutsford". Work began in 1817 and when the building was eventually finished The Countryman's Rambler commented: "...one hardly believes that such a fine place was built only for thieves." Whether the inmates would have agreed is another matter, although the food was thought by many to be superior to that provided in the workhouse. The regime included the physical exertions of the treadmill, the drudgery of picking oakum, the pointlessness of turning a crank which "ground nothing but air", the back-breaking ordeal of moving heavy cannonballs from one pile to another and occasional floggings. Over the years, as well as local criminals, debtors and offenders against the Game and Bastardy Laws, Knutsford Prison housed disaffected Chartists and those awaiting transportation. From 1886, until it was taken over by the Home Office as an Army detention barrack in 1915, nine executions took place on its scaffold. Retired prison chaplain David Woodley has researched the history of the prison and describes the work of its governors, chaplains, surgeons and visiting magistrates. He looks at the role of the warders and at the lives of the male, female and juvenile prisoners who made up the gaol community. This book provides a fascinating glimpse into an often overlooked aspect of Knutsford's social history. To assist genealogists and local historians the book has been comprehensively indexed. The index can be consulted on-line, so that you can see if there is mention of a person, place or event of interest to you.
