The lock-up was once a common sight in English towns and villages. The local constable found it useful to have a place where wrongdoers could be detained until the authorities could deal with them and hotheads and drunkards could be locked up until they cooled down. In other words, lock-ups were used in a similar way to the cells at the police station in a time before there was an organized police force.
Cramped and dark, lock-ups fell out of favour when social reformers won better rights for prisoners in the 19th century. Only a few survive, like this 18th-century one at Breedon-on-the-Hill. The tiny, one-room building is all about security. There is a stout door, no windows, and – because tiles or shingles might be removed from inside by an inmate eager to climb out – a solid stone roof. The adjoining wall is part of a secure enclosure or pound, where stray animals could be kept until claimed by their owners.
Apologies for commenting on such an old post but I've only just stumbled on your blog.
ReplyDeleteI thought lockups were perfectly normal as a child, because Gnosall, the Staffordshire village where I grew up, had one (it's still there, part of the boundary of the old vicarage lands). I remember my mother threatening to put me in it when I was playing up.
Thank you: it's never too late to comment!
ReplyDeleteI must look out for more lock-ups – they're often beautifully crafted, odd-shaped little buildings.
there was a secret tunnel beneath this lockup which was large enough for friends of the 'offenders' to pass through a little something to 'wet the prisoners whistle', leaving the jailor a little perplexed come morning as to how his detainee still seemed under the influence...
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