Saturday 29 June 2013

GREATER LONDON. Lock-ups at Cranford, Hampstead, Stoke Newington and Biggin Hill..


I have located just four remaining lock-ups in the Greater London area.
 
 
The lock-up in Cranford High Street dates to 1838 and was later used as a mortuary.
It seems to be a Grade 11 listed building but I have been unable to find the actual listing.
 
I am grateful to Maxwell Hamilton for allowing me to copy his Flickr photographs.
 
 
 
CRANFORD
 
Photo's by Maxwell Hamilton with expressed permission.
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
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Information about the lock-up at Hampstead is displayed on a wall plaque :
 

 
HAMPSTEAD
 
Photo's by Mike Smith with expressed permission
 
I am grateful to Mike Smith for the use of his photograph's.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Photo by Chris Gunns
 
© Copyright Chris Gunns and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
 
I am grateful to Chris Gunns for the use of his Geograph photograph
 
 
 
 
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The lock-up at Stoke Newington is situated in Red Lion Lane and dates to 1824.
An engine house was first built on the site in 1821
and this watch house with lock-up was added in 1824.
 
 
 
STOKE NEWINGTON
 
Photo by Lucy Fisher with expressed permission.
 
I am grateful to Lucy Fisher for allowing me to copy her Flickr photograph.
 
 
 
 
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The lock-up at Biggin Hill is situated in Jail Lane, TN16 3AX and now forms part of the
Old Jail public house.  It dates to c.1800.
 
 
 
BIGGIN HILL
OS Grid Reference: TQ4340759353
OS Grid Coordinates: 543407, 159353
Latitude/Longitude: 51.3152, 0.0564
 
Photo by Ian Capper.
© Copyright Ian Capper and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
I am grateful to Ian Capper for the use of his Geograph photograph.
 
 The property was Grade 11 listed 29.6.1973 (No.358591) and described as :

C18. 2 buildings. Sate roof. 2 storeys, weatherboarded 1st floor and brick ground floor painted over.Right side C19 chimney. Left side has 1st  floor  stable door.

Listing NGR TQ4340759353
Source: English Heritage
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
 
 
 
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The lock-up at Twickenham has long gone but there are records of it to be seen at
http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=247
together with an 1840's print of the lock-up.


It appears that Church Vestry records refer to the Watch House, Cage, Lock-up, Crosshouse and Roundhouse which over a period of time was moved to different locations. In 1684 the Vestry ordered that the 'crosshouse' in the town centre be boarded up and converted into a cage.
In 1737 the Vestry constructed a Watchhouse in the town centre and in 1764 it was moved to the Common.



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Wednesday 26 June 2013

HERTFORDSHIRE. Lock-ups at Anstey, Ashwell, Barley, Buntingford and Shenley.

There are five lock-ups of varying design left in Hertfordshire to my knowledge.
I am very grateful to Paul Marston for information and for allowing me to copy his Waymarking photographs.
 
The curious lock-up at Anstey is built into the lychgate of the village church
at St George's End, SH9 0BY. It dates to 1831 but may have replaced an earlier structure.
 
 
 
ANSTEY

OS Grid Reference: TL4043132850
OS Grid Coordinates: 540431, 232850
Latitude/Longitude: 51.9764, 0.0432

 
Photo's by Paul Marston with expressed permission.
 
 
It was Grade 11 listed 22.2.1967 (No.160225) and described as:
 
Lychgate incorporating a lockup. C15 or earlier, lockup enclosed in
flint and brick walls in 1831. Timber frame on red brick sill walls
uncoursed flint with grey brick quoins to lockup, and hipped old red
tile roof with gablets. A small, single-storey rectangular structure
facing S, open below except where the square lockup occupies the E
2/5ths, entered from N. 3 heavy chamfered square posts in line on the
central long axis support the rest of the structure. Arched knee-braces
in the head of the central opening, with a narrower W side-bay. The
posts stand on sill-beams aligned N-S with struts to the posts. A
longitudinal beam links the heads of the posts and carries 3 heavy
cross-ties braced from the posts. The single-framed collar rafter roof
stands on heavy wallplates carried on the crossties. The wallplate at
the NE corner has head mortice for a corner-post and brace, suggesting
that a timber-framed enclosure or lockup preceded the flint-walled one.
This has thick boards as a ceiling and a boarded door with barred
fanlight. In use as the parish cage up to the early C20. (RCHM (1911)35:
Pevsner (1977)72).
Listing NGR: TL4043132850
Source: English Heritage
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence: PSI Click-use licence number C2008002006
 
 
 

 






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 The lock-up at Ashwell is situated at Howdell, SG7 5QQ and is now in a PRIVATE GARDEN. 
It dates to 1800 and it was built with materials gained from a demolished chapel in the village church.
It is said that it fell out of use largely due to one Amos Pammenter who, after being locked up he was given ale by his friends via the door grille and through a straw. He then managed to tunnel out under the floor. The authorities then decided that the lock-up was no longer fit for purpose and it was used to house the village fire engine.

PLEASE RESPECT PRIVATE PROPERTY


 
 ASHWELL


OS Grid Reference: TL2689539773
OS Grid Coordinates: 526895, 239773
Latitude/Longitude: 52.0418, -0.1512


Photo by Paul Marston with expressed permission.

 
It was Grade 11 listed 19.11.1984 (No.162168) and described as :

Village lock-up or cage. Early-mid C19. Small square building with
clunch walls and slate pyramid roof. On W elevation is original studded
plank door in oak frame. Barred iron grill above. Flat wooden eaves.
Listing NGR: TL2689539773

Source: English Heritage
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence: PSI Click-use licence number C2008002006.

 

 

 
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The Cage at Barley is an interesting timber lock-up, situated in London Road, SG8 8JE
next to the war memorial. It dates to c17th century and was restored in 1970.
It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
 
 
 
 

 
 
BARLEY

OS Grid Reference: TL3994138371
OS Grid Coordinates: 539941, 238371
Latitude/Longitude: 52.0261, 0.0383

Photo by Paul Marston with expressed permission.


It was Grade 11 listed 27.5.1968 (No.162557) and described as :

Former village lock-up. C17, restored c.1970. Timber frame. Pyramidal
slate roof. Approximately cubic. Close studded plank and muntin frame
with 8 studs to each side. Door to front was originally open behind
studding, now horizontally boarded. Iron strap hinges. Timber finial.
Scheduled Ancient Monument. (RCHM 1910: VCH 1914: Hertfordshire
Archaeology, vol.2, 1970, p.113: Pevsner 1977).
Listing NGR: TL3994138371


 
Source: English Heritage
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence: PSI Click-use licence number C2008002006.
 
 
 
 
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The lock up or cage at Buntingford is situated at Dell Springs, SG9 9AS
and it dates to the early 18th century. It was restored by The Town Council in 1999.
 
 
 
BUNTINGFORD

OS Grid Reference: TL3634029625
OS Grid Coordinates: 536340, 229625
Latitude/Longitude: 51.9484, -0.0176

Photo's by Mike Bardell with expressed permission.
 

It was Grade 11 listed 12.1.1977 (No.159739) and described as :
 
Town lockup. Early C18, walltop and roof renewed in mid C19.
Red brick in English-bond, top of wall in Flemish-bond with
toothed corbelled top, dark weatherboarding to gable triangles,
and boarded roof covered in sheet iron. A small square building
near the bridge over the River Rib, about 3m x 3m, orientated N-S
with central door on S. Recessed battened and framed door with
decorative ironhinges hung on iron pins from heavyframe under
timber lintol. Shaped ends to wallplates and purlins projecting
at each end. Of special historic interest as a local antiquity.
(VCH (1914) 79).
Listing NGR: TL3634029625
Source: English Heritage
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence: PSI Click-use licence number C2008002006.







 

I am grateful to Mike Bardell for sending me these three photographs.
 
 
 
 
 
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Also known as The Cage, the lock-up at Shenley is more familiar with west country designs.
It is situated alongside the village pond on the B5378, WD7 9EN,
It dates to the 18th century, was repaired in 1810 (datestone) and restored in 1883 & 1990's.
 
 
 
 
SHENLEY

OS Grid Reference: TL1887200732
OS Grid Coordinates: 518872, 200732
Latitude/Longitude: 51.6928, -0.2816

 
Photo by Roy Pledger.
 
It was Grade 11 listed 25.2.1952 (No.164327) and described as :
 
Lock-up. C18, repaired 1810, restored 1893. Cement rendered brick.
Circular with domical top. Pointed head to timber door of 4 planks with
strap hinges. Flanking small openings with iron bars in deep reveals.
Above openings 2 stone tablets inscribed with date 1810 and
'DO WELL.AND FEAR NOT BE SOBER. BE VIGILANT'.
Additional small opening atrear. Plinth. Band at cornice level. Ball finial on top.
(Pevsner 1977:VCH 1923).
Listing NGR: TL1887200732
Source: English Heritage
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence: PSI Click-use licence number C2008002006.
 
 
 
 
 
Photo by Paul Marston with expressed permission.
 
Paul relates :
 
Situated by the village pond is the Cage or ‘lock-up’, a domed-shaped building bearing the inscription ‘Do well. Fear Not. Be sober. Be Vigilant’. The building served as a temporary prison for those accused of offences, until the local constable took them to be charged before the magistrates at Barnet or St Albans Court.

The Cage is thought to date from the 18th century, and is one of the last remaining roundhouse gaols in England.

It is thought that Patrick Connolly, who killed James Grainge - Special Constable & Shenley Shoemaker - in 1823, was held here under guard overnight before being taken to Hertford Gaol. This killing was the first killing of a policeman in Hertfordshire.

The Cage fell into gradual disuse when gaols were built in Barnet and St. Albans. It was used once during the 1914-18 war to confine an army deserter and then again during World War II as an Air Raid Precautions post - complete with telephone.

The Cage has undergone several restorations, most recently in the 1990's.

Information sourced from :-
(
Information sourced from :-
(visit link)
 
 
 
Photo by Julian Osley


© Copyright Julian Osley and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

I am grateful to Julian Osley for the use of his Geograph photograph.





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ESSEX. Lock-ups at Bradwell on Sea, Braintree and Canewdon.



Eleven existing lock-ups have been located in Essex, five of which are timber buildings.
I am extremely grateful to Mike Bardell from Braintree & Bocking Civic Society for his constant supply of photographs and information.
 

The lock-up at Bradwell-on-Sea is situated in the south east corner of the churchyard in
Eastend Road, CM0 7PW and it dates to 1817. An interesting feature of this lock-up is the pillory/stocks fashioned into the door frame. It is said that six people could be detained inside this little building and another five could be attached to the pillory, which includes one at a suitable level for a child.
 
 
 
 

BRADWELL-ON-SEA

OS Grid Reference: TM0045806848
OS Grid Coordinates: 600458, 206848
Latitude/Longitude: 51.7245, 0.9010

Photo by Barry Samuel with expressed permission

This photograph is the copyright © of Barry Samuels unless stated otherwise
I am grateful to Barry Samuels (The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain)  for allowing me to copy his photograph.
 
 
 
It was Grade 11 listed 10.1.1953 (No.119201) and described as :
 
Lock-up. C18. Red brick. Pointed hipped red tiled roof with red ridge tiles.
Dentilled eaves cornice. The heavy 3 board door with iron louvre of 12 vertical
slits. Attached vertically to left door jamb are stocks/whipping post with 4
semi-circular wooden grooves and 3 matching and locking iron grooves, lock at
base, to right of door are 5 grooves with no locking device. RCHM 7.
Listing NGR: TM0045606848
Source: English Heritage
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence: PSI Click-use licence number C2008002006


http://www.essex-family-history.co.uk/bradwelllockup.htm
tells us :
 
"The lock up at Bradwell-on-Sea was built in 1817 by Samuel Horne at the cost of £3 10 shillings 9 pence and the pillory added to in 1823 by attachment of stocks to the outside. When the Constable had a busy time six prisoners could be accommodated inside the cage and up to 5 people attached to the pillory to become objects of pity or derision to passers by. One ring on the pillory is very low making it suitable for use with small children.
Serious cases were kept in the lock up and then taken to the assizes by the Constable.
The Parish Constables faced a difficult and dangerous job as is evidenced by the case of Peter Jerome who was a gentleman of Woodham Mortimer who attacked a Parish Constable with his dagger drawing blood for which offence she received a fine of six shillings and eight pence".
 
 
 
 
 
These two photo's by Ann Williams with expressed permission.
I am grateful to Ann Williams (http://www.adbwilliams.co.uk/photo_topic.php?subject_id=3)
for sending me these two photographs.
 
 
 
 
 
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The lock-up at Braintree, known as The Cage, is situated in Gant Hill off New Street, CM7 1ER and dates to c1840. It has two cells and the door is probably from an earlier building.





 
 BRAINTREE

OS Grid Reference: TL7570722963
OS Grid Coordinates: 575707, 222963
Latitude/Longitude: 51.8776, 0.5512

All photo's by Mike Bardell with expressed permission


It was Grade 11 listed 21.4.1977 (No.113815) and described as :

Circa 1840. Small one storey red brick lean to structure with flagstone ceiling
Plank door studdes with large nails. Interior has brick built seat along
walls. It apparently remained in use for its original purpose until about
1875 when it became a ammunition store for the 12th Essex Volunteer Rifles.
Listing NGR: TL7570722963
Source: English Heritage
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence: PSI Click-use licence number C2008002006



 
 

Inside showing and wall graffiti.

 
BRAINTREE CAGE
in its
social and historic setting
The history of human disorder is as old as the human race as any number of Biblical and other sources show (see page eight). By the early 17th century the principal inhabitants of Braintree, doubtless mindful of the cost of sending offenders to gaol at Chelmsford or Coggeshall, successfully petitioned Quarter Sessions for a house of correction to be incorporated within the parish workhouse (now the site of Tesco supermarket in the Market Place). “Drunkness and idlenes” were clearly an affront to the “Reformation of Manners” which was driven by the convergence of Protestant zeal, economic and social pressures, and cultural change. That the poor might concentrate their social life in the alehouse was unsurprising since the other venue for meeting and conviviality, the church, had been denuded of much of its festive culture, guilds and fraternities by the reformers. Alongside the house of correction stood the stocks where public humiliation, as much as incarceration and physical discomfort, would be brought to bear on recalcitrant townspeople. These were only removed in 1862 although their use was greatly diminished by that date.
Drunkenness associated with market days and the town’s October Fair had been an irritant to the “better sort” for centuries and it must have been to their astonishment when in 1830, the Government yielded to the free trade lobby and carried the Beer Act. The beer trade, it was felt, would benefit from the unfettered operation of market forces – if the monopoly of licensed houses could be breached, competition would be increased and demand boosted. Further, liberal Whigs resentful of unrepresentative bodies like magistrates, who could deprive the worker of his beer and the publican of his livelihood, felt that liberty was to be prized above the problem of drunkenness and social disorder. Beer too, it was argued, had nutritional value and its more ready availability would suppress the sale of gin, a drink with none.
The Beer Act, 1830 allowed any person whose name was on the rate book to open his house for the sale of beer provided he obtained a two guinea excise permit. Character no longer came into the equation and a person legitimately refused a licence by an honest magistrate could set up shop and attempt to separate the worker from his hard earned wages. Over thirty such premises came into being in Braintree with yet more in Bocking.
The worst fears of the moralists soon appeared to be fulfilled – drunkenness, late hours, noise, disorder, music, dancing, gambling and petty crime all increased. Whether this was directly attributable to beer consumption or by publicans pushing the sale of gin (forbidden to be sold in beerhouses) is unclear, the real sin of the Beer Act was to place the control of popular leisure in the hands of lowly beerhouse keepers and beyond the jurisdiction of magistrates. Power would be returned to them in 1869 but by then the need for every parish to provide overnight accommodation – a lock-up or cage – for the restraint of the drunk and disorderly had become law. The Beer Act too must have been one of the key factors in the establishment of proper police forces. Braintree had a proto-constabulary of part time watchmen in 1833, one of the first in Essex, as a development of the parish constable system ahead of the County Constabulary which was formed in 1840.
The Braintree Cage is shown, but not named, on the 1878 Ordnance Survey, scale 1:500, and was approached from Hilly Gant which linked New Street with St Michael’s Lane (see map, note scale reduced). Today it can be seen easily from New Street as the buildings which formerly obscured it have been demolished. It adjoined the garden of the noted clockmaker Jeremiah Wing, “A citizen of credit and renown”, and, so his ears might not be assailed by songs of ribald mirth, or his eyes offended in any way, the cage was built with its high side facing his garden. The site, given as ¼ pole (6.3 square metres) in the Tithe Award, c1840 was part of a cottage garden and purchased by the Braintree Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor for £30, a considerable sum, on 17 January 1840. Significantly the vendor was Samuel Tunbridge a Braintree brewer who owned the nearby Green Man public house (marked with the letters “GM” on map) and whose landlord in 1839 was Samual Piggin junior, named on the Tithe Award as one of the parish trustees!
New Street was notorious in those days containing no less than four pubs – The White Horse, Three Tuns, George and Green Man. The latter three were known colloquially as “Little Hell”, “Great Hell” and “Damnation” which gives some indication of their reputations. A favourite game played in all three was one in which the participant spun around on the seat of his trousers on the well sanded floor – a novel form of cocktail shaker –the winner was he who spun furthest! In August 1859 Braintree Petty Sessions had cause to suspend the Green Man’s licence for six weeks; two years later Mrs Snow, landlady at the Three Tuns was “cautioned as to the future”. Ten years on Mrs Snow was described as a “perky little woman quite competent to hold her own with boisterous agriculturalists”. She may have benefited personally from legal control but clearly her clientele were still prone to excess – and presumably endured a night in the cage as an occupational hazard! To what were they sent for sobering-up?
Construction is of red clay brick probably of local manufacture, laid in English bond, under a lean-to slated roof; overall size is 16 feet by 6 feet (4.9 metres by 1.8 metres). Internally it is divided into two cells each with a single iron grid daylight and ventilation opening under the eaves of 9 inches by 10½ inches (230mm by 270       mm). The oak and iron studded outer door pre-dates the building by as much as 200 years and is reputed to have been removed from the earlier watchouse or lock-up in the Old Workhouse; the inner cell door has long since disappeared. A timber seat or sleeping platform ran the length of the left hand side wall and there is a 2 inch (50mm) thick tooled flagstone ceiling to deny vertical escape; headroom is 6 feet 1½ inches (1.87 metres). Internally the walls have been plastered up to a wooden dado rail set at a height of 3 feet  (920 mm). The floor today is roughly screeded, probably over brick. Construction costs and legal fees amounted to £45 5s 0d (£45.25p). Most probably the feudal ceremonial of the “livery of seisin” would have been performed at its completion, amid cheers of the populace, by Samuel Tunbridge handing over a loose brick or key to the churchwardens and overseers followed by hospitable entertainment at the Green Man!
No written account of a night in Braintree cage is extant but from nearby Stock it has been recorded that simple incarceration was sometimes exceeded for important or difficult prisoners. In their case handcuffs or a chain fixed to a bolt in the floor and the leg might be applied. Occasionally the prisoner’s clothing was removed leaving him to find comfort in whatever straw or sacking had been provided. The cage at Rayne contains a chimney and fireplace but this is a rarity. One self-pitying inmate at Braintree carved “William Oliver Sept 22 1843 committed” into the brickwork before leaving the cold and discomfort to face a magistrate’s punishment. At least he went on a full stomach - bread, cheese and beer the commonly provided breakfast. His name and the date are clearly visible above the dado on the right hand side of the first cell. Another date of 1843 along with an indecipherable illustration appears above it. On the opposite wall various scratched markings are becoming visible as subsequent coats of whitewash and paint are broken down by the damp conditions.
The year 1843 saw the town’s first police station built in Rayne Road, however the cage, with its convenient town centre position, remained in use until 1875. Thereafter it was let to the 12th Essex Volunteer Rifles for the sum of ten shillings (50p) per annum for use as an ammunition store. “This fine body of men residing in or around Braintree” was the forerunner of the town’s Territorial Army units, their volunteer spirit aroused by threats of invasion by Napoleon III. They paraded at the Corn Exchange in the High Street and conducted live firing at butts erected in Mr Tabor’s meadow at Bovingdon Hall, Bocking. Though not recorded, use as an ammunition store probably ceased in 1911 when the town’s new Drill Hall was opened in Victoria Street.
Braintree Urban District Council purchased the cage in 1899, thereafter its history was one of neglect until on 21 April 1977 it was recognised as a building of historic importance and given Grade II Listed status. In 1982 Braintree and Bocking Civic Society undertook to repair the decayed roof and provide a flagged path to the site. Sadly a plaque erected by the Society at the time, recording a little of the Cage’s history, was stolen soon after it was put up – silent testimony to the fact that anti-social behaviour has not gone away!
For the future this small but socially significant building will remain in the care of its owners Braintree District Council and it, along with all historic buildings in the town, will continue to be a matter of interest and concern to Braintree and Bocking Civic Society.

First published in 2004
by
Braintree & Bocking Civic Society Ltd
Copyright © Braintree & Bocking Civic Society Ltd
 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
ISBN 0-9547-490-0-6

The above is copied from a leaflet written by Michael Bardell on behalf of the Civic Society and is available from the shop at Braintree District Museum.  I am extremely grateful to Mike for allowing me to copy this information and indeed for the photographs he has sent me.
 
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The lock-up at Canewdon, known as The Cage, is situated in High Street, SS4 3QA
and dates to c1775.
It was repaired in 1914 and restored in 1983

 
 
CANEWDON

OS Grid Reference: TQ8972694543
OS Grid Coordinates: 589726, 194543
Latitude/Longitude: 51.6177, 0.7391

Photo by Mathew Barker with expressed permission.

© Copyright Matthew Barker and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
 
I am grateful to Mathew Barker for giving me permssion to copy his photograph.
 
 
It was Grade 11 listed 27.7.1959 (No.123112) and described as :
 
Lock-up and stocks. Said to have been erected 1775, repaired 1914. Timber
framed and weatherboarded. Red tiled roof, gabled to road. Small metal grill
to left (west) side. Vertically boarded door, 2 strap hinges with padlock.
Crossed metal straps. Stocks on floor inside. Board above door reads

VillageLock-up and Stocks.
Listing NGR: TQ8972694543

Source: English Heritage
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence: PSI Click-use licence number C2008002006.


See also : www.rochford.jdi-consult.net/ldf/readdoc.php?docid=150&chapter=6


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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