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Ancestry UK

City Bridewell, Ely, Cambridgeshire

The Ely City Bridewell, or House of Correction, was erected in 1651. In 1784, John Howard wrote:

This prison (built 1661) consists of one room below for men (16 feet by 15 feet 4 inches); and two above for women. No water accessible to prisoners; prison out of repair. No court; one might be made from the keeper's large garden. In February 1776, a woman sick : no apothecary. No allowance. Clauses of act against spirituous liquors not hung up. Keeper's salary, £10: no fees.

At Howard's five visits to the prison between 1774 and 1782, the number of inmates ranged from one to three.

Things had changed little by the time of James Neild's report in 1812:

This ancient Prison, built in the year 1651, consists of four rooms; viz. one below, for men, 16 feet by 15 feet 4 inches, with a sewer: another above, called The Strong-Room, about the same size, which has 34 iron bars running across the floor, in like manner, and for the same cruel purpose, as those in the Gaol : a small room detached, with a sewer, for the men; and, adjoining to it, an apartment for the Women. These rooms have wooden bedsteads and straw mattresses, to which the Prisoner furnishes his own bed, or hires one from the Gaoler at three-pence a night.

The employment here is beating of hemp. Prisoners committed to hard labour have the whole of their earnings for their maintenance. The Prison is out of repair; and I do not find that it has been once white-washed these ten or twelve years. No water accessible to the Prisoners. No court-yard, although one might easily be made out of a part of the Keeper's ample garden. No Chaplain, nor religious attendance.

Allowance, to Debtors, none. To Bridewell Prisoners it once was sixpence per day, as at the Gaol : But it has since been taken off from the Town Prisoners; and they have their earnings only to live upon; except on Sundays, when they receive four-pence

The building's use as a prison seems to have ended in 1820 when the new Sessions House, incorporating a House of Correction, were built on Lynn Road. The old bridewell was demolished in the 1850s.

In 1843, alterations were made to the Lynn Road buildings. A separate House of Correction, containing 35 cells, was built at the back of the Shire Hall and the prison chapel in the south wing was converted into a police station.

From 1850, the establishment became male-only, with female prisoners then being sent to the House of Correction at Wisbech. Between 1865 and 1869, part of the north wing was taken by the Volunteers for use as an armoury. It took over the whole of the building when the House of Correction was closed in 1878, following the nationalisation of the prison system. The Volunteers use of the building ended in 1908. The Shire Hall continued in use as a court, and subsequently housed District Council offices alongside the police station.

Records

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Bibliography

  • Prison Oracle - resources those involved in present-day UK prisons.
  • GOV.UK - UK Government's information on sentencing, probation and support for families.

Except where indicated, this page () © Peter Higginbotham. Contents may not be reproduced without permission.