Gaynes Hall Borstal, Great Staughton, Huntingdonshire
The Gaynes Hall Boys' Borstal was opened in 1945 at Perry, near Great Staughton, Huntingdonshire. There had previously been a wartime military camp in the grounds. The old mansion house on the site became the borstal's administrative office and governor's house.
Gaynes Hall was classed as an open training institution. There were no locks on the inmates' accommodation and no barbed wire surrounding the site.
The borstal was closed in 1983. The old mansion and its gardens were sold, while the main borstal site was cleared and Littlehey Prison erected there.
Records
Note: many repositories impose a closure period of up to 100 years for records identifying individuals. Before travelling a long distance, always check that the records you want to consult will be available.
- Huntingdon Library and Archives, Princes Street, Huntingdon PE29 3PA.
- The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU. Has a wide variety of crime and prison records going back to the 1770s, including calendars of prisoners, prison registers and criminal registers.
- Find My Past has digitized many of the National Archives' prison records, including prisoner-of-war records, plus a variety of local records including Manchester, York and Plymouth. More information.
- Prison-related records on
Ancestry UK
include Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951
, and local records from London, Swansea, Gloucesterhire and West Yorkshire. More information.
- The Genealogist also has a number of National Archives' prison records. More information.
Bibliography
- Fox, Lionel W The English Prison and Borstal Systems (1952, Routledge & Kegan Paul)
- Behan, Brendan Borstal Boy (1958, Hutchinson)
- Hutton, John Portland Borstal Institutution Miscellany Volume 2 (2018)
- Lodge, Jeremy Lowdham Grange. Borstal! (2014)
Links
- 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.