County Gaol and Bridewell, Appleby, Westmorland

GAOLER, Benjamin Ainsley.

Salary, £10.

Fees, Debtors, Felons, £0 : 6 : 8.

Transports, a shilling a mile each to Whitehaven.

Licence, Beer and Wine.

PRISONERS,

Allowance, Debtors, none. Felons, four pence a day each.

Garnish, £0 : 1 : 0.

Number,

	Debtors.	Felons &c.	1779, May 9,	Debtors.	Felons &c.
1774, Mar. 24,	7,	4.		8,	2.
1776, Jan. 22,	3,	0.	1782, Sep. 2,	8,	0.
1776, Sep. 19, 3.	3,	3.

REMARKS.

This gaol was built by the county. The Earl of Thanet is hereditary sheriff, and pays the gaoler his salary. Happily for the prisoners in a gaol so circumstanced, the present gaoler is a man of temper and humanity.

Earlier, I complained of this prison being within reach of floods; but in January 1776, there was a new building on the highest part of the yard. It consists of four vaulted wards for felons, 14 feet by 13; a window in each, but no chimney: and over them three good rooms with chimneys, for debtors.

Gaol delivery once a year.—No table of fees. Neither the act for preserving the health of prisoners, nor clauses against spirituous liquors, at my last visit, were hung up.

Gaoler, James Bewsher; a Blacksmith: His shop is at the foot of the Bridge, nearly opposite the Gaol. Salary, 20l. Conveyance of Transports to Whitehaven, 1s. per mile. Fees for Debtors and Felons, (see Table.) But the Under-sheriff demands 6s. 8d. from every Debtor for his Liberate! Garnish, not yet abolished, 1s.

Chaplain, Rev. James Metcalfe. Salary 15l. Duty, Sunday afternoon, Prayers and Sermon.

Surgeon, Mr. Bushby; makes a Bill.

Number of Prisoners,

	Debtors.	Felons &c.
1800, March 31st,	6	3
l802, Sept. 24th,	4	0
1809, Nov. 4th,	9	4

Allowance, to Debtors, none whatever: to Felons, and other Criminal Prisoners, fourpence a-day.

REMARKS.

This Gaol was built by the County. The Earl of Thanet is Hereditary Sheriff, and pays the Gaoler his Salary. The Prison itself is out of the reach of the floods, but the river sometimes overflows part of the Court-yard.

In the lower part of the Gaol are four vaulted Wards for Felons, 144-feet by 13; with straw on the floor, and two blankets to sleep on; a small grated window in each, but no chimney: and over them are three good rooms with fire-places for Debtors. There being no chapel. Divine Service is performed in the Debtor's Day-room. Here is only one court-yard, 96 feet by 66; so that debtors and felons, men and women of all descriptions, associate promiscuously together during the day-time. They have no Kitchen, and are therefore obliged to dress their victuals under the open arch of the landing-place of the flight of stone steps, leading to the Debtors' apartments! A pump in the court-yard supplies the prison with water.

TABLE OF FEES, To be taken by the Keeper of Appleby Gaol, as agreed to by the Bench of Justices, at the Midsummer General (Quarter Sessions, 14th July 1797.
£. s. d.
For the discharge of a Debtor	0 13  4
For every person committed by warrant of a Justice of the Peace	0  6  8
For a Copy of Commitment, when demanded	0  1 0
For a Certificate of Commitment, in order to obtain a Writ of Habeas Corpus	0  2  6
For signing a Certificate, in order to obtain a Supersedeas, or a Rule or Order of Court	0  2  6
For the Discharge of a Prisoner by Proclamation at the Assizes, or General Quarter Sessions	0 13  4

Here is a Gaol Delivery once a year. No Employment is provided, and prisoners who are of handicraft trades, can seldom procure it from the town.

The Act for Preservation of Health, and Clauses against the use of Spirituous Liquors, are both properly hung up; as is also the foregoing Table of Fees.

This county prison is very inconveniently and insecurely placed at the base of a hill, which has been partly scarped away to afford sufficient space for its erection. The ground on which it stands was leased from Sir James Lowther in 1768 for 999 years, at a reserved ground-rent of one pound per annum. Many alterations have been made of late years to the prison, and it now consists of a mass of irregular buildings, rendering any effective system of discipline almost impracticable. It is without any detached boundary wall; the back part of the prison resting against the soil of which the hill is composed, generates damp, and is an impediment to the free and general circulation of air. It is overlooked from the windows in rear of the Court-house, and also from the adjoining height. Communication has taken place with prisoners by these means. The sleeping-cells of the male prisoners are deficient both in light and ventilation, and from their situation at the extremity of the airing-yards, as well as from their construction, are out of the reach of any inspection. There is no special accommodation for female debtors, and they are either placed with the criminals, or the matron is compelled to give up one of her apartments. The chapel is above the debtors’ day-room; it is small and low, and very insecure. The wooden divisions between the prisoners are very slightly constructed and the doors are without fastenings. The keeper states, that he has been obliged, for safety, on some occasions to take the prisoners there handcuffed or in irons, and that communication takes place between them and the debtors as they pass through their yard to chapel. There is no male infirmary, and considerable inconvenience has resulted from the want of this necessary appendage.

The Condemned Cell is in a small yard sunk below the surface. It is damp, unwholesome, and most improper for the confinement of any description of prisoner.

There are four day-rooms or workshops between the keeper’s house and the sleeping-cells. They contain two crank-mills, and dressing-machines. One of these rooms is used as a kitchen, and is fitted up with a steam apparatus for cooking, and heating this part of the building. Heat is not supplied to the sleeping apartments of the prisoners. The part occupied by the females is built on a plan similar to that adopted at Lancaster Castle. The day and sleeping-rooms are of a semicircular form, with open iron railing at their extremities. They are completely overlooked from the matron’s parlour and chamber, the latter being placed in the interior of the half circle. The privies throughout the prison are badly constructed, and are offensive.

I agree most fully in the following opinion, given in evidence by the keeper, as to the insecurity of the prison. "I consider the prison very insecure, and have represented it several times to the Grand Jury. Alterations have taken place, but its great want of safety is undiminished. It offers such a temptation to men to escape, that the hope of it unsettles their minds while in confinement: they are constantly brooding over it. Four prisoners have effected their escape, and the attempts have been most numerous. Is often obliged to have recourse to irons.”

Diet, 1.—For prisoners sentenced to hard labour; for convicted prisoners, not sentenced to hard labour, but ordered by the visiting justices to be set to work; and for prisoners before trial who do not maintain themselves, but who work:—

Males (per week).
7 lbs. wheaten bread	1½ gill of peas weekly.
2½lbs. of oatmeal.	4 oz. of cheese.
10 lbs. of potatoes.	.3½ oz. of salt.
1½ lb. of beef.	2 oz. of onions.
5 oz. of rice.

Dinners.
Sundays	1 quart of stew made from cows’ shins, in the proportion of one shin to every 14 prisoners.
Mondays	½ lb. of beef, boiled, and potatoes.
Tuesdays	1 quart rice soup, and potatoes.
Wednesdays	½ lb. beef, boiled, and potatoes.
Thursdays	1 quart of pea-soup, and potatoes.
Fridays	½ lb beef, made into scouce.
Saturdays	Potatoes and cheese.
Breakfasts	1 quart oatmeal pottage, and the same for suppers.

Females (per week).
7 lbs. of wheaten bread weekly.	5 oz. of rice weekly.
2 lbs. of oatmeal.	1½ gill of peas.
5 lbs. of potatoes.	3½ OZ. of salt.
1 lb. of beef.

Dinners.
Sundays	1 quart of stew made as above.
Mondays	½ lb. of beef boiled and 1 lb. of potatoes.
Tuesdays	1 quart of rice soup.
Wednesdays	½ lb. of beef boiled, and 1 lb. of potatoes.
Thursday\s	1 quart of pea-soup.
Fridays	½ lb. of potatoes, 1 quart of soup.
Saturdays	1½ lb. of potatoes.
Breakfasts	1 quart oatmeal pottage, and the same for suppers.

2.—For prisoners before trial who do not maintain themselves, and who do not work, and for all other prisoners (except such as are sick) who cannot maintain themselves, and who do not work:—

Males and Females (per week).
7 lbs. wheaten bread	10 lbs. potatoes.
2½ lbs. oatmeal.	4½ oz. salt.

The above table, being the same as at Lancaster Castle, has been recently adopted. I doubt, from the diversity and number of articles of which this dietary is composed, whether it will answer in so small an establishment as at Appleby, and whether difficulties will not be found, and increased expenses incurred, in obtaining contracts for such minute quantities as must be required.

The debtors are permitted to purchase provisions, and a quart of beer daily, and also the use of tobacco, notwithstanding they receive the allowance from the county. The prisoners take their meals in their cells.

Fuel.—The male and female day-rooms are heated by steam. The debtors are allowed I . bushel of coals weekly all the year round.

Clothing.—Convicted felons, a suit of dark brown friese, and misdemeanant’s of grey, with the word “gaol” in large letters on the back. Untried prisoners are only supplied with Correction, clothing when absolutely necessary.

Bedding.—The bedsteads are of iron, or stone. The bedding consists of a mat of straw, a paillasse, two blankets, one rug in summer, two in winter. Upon inspecting the bedding, the straw mats appeared to be saturated with moisture, and covered with mildew. The sleeping apartments of the males are damp, and seem to require the application of heat in the winter. I think it would also be an advantage if the stone slabs used as bedsteads were perforated, by having holes drilled through them, for the admission of air.

Cleanliness.—The prison, and the persons of the prisoners, clean.

Health.—The surgeon’s attendance is generally two or three times a-week, and oftener, when required. There is a great want of an infirmary for the males. An epidemic fever, of a mild typhus character, prevailed in January last. The greater portion of the prisoners were attacked with it. The accommodation in the cells was so bad, as to render it obligatory to remove some of the most serious cases to the female infirmary. The fever was prevalent in the county at that time, and was not to be traced either to the building or the locality, nor were the cases more severe than met with in practice out of the prison. The surgeon considers the cells in which the males are confined as unwholesome. The effluvia in them is most offensive if a prisoner is only locked up in them for a few hours in the day-time. The site of the prison is damp. Generally speaking, he sees the prisoners before they are classed. Constipated bowels are of frequent occurrence. Itch, gonorrhoea, and rheumatism, occasionally. Considers the prison diet as much superior to that of the poorer classes of the county. Has been obliged to take men oft' the wheel from debility. The surgeon’s journal contains an account of serious cases of illness, and the dates of his visits to the prison.

Moral and Religious Instruction.—The chaplain performs divine service on Sundays, with one sermon. Prayers are also read twice a-day during the week, once by him, and once by the keeper. He sees the prisoners privately, visiting the prison once a-week for that purpose. He administers the sacrament three times a-year to such as he considers in a proper state of mind to receive it. The cells being so inconvenient, in point of size and ventilation, he feels the want of a proper place to communicate with the prisoners. There is no attempt made to instruct the prisoners. They are provided with Bibles, prayer-books, and tracts, and no books come into the prison without his sanction. The insecure state of the chapel has often occurred to him. It is likewise too low, and most offensive in warm weather. A majority of the prisoners are uneducated, a third of them unable to read or write, and many even who can do so, are so ignorant upon religious subjects, as not to be able to explain the reasons for the celebration of the great festivals of the church. The ordinary class of prisoners in this gaol are not of a very bad description, but the large cattle fairs at Appleby and Brough Hill occasionally supply practised thieves from London and Glasgow. The prisoners express no desire for instruction. They generally feel the imprisonment at first, but the effect soon wears off; they form new connexions, and it becomes a new life to them. The chaplain’s journal contains merely an account of duty performed by him.

Classification.—The classification of prisoners is not preserved while they are at labour upon the wheel.

Labour.—Tread-wheel for males, crank-wheel for females and infirm prisoners. The tread-mill was only completed the last year, and being without a regulator, its motion is at one time of great velocity, and at another the reverse. The labour is occasionally suspended in consequence. The keeper reported the cause to the magistrates, who ordered a regulator to be added to the machinery, nine months ago. The velocity of the wheel is at present endeavoured to be corrected by clogging it with a piece of timber, a very improper, if not a dangerous practice. Malt is crushed, and a small quantity of flour made and dressed by the crankwheels, but no payment is received for this operation from the owners of the grain. 612 quarters of malt were crushed by the prisoners from January 11th, to June 24th, in the present year.

SCALE OF CRANK LABOUR.
Months Employed	Number of Work­ing Hours per Day.	Number of Pris­oners the Cranks will employ at one time in sepa­rate Apart­ments.	The ordin­ary Veloc­ity of the Cranks per Minute.	How the Labour is appor­tioned to the Number and Strength of the Pris­oners employed:	The Daily Amount of Labour performed by every Pris­on­er.	How re­corded with pre­ci­sion.	Ap­pli­cat­ion of its Power.
Each month in the Year.	10 hours in Summer, in Winter during daylight.	Seven prisoners in three Rooms, viz.—four, two, and one.	From 65 to 70 in two mills in Male Wards, in Female Ward about 40, a long crank handle where four works at one time.	The labour is in grinding malt and corn; the mills are regulated by a screw to admit a greater or less quantity of corn, according to the strength of the prisoners.	From 1½ quarter of malt to 4 quarters, depending on the description of mills employed.	By the number of quarters of malt or corn ground.	Grinding corn or malt.

Offences and Punishments.—The usual offences among the prisoners are creating disturbances, and purloining from each other; punished by stoppage of provisions, whipping, and solitary confinement. Whipping is indicted by the turnkey, in presence of the keeper; a birch rod is made use of for the boys.

Scourge.—Handle of oak, eighteen inches long, with nine lashes of common whipcord, twenty-two inches in length, with eight single knots in each.

Irons.—For refractory prisoners. No. 1, set of double irons, 21 lbs.; No. 2, set of double irons, 19½ lbs.; used in conveying male convicts to the hulks, 5½ lbs.; ditto, females, 18 oz.

Visits and Letters.—The convicted prisoners are visited by an order from a magistrate. The untried, at the discretion of the keeper. There is no place in the prison conveniently fitted up for the purpose. They see the strangers in a day-room, in the presence of the keeper or turnkey. Letters are inspected coming in and going out.

Accounts, Expenditure, Books.—The bills are laid before the visiting magistrates every quarter, and are then presented at the general sessions for approval, and after being signed by the chairman, are delivered to the treasurer, who disburses the respective accounts.

Books:—Register.—Containing an alphabetical list of all prisoners under the heads of When committed—name—bv whom committed—age—offence—remarks.

Keeper's Private Register.—Name—age—height—marks—personal description—where born—profession—last residence—particulars of former life and crime—date of admission and trial—how disposed of.

Keeper's Journal.—Containing reports to quarter-sessions, and entries of daily occurrences in the prison.

Employment Book.—Presenting a daily account of the distribution and employments of the prisoners.

Stock Book.—Inventory of the stock and furniture, the property of the county, taken every quarter.

Account Book of Prison Expenditure.—Entries of all articles, with their prices, received for the use of the prison.

Labour Book.—Entry of the quantity of grain received, and manufactured.

General Discipline.—The discipline maintained in this prison is not of a very severe character. On going round at night, I found one prisoner dressed in his sleeping cell, with the materials for striking a light, engaged in smoking tobacco. The faulty construction of the buildings, with the small number of the officers, make it a very difficult task to prevent such irregularities. Silence is enjoined as a rule, but with very imperfect means of enforcing it, either at the mill, or in the airing-yards, and none in the cells at night. The conduct of the debtors is described, by the keeper and turnkey, as very indifferent, and injurious to the general discipline of the prison; they carry on communication with the criminal prisoners, and have, generally, been concerned in the escapes that have taken place. They are noisy, dissatisfied, and always quarrelling; they do not regularly attend Divine service. Another obstacle to the discipline of this small prison is, the occupation of a whole ward and airing yard by a person acquitted of the murder of his wife, on the ground of insanity, and who has been confined here for a period of fifteen years. He is allowed to purchase whatever provisions he pleases, with a quart of beer daily: he receives 2s. 4d. weekly, from the parish of Kendal, for his maintenance; he is permitted to walk outside of the prison, in front of the keeper’s house; he has been of singular service, at times, in preventing the escape of prisoners, and has, in two instances, suffered severe personal injuries in consequence. The chaplain states "that he attends to his religious duties, and conducts himself perfectly as a sane man; he has administered the Sacrament to him; has sometimes, without being aware of the cause, found him irritated; he has generally found him irritable and out of his usual way when any prisoner has been committed for a crime which has resemblance to the one for which he was tried; he has never adverted to the circumstance of his own case, in the communication he has had with him." About two years ago, when a prisoner was committed upon a charge of murder, he was extremely excited, and the keeper notices that he is always in an irritable state at the period of the assizes. This person was a surgeon, and in a respectable rank of life. A female has also been confined here, under similar circumstances, for eight years; when first in prison, she attempted her own life; the chaplain considers her of weak, but not altogether of unsound mind; she is very ignorant, can neither read nor write, and has very imperfect ideas of any subject, but is very tractable and harmless; she appears a fitter subject for a poorhouse than a gaol.

There being no county asylum for lunatics, it happens that they are occasionally sent here for safe keeping until otherwise disposed of.

The chaplain, in his report to the October sessions, 1836, states "that the debtors are by no means regular in their attendance at chapel; one of them has not been there tor the last eighteen months; they have been frequently quarrelsome among themselves, and troublesome to the keeper, so much so, that he has found it necessary to put one of them under restraint. The silent system has been enforced among the felons, as far as practicable; but when men are sentenced to long periods of confinement, in a prison constituted as this is, they must frequently be thrown into each other’s society, and communications will sometimes be made which, in his opinion, no vigilance can prevent. The longer men are imprisoned, greater intimacies will be formed, and more frequent violations of this rule occur. This is one evil necessarily arising from long imprisonments where there is a want of means to carry this system into full effect. This, however, is not the only evil connected with long imprisonment. By long confinement and hard labour in prisons, from wearing the same dress, and using the same diet, whether the crimes be of greater or less magnitude, men gradually lose that feeling of self-respect so necessary to keep them in the path of duty. In lapse of time, from their degraded situation, they become callous to the opinion of the world, reckless of their own character, and at the end of twelve or eighteen months, instead of leaving the prison with that abhorrence of it which they had at an earlier period, they leave it in character more degraded, and in principle more demoralized, than they were when they first entered it. The chaplain has ventured to state this opinion from a conviction of its correctness; which conviction arises from his observation of men’s conduct previous, and subsequent to their liberation; and upon the whole he is led to this conclusion, that if the object of punishment be the prevention of crime and the reformation of offenders (as it undoubtedly is), that object may be more readily obtained by short than by long periods of imprisonment. Since October sessions, 1835, there have been confined in this prison, debtors 19, felons 44. Of the latter, 16 could read, 10 could not; and the remaining 18 could both read and write. The number of prisoners committed during the last twelve months is considerably greater than that of the preceding year. This, at first sight, might seem to reflect upon the morality of the county; but when it is stated that a much greater number of vagrants (who were neither natives of nor residents in the county), have been committed in the present, than in any previous year, it will do away with any imputation of that sort.”

It appears by the keeper’s report books, that from 1830 to 1836, inclusive, there were 276 prisoners committed to this gaol on criminal charges, of which number 152 were natives of the county of Westmoreland, and 124 were not. The keeper states that prisoners are brought in by the constables, nine times out of ten, in a state of intoxication, and the debtors on coming in are worse.

Keeper.—Age 53; appointed 1834; married; family in business; salary, 130l. Out of this sum he pays the turnkey, whom he hires, 30l. a-year. Receives 1s. a-mile for conveying a single convict to the hulks; 9d. a-mile each if more than one. The Earl of Thanet, the hereditary high-sheriff, who appoints the keeper, pays 15l. of the salary, and the county the remainder; he gives a bond of 2000l. to the sheriff; he has neither coals, candles, nor soap; he has to provide calendars at the assizes, also handcuffs and irons tor prisoners, at his own cost. When first appointed he had to pay his predecessor 4l. for these articles.

I cannot help expressing an opinion, that the providing of articles of this kind, should not be imposed upon, nor left to the discretion of, the keeper. The county should certainly provide and pay for them.

Turnkey—Age 39; appointed 1834; married; cabinet-maker by trade; salary, 30l., and 3l, a-year from the chaplain for acting as clerk. Does not reside nor take his meals in the prison.

Matron.—Age 50; appointed 1834; has lived in the prison 37years, the management having been in members of her family; salary, 25l.; she has also charge of the county court-house adjoining.

Chaplain.—.Appointed 1834; salary, 42l., out of which he pays the acting clerk 3l. The chaplain is second master of the endowed grammar-school at Appleby.

Surgeon.—Appointed 1834; salary, 10l. 10s., including medicines.