button to main menu  Old Cumbria Gazetteer
gaol, Penrith
locality:-   Penrith
civil parish:-   Penrith (formerly Cumberland)
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   gaol
1Km square:-   NY5130 (?) 
10Km square:-   NY53
references:-   Harper 1907

evidence:-   old text:- Harper 1907
source data:-   Guidebook, The Manchester and Glasgow Road, by Charles G Harper, published by Chapman and Hall Ltd, London, 1907.
image HP01p131, button  goto source
Page 131:-  "..."
"That the Castle was at least once rebuilt seems certain. ... Now the place is a ruin, a condition it owes to the Penrith people themselves, who early in the time of Queen Elizabeth considered they had a more pressing need for a prison than a fortress, and accordingly with thirty loads of stone, erected a very secure, if not very comfortable, gaol. At the same period, Robert Bartram, a merchant of the town, built himself a house from the same materials; and there it stands to this day in the churchyard, inscribed "R. B. 1563.""

button to lakes menu  Lakes Guides menu.