Old Cumbria Gazetteer - Appleby Gaol, Appleby

Appleby Gaol, Appleby

Appleby Gaol

site name:-

Appleby Police Station

locality:-

Appleby

civil parish:-

Appleby-in-Westmorland (formerly Westmorland)

county:-

Cumbria

locality type:-

gaol (once)

locality type:-

prison

coordinates:-

NY68512042 (about)

1Km square:-

NY6820

10Km square:-

NY62

CFX95.jpg (taken 20.3.2017)
photograph

CFX94.jpg (taken 20.3.2017)

Cell door, now in Kendal Museum.

evidence:-

old map:- Hill 1754
placename:- Correction House

source data:-

Town plan, A Plan of Appleby in Westmorland, scale about 32 ins to 1 mile, engraved by Nathaniel Hill, 1754.
"Correction House"

evidence:-

old text:- Gents Mag
placename:- Westmoreland County Gaol

source data:-

Magazine, The Gentleman's Magazine or Monthly Intelligencer or Historical Chronicle, published by Edward Cave under the pseudonym Sylvanus Urban, and by other publishers, London, monthly from 1731 to 1922.

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Gentleman's Magazine 1806 p.102 "Mr. Nield's Remarks on Cumberland &c. Gaols."
"..."
"WESTMORELAND COUNTY GAOL at Appleby. James Bewsher, gaoler, salary, 20l. he is a blacksmith, and his workshop is at the foot of the bridge, nearly opposite the gaol. Fees, felons, 6s. 8d.; debtors, 13s 4d. out of which the under-sheriff receives 6s. 8d. for his liberate."
"For conveyance of transports to Whitehaven, 1s. per mile. Garnish, 1s. Chaplain, Rev. James Metcalfe; salary, 15l.; duty, prayers and sermon Sunday afternoon. Surgeon, Mr. Bushby, salary, none; makes a bill. Allowance: debtors, none; felons, 4d. 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 reach of the floods, but the water overflows part of the court yard, which is 32 yards by 22; and there being no other court, all descriptions of prisoner associate together in the day time. The lower part of the gaol consists of 4 vaulted wards for felons, 14 feet 6 inches by 18 feet; a window in each, but no chimney; no cooking-"

evidence:-

old text:- Gents Mag 1806

source data:-

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Gentleman's Magazine 1806 p.103 "[cooking-]room, the provisions are dressed in the open arch, under a flight of steps; which lead to 3 good roooms with chimneys, for debtors; the floors of the wards are flagged; and each prisoner is allowed straw and 2 blankets. Gaol delivery once a year; a pump in the court; the Act for preservation of health and clauses against spiritous liquors conspicuously hung up. The gaol clean. I copied the table of fees which are hung up, viz."
"At the Midsummer General Quarter Session of the peace holden at Appleby, in and for the said county, on Friday the 24th day of July 1797: the following table of fees to be taken by the keeper of his majesty's gaol at Appleby aforesaid, were unanimously agreed to by the bench of justices then present, viz."
"There being no chapel, divine service is performed in the debtor's day-room."
"Prisoners, Feb. 2 1801: Debtors, 2; felons, none. Sept. 24, 1802: Debtors 4; felons, none."
"No employment furnished by the County; but handicarft trades, such as tailors, shoe-makers, &c. sometimes get employment from the town."

	s. d.
For the discharge of a debtor	13 4
For every person committed by a warant of a justice of the peace	6 8
For a copy of committment when demanded	1 0
For a certificate of committment in order to obtain a writ of habeous corpus	2 6
For signing a certificate, in order to obtain a supersedeas or a rule or order of court	2 9
For the discharge of a prisoner by proclamation at the Assizes or general quarter sessions	13 4

hearsay:-

Before the 17th century prisoners were kept in Appleby Castle.

Later a chantry on the bridge became the gaol.

A new court, gaol, and house for the governor, were built 1767. Robert Adam is credited with the design, the builder was Robert Fothergill. This gaol had 10 cells, it's use as the county gaol ceased 1878, though it continued for police prisoners. Most of the gaol was demolished in the 1970s, keeping the facade - now the front of the police station, the condemned cell - last used 1840, and the section for women prisoners.

The prison was described after the Battle of Clifton Moor, during the 1745 Rebellion. Captured prisoners were held at Appleby, their conditions described in a letter from Richard Fothergill to his brother George:-

"I saw the pooor wretches brought to Appleby, little, ill-looking creatures, their heads and feet quite bare, and the most wretched rags on the rest of their bodies ... Pricked along by their drivers, scoffed and hooted at by the rabble which ran in multitudes about them, their feet all wreathed with clods of mire, mixed with blood; ready fo faint with hunger and the horror of their condition ... Notwithstanding the greatness of their crime ... yet I could not help pitying the poor unhappy wretches. Never before did I see human nature move onwards under such a load of wretchedness."

Robertson, Dawn & Koronka, Peter: 1992: Secrets and Legends of Old Westmorland: Pagan Press (Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria) &Cumbria CC (library service)

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