Village lock-up

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This article is about village lock-ups that can still be found in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Village lock-ups were temporary holding places for detaining people in rural parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Lock-up in Breedon on the Hill, Derbyshire

A typical lock-up was a small building of round or polygonal plan with a single, or sometimes double cell. They were usually built from bricks (or large stones) and featured a locking door (of wood or metal) and dome or spire.

Village lock-ups have a variety of names, including: guard house, watchhouse, blind house, clink, bonehouse, bridewell, cage, jug, lobby, gaol, and roundhouse. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the latter as a: 'a place of detention for arrested persons' and cites the earliest written example as occurring in 1589.^{[#endnote_oed]}

They were often used for the confinement of drunks who were usually released the next day or to hold people being brought before the local magistrate.

Over time the village lock-up has become synonymous with drunkenness and many references to this coupling can be found in famous works of literature, including Barnaby Rudge (by Charles Dickens) and The Water Babies (by Charles Kingsley) which contains the following line: 'Put him in the round house till he gets sober'.^{[#endnote_waterbabies]}

Over 200 lock-ups are currently recorded in England and Wales, with many clustered in Essex, West Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire and a high concentration in Wiltshire and Somerset. In some Counties, such as Hampshire, there are no recorded examples.

Contents

1 History and Uses
2 Existing Lock-up Locations (incomplete)

2.1 England
2.2 Ireland
2.3 Scotland
2.4 Wales

3 Trivia
4 Notes
5 See also
6 External links
7 Further reading

History and Uses

In the 18th and 19th centuries rural communities struggled to police thefts, burglaries, shootings, drunkenness, the obstruction of watchmen, and the stealing of livestock. The latter remained a Capital Offence until 1872.

Lock-up in Worthington, Leicestershire

During this period a number of lock-ups were built as a place of detention for local rogues and miscreants until they could be removed to a town. Some roundhouses also had stocks, ducking stools, pillories, or pinfolds alongside.

They eventually fell out of use when police stations with their own holding facilities were established. Leicestershire Police Force, for example, was established in 1839.

During the Second World War many lock-ups were used by the Home Guard as sentry posts or places for storing arms. In recent years a number of lock-ups have been lovingly restored, graded as listed buildings, and often presented as examples of rural history or even as curious tourist attractions.

One anecdote is of Eliza Soar (landlady of the Staff of Life public house, Ticknall) whose back door key fitted the village lock-up. She let the drunks out after the constable had gone home. On one Ticknall feast day, a number of Melbourne men were locked up for riotous behaviour. Their wives invaded Ticknall in the night and Mrs Soar was able to release their husbands, thus preventing a worse breach of the peace.

A description of a lock-up at Taunton, written in 1830 describes: 'a hole into which drunken and bleeding men were thrust and allowed to remain until the following day when the constable with his staff of office take the poor, crippled and dirty wretches before a magistrate, followed by half the boys and idle fellows of the town'.^{[#endnote_pamphlet]}

Existing Lock-up Locations (incomplete)

England

Bedforshire

Clophill

Cambridgeshire

Eaton Socon, Needingworth

Derbyshire

Derwent Valley Mills*, Sandiacre, Smisby, Ticknall

Essex

Bradwell on Sea,Great Bardfield, Steeple Bumpstead, Tollesbury

Gloucestershire

Bisley, Cirencester, Westerleigh*

Leicestershire

Barrow-upon-Soar, Breedon-on-the-Hill, Packington, Worthington

Lincolnshire

Deeping St James

Merseyside

Everton

Nottinghamshire

Mansfield Woodhouse*, Edwinstowe

Oxfordshire

Stonesfield, Wheatley

Somerset

Castle Cary, Monkton Combe

Staffordshire

Alton, Gnosall

Surrey

Charlwood, Ewell, Lingfield

Wiltshire

Bradford-on-Avon, Bromham, Steeple Ashton

Yorkshire

Wath-upon-Dearne

Ireland

Scotland

Wales

Clwyd

Ruabon

Gwynedd

Barmouth

Trivia

The earliest recorded lock-up dates from the 13th century..

The crest of Everton Football Club features a roundhouse based on Prince Rupert's Tower which still stands on Everton Brow, Liverpool.

Notes

↑ Oxford English Dictionary.
↑ Kingsley, Charles. The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby.
↑ The Round House Worthington, Worthington Parish Council Pamphlet, produced by North West Leicestershire District Council.