Only if the walls could speak!
Shepton Mallet prison in Shepton Mallet, Somerset was built in 1610 following on Act introduced by King James I, which stated that all counties had to have their own ‘House of Correction’; Shepton Mallet was the oldest working prison in the United Kingdom up until its closure at the end of March 2013. The land was purchased from Reverend Edward Barnards for a cost of £160.
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The House of correction would hold men women and children together. Debtors, thieves, ‘misfits’, vagrants and people with mental health disorders were sentenced to long periods of time in Shepton Prison. There are very few records of the conditions inside, many people could not read and write and it was not considered necessary to keep a record of ‘matters of such distaste’. Conditions and favours by jailors resulted in promiscuous behaviour, lax discipline and drunken behaviour. To say that conditions were awful is possibly a large understatement. Primitive sanitation led to regular outbreaks of gaol fever, ulcers, jaundice, asthma, itch and venereal diseases. The only real medical aid was the local surgeon (doctor) being called in to pronounce a death. Following any deaths within the house of correction bodies were taken to an unconsecrated burial ground just outside the prison, the door in the wall on Frithfield lane still exists as do 9 unmarked graves within the grounds. It was common practice with British executions to bury prisoners in this way, sad though it is now it was just the norm back then.
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