Alternative Names Ashwell Cage
Nation England
County Hertfordshire
Location In garden of 20 Hodwell, Ashwell
Map location exact or closely approximate
Year opened 1800
Year closed c.1910
Century of Operation 1800-1899, 1900-1999
Building Type Lock-Up
Remarks Grade II listed. Built 1800. Lock-up use discontinued early 20th century. Thereafter used as fire engine house. See also David Short's article on Ashwell Lock-Up in the 'Your Stories' section of this website. Used as a lock-up by officers of the newly-formed Hertfordshire Constabulary in 1842.
'Village lock-up or cage. Early-mid C19. Small square building with clunch walls and slate pyramid roof. On W elevation is original studded plank door in oak frame. Barred iron grill above. Flat wooden eaves.'
Historic England, National Heritage List for England, 'Village Lock-Up in Garden of Number 20' Hodwell, Ashwell, LEN1102712
'...built in 1800' 'It is a small square building with a slate pyramid roof, and with its original studded plank door in an oak frame, and a barred iron grille above.' After a prisoner tunnelled out, 'the authorities decided the lock up was no longer fit for purpose. It was used as a lock-up until the early years of the 20th century, and thereafter housed the parish fire engine'
Ashwell Village Website, 'The Lock Up Gaol'
'Rural Police. Returns...[of] the Number of Station Houses and Strong Rooms, and the Expense of Building, Furnishing, and Repairing and Maintaining the same...Ashwell cage. Expense of fitting up, £2. 16s. No annual rent.'
British Parliamentary Papers 1842, 'Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons: Twenty Volumes. (7.) Crime. Police. Vol. XXXII. Rural Police', p.9.
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