Alternative Names The Cage
Nation England
County Hertfordshire
Location Junction of Church Street and Dell Springs, Buntingford (with Layston)
Map location exact or closely approximate
Year opened Unknown
Year closed Unknown
Century of Operation 1700-1799, 1800-1899
Building Type Lock-Up
Remarks Grade II listed. Built early 18th century. Restored 1999.
'Town lockup. Early C18, walltop and roof renewed in mid C19. Red brick in English-bond, top of wall in Flemish-bond with toothed corbelled top, dark weatherboarding to gable triangles, and boarded roof covered in sheet iron. A small square building near the bridge over the River Rib, about 3m x 3m, orientated N-S with central door on S. Recessed battened and framed door with decorative ironhinges hung on iron pins from heavyframe under timber lintol. Shaped ends to wallplates and purlins projecting at each end. Of special historic interest as a local antiquity. '
Historic England, National Heritage List for England, 'The Cage or Lockup', Buntingford, LEN1347993
'Returns of rural police established under the County Police Acts 1839 and 1840. Station - Buntingford. Description - lock-up. Expense of Fitting Up - nil. Annual Rent - nil. Remarks - none. [Note: it is not known whether this refers to the freestanding cage at the junction of Church Street and Dell Springs, the old bridewell on Wyddial Road (see separate listing), or Buntingford's police station on the High Street which was first occupied c.1842 (see separate listing).]'
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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