Nation England
County Somerset
Location Mill Lane Monkton Combe
Map location exact or closely approximate
Year opened c.1776
Year closed unknown
Century of Operation 1700-1799, 1800-1899
Building Type
Remarks Constructed c. 1776. Author Leslie Brook notes that it was situated away from the centre of the village and near to the Somerset Coal Canal, which was under construction in the 1790s and so may have supplied navvies for inmates, the men having spent their wages in the local pub!
'The Lock-up in Mill Lane is a small 17th/18th century blind house. It is square in plan with domical stone roof and a narrow, square headed door opening for a studded door with barred peep-hole.'
Pastscape, 'Monument No. 204165'
'Lock-up. Mid - late C18, probably c.1776. Ashlar. Square on plan with a plinth at the rear. Domical stone roof. Narrow square headed door opening; plank door with barred peep hole. No windows.'
Historic England, National Heritage List for England, 'Lock Up, LEN 1288263'
'Built of Bath stone, the lock-up at Monkton Combe is some nine feet square, has a domed roof which is without the ball finial generally found in this type ... Its iron-studded door leads to two cells inside, one of which has only a few small holes for the admission of air. A sketch of 1850 shows stocks immediately in front of the door of this building, but these no longer exist.'
Leslie Brooke, Some West-Country Lock-Ups (Castle Cary, Fox Publications, 1985), pp. 16, 95 (sketch)
Description: Door to the lock-up. It is not the original, but a replacement installed during restoration work in 1968.
Photo by: © Rosalind Crone
Description: Exterior wall of the second cell. Faces the roadside. Showing the ventilation holes which have been drilled into the top of the wall, below the roof line.
Photo by: © Rosalind Crone
Description: The lock-up at dusk, and showing it to be very much part of village life.
Photo by: © Rosalind Crone
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