Alternative Names Bedford Gaol, Bedford County Gaol, Bedford Prison, HMP Bedford
Prison Type Local Prison - Common Gaol & House of Correction/Bridewell
Jurisdiction County
Date opened 1801
Date closed post 1900 (still open)
Location St Loyes Street Bedford
Map location exact or closely approximate
County Bedfordshire
From 1801 until c1819 the County Gaol and House of Correction were included in the same institution. Although the 1818 Return listed them as separate institutions, the statistics have been merged. Between 1818 and 1820, a separate building was erected north of the Gaol to accommodate the House of Correction. Although the two institutions shared the same senior management, they were listed separately in the official documents. In 1847-49, the County Gaol and House of Correction were rebuilt as one institution on the same site.
Alternative Names Bedford Gaol, Bedford County Gaol, Bedford Prison, HMP Bedford
Prison Type Local Prison
Jurisdiction County
Date opened 1801
Date closed post 1900 (still open)
Location St Loyes Street Bedford
Map location exact or closely approximate
Lat. 52.1395 Long. -0.4701
County Bedfordshire
From 1801 until c1819 the County Gaol and House of Correction were included in the same institution. Although the 1818 Return listed them as separate institutions, the statistics have been merged. Between 1818 and 1820, a separate building was erected north of the Gaol to accommodate the House of Correction. Although the two institutions shared the same senior management, they were listed separately in the official documents. In 1847-49, the County Gaol and House of Correction were rebuilt as one institution on the same site.
Year 1818
Annual Committed - 334
Daily Greatest number - 105
Year 1823
Annual Committed - 149
Daily Census - 26
Year 1828
Annual Committed - 210
Daily Census - 40
Year 1833
Annual Committed - 202
Daily Census - 51
Year 1838
Annual Confined - 201
Daily Census - 22
Year 1843
Annual Confined - 348
Daily Census - 37
Year 1848
Annual Confined - 350
Daily Daily average - 30
Year 1853
Annual Confined - 830
Daily Daily average - 160
Year 1858
Annual Committed - 575
Daily Daily average - 122
Year 1863
Annual Committed - 611
Daily Greatest number - 204
Year 1868
Annual Committed - 759
Daily Daily average - 149
Year 1873
Annual Committed - 373
Daily Daily average - 44
Year 1878
Annual Committed - 738
Daily Daily average - 147
Year 1883
Annual Committed - 503
Daily Daily average - 87
Year 1888
Annual Committed - 485
Daily Daily average - 104
Year 1893
Annual Committed - 407
Daily -
Year 1898
Annual Committed - 328
Daily -
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGR3/20
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Annual reports of Chaplain to Bedford Prison
Dates: 1850
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGR2/1
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Annual reports of the Governor of the Gaol
Dates: 1850-1853
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGR3/1-19
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Annual reports to the Quarter Sessions, including the reports of the Keeper of the Gaol & House of Correction; the Surgeon of the prisons and the Chaplain of the prisons
Dates: 1839-1857
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: BorBE10/3
Collection: Borough of Bedford archives
Description: Contract, including details of contribution of Borough of Bedford to the costs of the rebuilding of the Gaol and House of Correction by the County
Dates: 1846-1850
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: CP/R/6-8
Collection: Clerk of the Peace
Description: Returns, including prisoners tried at Quarter Sessions (1851, 1852, 1855), alterations of Gaol, House of Correction, Lock-ups (1853, 1854)Â
Dates: 1851-1855
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: PM2646-2683
Collection: Pym archive
Description: Papers sent to Chairman of Quarter Sessions, including prison regulations
Dates: 1840-1842
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGR1/1-56
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Reports and papers on the gaol, on staffing matters (appointments, dismissals, salaries), the treatment of prisoners, rules and regulations, prison labour, contracts with other prisons to receive prisoners, financial matters, health and medical matters, and the gaol's enlargement and improvement
Dates: 1823-1881
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGV17/1
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Warrant to remove all felons, debtors and other prisoners to the new Gaol in St Loyes, Bedford
Dates: 1801
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGV17/2
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Order that all prisoners in the Gaol or Bridewell be employed in such business as they have been accustomed to.
Dates: 1807
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGV2/1-6
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Correspondence concerning Prison matters, including plans etc for the new Prison
Dates: 1848-1851
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QSP31
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Circular letters from the Home Office
Dates: 1891-1923
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QSR
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions rolls. Includes material relating prison administration
Dates: undated
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QSR1801/113
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Report of the Committee of Magistrates appointed to consider the regulations for the management of the (new) Gaol and BridewellÂ
Dates: 1801
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM7/589
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Juvenile Adult Prisoners. Bedford Prison: special treatment, 1899-1900
Dates: 1899-1900
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGR2/2-8
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Reports and papers concerning the prison (including prisoners in custody, criminal statistics, Visiting Justices, Governor, Surgeon, and Chaplain, accounts of petty cash and salaries, discharged prisoners)
Dates: 1861-1878
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGR4
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Minute book of the Visiting Justices
Dates: 1825-1833
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGR5
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Minute book of the Visiting Justices
Dates: 1833-1844
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGR6
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Minute book of the Visiting Justices
Dates: 1844-1848
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: P85/2/4/10
Collection: None
Description: Bundle of receipted invoices to the Luton church Restoration Committee. Includes receipt to Governor of Gaol for matting supplied.
Dates: 1865
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: BorBF17/1
Collection: Borough of Bedford archives
Description: Papers on payment of Borough's share of the cost of enlarging the County Gaol and rebuilding the House of Correction, with Counsel's opinion
Dates: 1849
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: BorBF17/2
Collection: Borough of Bedford archives
Description: Statement of terms on which corporation of Bedford and Justices of the County of Bedford shared cost of Gaol building etc
Dates: c.1850
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: BorBF17/9
Collection: Borough of Bedford archives
Description: Consols certificates, endorsed 'prison', presumably used as security for Prison
Dates: 1851-1855
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGV5/1-10
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Quarterly abstracts of the accounts of the Gaol and House of Correction, including provisions, repairs, salaries, relief to discharged prisoners, and schedules of bills and other payments
Dates: 1843-1866
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGV6/1-2
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Prison accounts
Dates: 1851-1856
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGV8/1-6
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Account of expenses payable by the Treasury to Bedfordshire JPs in respect of the maintenance in Bedford Gaol of prisoners sentenced to transportation
Dates: 1850-1856
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: PRIS1/2/1-3
Collection: Bedford Prison
Description: Governor's journals
Dates: 1852-1877
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM2/293-295
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Bedford Gaol, Bedfordshire: Governor's Journal
Dates: 1852-1859
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: PRIS4/2/1
Collection: Bedford Prison
Description: Prison visitors, rota books
Dates: 1881-1935
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: PRIS4/3/1
Collection: Bedford Prison
Description: Prison visitors, inute books
Dates: 1878-1926
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: PRIS3/2/1
Collection: Bedford Prison
Description: Register of Officers
Dates: 1890-1927
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: PRIS3/2/2
Collection: Bedford Prison
Description: Register of officers, arranged by rank
Dates: 1895-1910
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: Z603/1
Collection: None
Description: Photograph album showing incumbents and curates of various Bedfordshire parishes, including George Maclear, Prison Chaplain
Dates: c.1865
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QSR1834/4/2/6
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Letter to the Quarter Sessions from Robert Salmon proposing himself as a candidate for the vacancy of Governor of the New House of Correction
Dates: 1834
Archive name: Huntingdon Library and Archives
Catalogue ref: HCP/1/6 Miscellanea
Collection: Huntingdonshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Reply from Bedford that the Keeper of the combined County Gaol and House of Correction received £190, and house plus £25 to replace fees and garnish money
Dates: 1817
Archive name: Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies
Catalogue ref: Q/AG/2/9a-b
Collection: Buckinghamshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Committee papers and memoranda, including reply to the County Gaoler, Bedfordshire, to a questionnaireÂ
Dates: 1817
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGV7
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Particulars of pensions in pursuance of Pensions Act (1877)
Dates: 1879-1881
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: PRIS2/2/1-7
Collection: Bedford Prison
Description: Nominal registers
Dates: 1879-1901
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGV10/1-4
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Registers of prisoners in County Gaol or House of Correction
Dates: 1799-1876
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGV12/1-2
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Register of Prisoners, probably on remand
Dates: 1847-1879
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGV13/1
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Register of prisoners received from outside the county and not convicted at Bedfordshire Courts
Dates: 1850-1865
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGV13/2
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Register of Middlesex prisoners and government convicts in Bedford GaolÂ
Dates: 1863-1869
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGV15/1-2
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: List of debtors in Gaol
Dates: 1770-1878
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: BorBF4/83/4-7
Collection: Borough of Bedford archives
Description: Quarter Sessions rolls with fragments of returns of prisoners sent for trial (one dated 1832)Â
Dates: 1832
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: PRIS6/1
Collection: Bedford Prison
Description: Execution book
Dates: 1895-1962
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: PUAC3/74
Collection: None
Description: Letter from Fred Lightfoot at Bedford Prison regarding his son Henry
Dates: 1887
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGV16/2
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Commitment and Description book
Dates: 1847-1850
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGV9
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Details of prisoners tried at Assizes
Dates: 1834-1866
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: BorBF3/4
Collection: Borough of Bedford archives
Description: Borough Quarter Sessions minutes, including listing of prisoners in the Gaol, and town prisoners to be kept in the County Gaol
Dates: 1824-1831
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: PP1-10
Collection: Prison Plans
Description: Plans of a proposed County Gaol (1786), and later rebuildings and improvements (19th century)
Dates: 1786, 19th century
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGE1
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Minute book of Quarter Sessions relating to the erection of the new Gaol
Dates: 1797-1801
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGE2
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Minute book of Prison Building Committee regarding alterations to the Gaol
Dates: 1848-1849
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGE3/22
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Memorandum and agreement between the Magistrates of the County of Bedford and Jn Wing, Bedford, Builder, including particulars of new building
Dates: 1801
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: QGE3/23
Collection: Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions
Description: Rebuilding of Gaol. Abstract of title to land.Â
Dates: 1841
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: SL6/16/20-21
Collection: Shuttleworth Collection, miscellaneous architectural drawings
Description: Entrance gates and gates to prisoners' cells
Dates: 1894
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: SL6/21/28
Collection: Shuttleworth Collection, miscellaneous architectural drawings
Description: Additional storey to centre block of solitary cells
Dates: Undated
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: X1/60
Collection: None
Description: E.W. Brayley's 'Beauties of England & Wales', with inset plans of County Gaol and house of industry
Dates: 1807
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: Z495/2-24
Collection: None
Description: Correspondence relating to plans for new County Gaol
Dates: 1817-1820
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: X373/489-492
Collection: Photographs and other illustrations
Description: Door from the Gaol, Silver Street
Dates: c.1880
Archive name: Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Catalogue ref: Z49/419
Collection: Illustrations
Description: Colour picture of Bedford County Gaol (1973 copy of original, c.1820)
Dates: 1973