Prison Type Convict Prison
Date opened 1838
Date closed post 1900 (still open)
Location Clissold Road Newport (Isle of Wight)
Map location exact or closely approximate
County Hampshire
Opened in December 1838 as a prison for young male offenders, ideally aged 16 and under (though some also aged in their late teens), to provide them with a course of moral, religious and industrial training, together with corrective discipline, to prepare them for emigration (both as free emigrants and convicts). By the mid 1850s, the Parkhurst boys were no longer exiled but liberated in the UK, and the function of the prison was broadened to include all boys sentenced to terms exceeding one year imprisonment. With the rise of reformatory and industrial schools the scale of Parkhurst was reduced and its function questioned. Between 1863 and 1864, the boys were removed from the prison and it was converted into a temporary female convict establishment. In 1869 the women were removed to the new Woking Female Prison (ID 1015) and Parkhurst became a prison for male convicts (at first invalids, but soon broadening to several categories of convicts).
Prison Type Convict Prison
Date opened 1838
Date closed post 1900 (still open)
Location Clissold Road Newport (Isle of Wight)
Map location exact or closely approximate
Lat. 50.715278 Long. -1.308333
County Hampshire
Opened in December 1838 as a prison for young male offenders, ideally aged 16 and under (though some also aged in their late teens), to provide them with a course of moral, religious and industrial training, together with corrective discipline, to prepare them for emigration (both as free emigrants and convicts). By the mid 1850s, the Parkhurst boys were no longer exiled but liberated in the UK, and the function of the prison was broadened to include all boys sentenced to terms exceeding one year imprisonment. With the rise of reformatory and industrial schools the scale of Parkhurst was reduced and its function questioned. Between 1863 and 1864, the boys were removed from the prison and it was converted into a temporary female convict establishment. In 1869 the women were removed to the new Woking Female Prison (ID 1015) and Parkhurst became a prison for male convicts (at first invalids, but soon broadening to several categories of convicts).
Year 1843
Annual Confined - 423
Daily Census - 284
Year 1848
Annual Confined - 785
Daily Census - 622
Year 1853
Annual Confined - 644
Daily Census - 616
Year 1858
Annual Confined - 617
Daily Census - 402
Year 1863
Annual Confined - 816
Daily Census - 575
Year 1868
Annual Confined - 376
Daily Census - 319
Year 1873
Annual Confined - 687
Daily Census - 559
Year 1878
Annual Confined - 791
Daily Census - 657
Year 1883
Annual Confined - 901
Daily Census - 676
Year 1888
Annual Confined - 714
Daily Census - 540
Year 1893
Annual Confined - 846
Daily Census - 648
Year 1898
Annual -
Daily Daily average - 685
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 21/2
Collection: Home Office
Description: Prisons entry books, series I, Parkhurst
Dates: 1838-1843
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 21/3
Collection: Home Office
Description: Prisons entry books, series I, Parkhurst
Dates: 1843-1849
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 45/1193
Collection: Home Office
Description: Correspondence, Prison Inspectors, request that practice of sending very young boys to Parkhurst ceases
Dates: 1845
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 45/1401
Collection: Home Office
Description: Parkhurst report (1845)
Dates: 1845
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 45/1649
Collection: Home Office
Description: Discharge of boys to philanthropic institutions
Dates: 1846, 1848
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 45/1838
Collection: Home Office
Description: Emigration of boys from Parkhurst to work in WA
Dates: 1847-1848
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 45/239
Collection: Home Office
Description: Emigration of boys as apprentices
Dates: 1841-1846
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 45/2931
Collection: Home Office
Description: Exile of boys from Parkhurst to WA
Dates: 1848-1849
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 45/2952
Collection: Home Office
Description: Parkhurst, educational arrangements
Dates: 1849
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 45/335
Collection: Home Office
Description: Treatment of prisoners
Dates: 1843-1844
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 45/619
Collection: Home Office
Description: Papers on transportation of juveniles from Parkhurst, with reports on state of prisoners while at Parkhurst
Dates: 1844-1846
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 45/963
Collection: Home Office
Description: Parkhurst, admission of boys
Dates: 1839-1845
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 7/221
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Parkhurst, as a Prison for young offenders
Dates: 1838
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 7/224
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Warrants constituting and appointing Convict Prisons etc. Parkhurst Convict Prison
Dates: 1856-1885
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 7/558
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Parkhurst, as a reformatory for boys
Dates: 1837-1865
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 45/621
Collection: Home Office
Description: Report on health of boys and change of duties of Chaplain
Dates: 1844
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 45/966
Collection: Home Office
Description: Report of Governor and Chaplain
Dates: 1845
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 45/2138
Collection: Home Office
Description: Letters from visitors of Parkhurst about punishments
Dates: 1848
Archive name: Hampshire Archives and Local Studies
Catalogue ref: 5M62/22 page 144
Collection: Winchester Probate District regsiters
Description: Registered copy will of Richard Bassett of Parkhurst, Isle of Wight, Prison Warder, formerly Ship's Corporal in the Royal Navy
Dates: 1884
Archive name: Hampshire Archives and Local Studies
Catalogue ref: 5M62/27 page 304
Collection: Winchester Probate District regsiters
Description: Registered copy will of William Bird Everton, HM Prison, Parkhurst, Isle of Wight, Warder
Dates: 1894
Archive name: Hampshire Archives and Local Studies
Catalogue ref: 5M62/29 page 253
Collection: Winchester Probate District regsiters
Description: Registered copy will of Robert Thomas Howes of Her Majesty's Ship, Devastation (late of Parkhurst, Prison Warder)
Dates: 1898
Archive name: Hampshire Archives and Local Studies
Catalogue ref: 5M62/29 page 296
Collection: Winchester Probate District regsiters
Description: Registered copy will of Thomas Gunning of Parkhurst, Isle of Wight, Chief Warder of Parkhurst Prison
Dates: 1898
Archive name: Hampshire Archives and Local Studies
Catalogue ref: 5M62/3 page 233
Collection: Winchester Probate District regsiters
Description: Registered copy will of Robert Bell of Elm Grove, Isle of Wight, Principal Warder of Parkhurst Prison
Dates: 1860
Archive name: Hampshire Archives and Local Studies
Catalogue ref: 5M62/10 page 221
Collection: Winchester Probate District regsiters
Description: Registered copy will of George Shirlaw, Deputy Governor of Parkhurst Prison, late of Newport Prison
Dates: 1869
Archive name: Hampshire Archives and Local Studies
Catalogue ref: 5M62/26 page 153
Collection: Winchester Probate District regsiters
Description: Registered copy will of John Young, of 55 Church Road, Landport, Portsmout. Retired Schoolmaster at Parkhurst Prison.
Dates: 1892
Archive name: Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies
Catalogue ref: HMP/A/Box 1
Collection: Aylesbury Gaol
Description: Register of deaths in females Prisons, Parkhurst
Dates: 1863-1913
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 24/15
Collection: Home Office
Description: Parkhurst Prison registers, volume 1
Dates: 1838-1863
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 2/59
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Parkhurst Prison, Isle of Wight, register of prisoners
Dates: 1851-1863
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 45/618
Collection: Home Office
Description: Report on Parkhurst immigrants who arrived on ship Mandarin
Dates: 1844
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 8/156
Collection: Home Office
Description: Quarterly returns of prisoners in Convict Prisons and Criminal Lunatic Asylums, Parkhurst Prison, Isle of Wight, female prisoners
Dates: 1863
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 8/162-206
Collection: Home Office
Description: Quarterly returns of prisoners in Convict Prisons and Criminal Lunatic asylums, Parkhurst Prison, Isle of Wight (excluding HO 8/202)
Dates: 1864-1875
Archive name: Hampshire Archives and Local Studies
Catalogue ref: 4M92/N23/21
Collection: None
Description: Papers relating to trespass in Parkhurst Woods, including plan of the forest indicating the Prison
Dates: 1880
Archive name: Isle of Wight Record Office
Catalogue ref: NBC/1/945, 1196, 1220
Collection: Newport Borough Corporation
Description: Agreements between the Mayor etc of Newport and the Directors of Convict Prisons, for supply of water to Parkhurst Prisons
Dates: 1881-1899
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 7/351
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Parkhurst Prison graveyard, and burial in outside cemeteries
Dates: 1886-1887