Reading Borough Gaol and Bridewell

Overview

Details

Records

Overview

Alternative Names   Reading Borough Bridewell, Reading Town Bridewell, Reading Borough Gaol

Prison Type   Local Prison -  Common Gaol, Lock Up

Jurisdiction   Municipality

Date opened   pre 1800

Date closed   [1838]

Location   Greyfriars Church, Friar Street   Reading

Map location   exact or closely approximate

County   Berkshire

Critical Remarks

By 1824 the borough authorities had entered into a contract with the county to send prisoners committed for trial and those sentenced to hard labour to the County Gaol and House of Correction (ID 3). But the Borough Gaol and Bridewell continued to hold those under examination, those sentenced to imprisonment without labour and debtors. Last appears in the penal statistics for 1837, and likely used as a lock up only from about 1838 onwards.

Prison Info

Alternative Names   Reading Borough Bridewell, Reading Town Bridewell, Reading Borough Gaol

Prison Type   Local Prison

Jurisdiction   Municipality

Date opened   pre 1800

Date closed   [1838]

Location   Greyfriars Church, Friar Street   Reading

Map location   exact or closely approximate
Lat.   51.4568591  Long.   -0.9758778

County   Berkshire

Critical Remarks

By 1824 the borough authorities had entered into a contract with the county to send prisoners committed for trial and those sentenced to hard labour to the County Gaol and House of Correction (ID 3). But the Borough Gaol and Bridewell continued to hold those under examination, those sentenced to imprisonment without labour and debtors. Last appears in the penal statistics for 1837, and likely used as a lock up only from about 1838 onwards.

Prisoner Statistics

 

Year 1818

Annual Committed   -   89

Daily Greatest number   -   18

 

Year 1832

Annual Committed   -   209

Daily Greatest number   -   10

Principal Primary Sources

  • James Neild, The State of the Prisons of England, Scotland and Wales (London, 1812), p.500
  • Account of Gaols, Houses of Correction or Penitentiaries in the United Kingdom, 1818 (Parl. Papers, 1819, XVII.371), p.2
  • The Third Report of the Committee of the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline and for the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders (London, 1821), Appendix, p.5; Fifth Report of the Committee of the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline and for the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders (London, 1823), Appendix, p.4; Sixth Report of the Committee of the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline and for the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders (London, 1824), Appendix, p.6; Eighth Report of the Committee of the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline and for the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders (London, 1832), Appendix, p.2
  • Return of Places of Confinement Outside Gaol Acts in England and Wales (Parl. Papers, 1833, XXVIII.425), p.81
  • Royal Commission of Inquiry into Municipal Corporations of England and Wales, First Report, Appendices: Part 1 (Parl. Papers, 1835, XXIII.1), p.115
  • Inspectors of Prisons of Great Britain I. Home District, Second Report (Parl. Papers, 1837, XXXII.1), p.50; Inspectors of Prisons of Great Britain I. Home District, Third Report (Parl. Papers, 1837-38, XXX.1), p.181; Inspectors of Prisons of Great Britain I. Home District, Fourth Report (Parl. Papers, 1839, XXI.1), p.85; Inspectors of Prisons of Great Britain I. Home District, Fourteenth Report (Parl. Papers, 1850, XXVIII.1), p.62

Secondary Sources

  • Anthony Stokes, Pit of Shame: The Real Ballad of Reading Gaol (Waterside Press, 2007), p. 17; http://www.berkshirehistory.com/villages/reading_bridewell_description_1808.html