Reading Town Gaol or Compter

Overview

Details

Records

Overview

Prison Type   Local Prison -  Common Gaol & House of Correction/Bridewell

Jurisdiction   Municipality

Date opened   pre 1800

Date closed   [1818]

Location   public house   Reading

Map location   in the vicinity

County   Berkshire

Critical Remarks

A very small town gaol located in a public house (called either the Three Maidens Heads or the Town Arms). Likely no longer in use by 1818.

Prison Info

Prison Type   Local Prison

Jurisdiction   Municipality

Date opened   pre 1800

Date closed   [1818]

Location   public house   Reading

Map location   in the vicinity
Lat.   51.451542  Long.   -0.9796245

County   Berkshire

Critical Remarks

A very small town gaol located in a public house (called either the Three Maidens Heads or the Town Arms). Likely no longer in use by 1818.

Principal Primary Sources

  • James Neild, The State of the Prisons of England, Scotland and Wales (London, 1812), p.500

Secondary Sources

  • Anthony Stokes, Pit of Shame: The Real Ballad of Reading Gaol (Waterside Press, 2007), p. 17