Alternative Names Wells Borough Prison and Lock Up House
Prison Type Local Prison - Common Gaol, Lock Up
Jurisdiction Municipality
Date opened 1779
Date closed [1857]
Location behind town hall Wells
Map location in the vicinity
County Somersetshire
Part of the new town hall built in 1779. By the late 1850s, the prison had become a lock up, and by 1859 a remand centre. Although it appears in the Digest of Prison Returns for 1836, no prisoners were confined in the gaol that year, and it doesn't appear again in any statistical returns.
Alternative Names Wells Borough Prison and Lock Up House
Prison Type Local Prison
Jurisdiction Municipality
Date opened 1779
Date closed [1857]
Location behind town hall Wells
Map location in the vicinity
Lat. 51.20235 Long. -2.6597878
County Somersetshire
Part of the new town hall built in 1779. By the late 1850s, the prison had become a lock up, and by 1859 a remand centre. Although it appears in the Digest of Prison Returns for 1836, no prisoners were confined in the gaol that year, and it doesn't appear again in any statistical returns.
Archive name: Somerset Archives and Local Studies
Catalogue ref: DD/DN/4/4/131
Collection: Dickinson Family
Description: Correspondence. Includes Thomas Serel at Weston-super-Mare, concerning the setting aside of a Royal Charter granting Wells the right to have a Gaol (17 May 1858-22 May 1858).
Dates: 1856-1859
Archive name: Somerset Archives and Local Studies
Catalogue ref: DD/DN/4/4/73
Collection: Dickinson Family
Description: Correspondence. Includes John Gane at Taunton Gaol concerning prison accommodation at Wells (22 March 1850).
Dates: 1850-1851
Archive name: Somerset Archives and Local Studies
Catalogue ref: DD/V/SMR/5/9
Collection: None
Description: Report on old Gaol, Croscombe
Dates: 1990
Archive name: Somerset Archives and Local Studies
Catalogue ref: Q/AC/26
Collection: None
Description: Other Courts - correspondence, report and plan of alterations to Wells town hall and Prison by Richard Carver
Dates: 1840
Archive name: Somerset Archives and Local Studies
Catalogue ref: Q/RUp/236
Collection: Somerset Quarter Sessions
Description: Plans, Wells Gaol improvements. Surveyor - Richard Carver. Palmerston's authorisation. Not a deposited plan of a public undertaking, but placed in this series at an early date (18 March 1853).
Dates: 1853
Archive name: Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre
Catalogue ref: 1075/001/179
Collection: Ushers Wiltshire Brewery
Description: 14 deeds relating to the City Arms, Wells, formerly City Gaol at corner of Queen and High Streets, with plan in deed (1833). Parties - Wells Corporation, and others.
Dates: 1833-1884
