Wells Town Gaol

Overview

Details

Records

Overview

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

Critical Remarks

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.

Prison Info

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

Critical Remarks

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.

Principal Primary Sources

  • James Neild, The State of the Prisons of England, Scotland and Wales (London, 1812), p.572
  • Royal Commission of Inquiry into Municipal Corporations of England and Wales, First Report, Appendices: Part 2 (Parl. Papers, 1835, XXIII.133), p.1372
  • Inspectors of Prisons of Great Britain III. Southern and Western District, Third Report (Parl. Papers, 1837-38, XXXI.177), p.106; Inspectors of Prisons of Great Britain III. Southern and Western District, Fifteenth Report (Parl. Papers, 1850, XXVIII.579), p.39; Inspectors of Prisons of Great Britain III. Southern and Western District, Twentieth Report (Parl. Papers, 1854-55, XXVI.1), p.66; Inspectors of Prisons of Great Britain I. Southern District, Twenty-third Report (Parl. Papers, 1857-58, XXIX.69), p.102; Inspectors of Prisons of Great Britain I. Southern District, Twenty-fifth Report (Parl. Papers, 1860, XXXV.153), p.60; Inspectors of Prisons of Great Britain I. Southern District, Twenty-ninth Report (Parl. Papers, 1864, XXVI.1), p.70

Management

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


Land & Buildings

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: Usher’s 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