Old Dive's History of Norwich Castle - Part the Ninth - Prison and Reform - Chapter IV

For the new prison, the younger William Wilkins proposed a "panopticon" plan, developed by Socialist and reformer Jeremy Bentham (an all-round good egg who advocated equal rights for women, the abolition of slavery, the end of the death penalty and the decriminalisation of homosexual acts … it's taken us two-hundred years but we've just about managed three out of four; just equal rights - and wages - for women to go … at least in this country).

Wilkins' design for the new prison. The keep is on the lower left.

The cock and balls shape at the bottom is the bridge and the footprint of the old guard towers.

Courtesy Norfolk Museums Service.

Wilkins' panopticon design featured wings radiating out from a central hub so that guards in the hub could potentially see every prisoner at all times. This meant that far fewer guards were needed per cell block wing and that larger prisons could be built, something desperately needed after the Napoleonic Wars, with unpaid de-mobbed soldiers roving in armed bands across the countryside.

At the same time, Wilkins built a new Shire Hall at the base of the Castle Mound to replace the old one demolished by Soane. An underground passage links the keep and the Shire Hall, still in use today.

Spiffy old postcard from the interweb.

Behind the Shire Hall is the main prison wall with the panopticon wings inside it.

Note also the old tram tracks across Castle Meadow.

In 1824, the company Bramah's of London proposed a design for the first treadmill, used for the prisoners to grind corn. In 1838 this was moved to a yard outside and re-geared for hard labour punishment rather than corn-grinding.

This currently sits in my plan chest, though I dare say the Castle will ask for it back at some point.

On the left is the drawing for Westminster Prison, on the right, that for Norwich Castle.

 

Here's a larger version of the cross section. The prisoner would stand on the platform to the left and grab the handrail marked 'D' and start treading; each revolution triggered the cute little bell on the lower right. You can see additional timber reinforcement sketched in at the top.

 

Here's an elevation from behind the prisoners' position. The three on the left show the doors locked shut with the peepholes for the warders; the three on the right show the treadmill platform with the doors not shown; the 'D' grab handles at the top, the treads in the middle and the platform at the bottom.

 

After several repairs, the treadmill was rebuilt in 1844 as a two-storey job running the full length of a new treadmill building.

I've not found the working drawings for that one, but here's a similar set-up from the interweb.

If only Jeremy Bentham had been successful in his call for decriminalising homosexual acts, poor old Oscar Wilde would have been spared the treadmill in Reading Gaol.

Unfortunately we've not been asked to build a new treadmill as part of our castle works; parties of schoolchildren would love having a go on one and help to power the castle. Just a thought …

Next time, the Norwich School of Artists get revolting and we get to look at some pretty pictures.

Sources:

The Annual Register: A View of the History, Politicks and Literature of the Year: Edmund Burke (ed) and successors: 1758 to Present

Norfolk Museums Service and the Norfolk Archæological Society

East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part II: c.1345 to Modern: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009

The Printed Plans of Norwich 1558-1840, A Carto-Bibliography: Raymond Frostick: 2002 

Norwich Cathedral - Church, City and Diocese: 1096 - 1996: Various Eds. 1996

Norwich Since 1550: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004 

Norwich - The Growth of a City: Barbara Green & Rachel M R Young: Norfolk Museums Service: 1981

Norwich Houses Before 1700: Vernacular Architecture, Vol 14: 1983 

The Oxford History of England: Volume XI "The Whig Supremacy: 1714 - 1760" Sir George Clark (ed): 1934 

 

The Oxford History of England: Volume XII "The Reign of George III: 1760 - 1815" J. Steven-Watson (ed): 1960

 

The Oxford History of England: Volume XIII "The Age of Reform: 1815 - 1870" Sir. Llewellyn Woodward (ed): 1938