Village lock-up

They have acquired local nicknames and descriptions including blind-house, bone-house, bridewell, village cage, punishment cage, jug, kitty, lobby, guard-house, round-house/roundhouse, tower and watch-house.

Lock-up in Hilperton, Wiltshire

The majority of surviving village lock-ups date from the 18th and 19th centuries when rural communities struggled to police thefts, burglaries, shootings, drunkenness, the obstruction of watchmen and the stealing of livestock. During this period a number of lock-ups were built as a temporary place of detention for local rogues and miscreants until they could be removed to a town. Over time they became synonymous with drunkenness and many references to this coupling can be found in famous works of literature, including Barnaby Rudge (1841) by Charles Dickens, and The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby (1863) by Charles Kingsley, which contains the following line:

Put him in the round house till he gets sober[1]

"The Blind House", Box, Wiltshire

An 1830 description of a lock-up in Taunton describes "... a hole into which drunken and bleeding men were thrust and allowed to remain until the following day when the constable with his staff of office take the poor, crippled and dirty wretches before a magistrate, followed by half the boys and idle fellows of the town."[2]

Some lock-ups also had stocks, ducking stools, pillories, or pinfolds alongside them and the origins of the 18th-century village lock-up evolved from much earlier examples of holding cells and devices.

The Oxford English Dictionary, for example, refers to a round-house as a place of detention for arrested persons and dates its first written usage to 1589.[3]

Lock-up in Trowbridge, Wiltshire

The rooms fell out of use when the County Police Act was introduced in 1839 and more stations were built with their own holding facilities. The Act allowed Justices of the Peace to set up a paid police force in each county and made it compulsory for that force to be provided with proper police stations and secure cells. The village lock-up became a redundant edifice as a result and only a small fraction have survived.

During World War II many were used by the Home Guard as sentry posts and arms stores.

In recent decades many owners have repaired these structures and/or seen nomination as listed buildings; a presumption of acceptance applies to buildings earlier than 1840. Some are local heritage attractions; others are in a ruinous state; others have been converted into parts of homes, yards or gardens.

A register of these structures including those which have been lost, is held by the Village Lock-up Association.

Castle Cary lock up, reputed to have inspired the shape of the British police helmet

The crest of Everton Football Club features Everton Lock-Up which still stands on Everton Brow, Liverpool.

D. H. Lawrence and his German-born wife Frieda had to report to the lock-up in Wirksworth during the First World War when they lived at Middleton-by-Wirksworth.

The roof of Castle Cary lock-up is reputed to have inspired the design of the modern British police helmet.

In 1281 an analogous building (the Tun) was erected in Cornhill, central London – a two-storey barrel shaped design with a single cell on each floor.[4]

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  Alton lock-up
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  Braintree Cage
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  Canewdon lock-up, made circa 1775
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  Deeping St James lock-up

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  Digby lock-up
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  Everton lock-up
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  Fenstanton lock-up clock tower
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  Gnosall lock-up

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  Harrold lock-up
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  Hampstead lock-up
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  Hunmanby lock-up
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  Kelsall lock-up

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  Monkton Combe lock-up
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  Packington lock-up
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  Pensford lock-up
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  Watchman's hut/lock-up & pound Petersham, London, erected 1787.

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  Snaith Town lock-up
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  Steeple Ashton lock-up
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  Warminster lock-up
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  Wavertree lock up

• Bridewell Palace
• One-room jail

• Plumridge, Andrew. The National Directory of Village Lock-Ups, Stocks, Pillories, Gallows, Gibbets, Pounds and Pinfolds, and Other Pre-Police Force Punishment and Detention Devices.

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