Lancaster - a gruesome past

Tuesday, 02 June 2009 21:48

Today we walked into the city and up the short hill to Lancaster Castle. The area around the Castle is full of history and includes the Judge's Lodgings and rows of Lancastrian cottages in the distinctive dark Lancastrian Stone.

We decided not to visit the Lodgings – Lancaster's oldest town house, originally home to Thomas Covell Keeper of the Castle and notorious witch hunter. It now houses the Museum of Gillow furniture and of Childhood. Thomas Covell was involved in the Pendle Witches hunt and conviction.

The first part of the Castle, behind this impressive entrance, is a working prison with around 200 category C prisoners.

We were amused by the van parked in front

Walking around the west side we came to the main visitors entrance

We arrived at the right time, as there was a 4pm tour, the last of the day. Lancaster Castle is also a working Court. It is a Crown Court and also the Coroner sometimes conducts inquests in the Shire Hall there. We were warned that we would not be able to see all the public areas if there was a court sitting. There was, but luckily for us the Court rose just as the tour began!

The Shire Hall  is an impressive ornate room with heraldic shields covering one wall. These shields belong to various past City Worthies and include the Arms of the Duke of Lancaster.

The Dukes of Lancaster have been rather lax in visiting their "seat". They receive a generous allowance from the Duchy. One Duke who did not neglect his duty was King John and latterly our own Duke of Lancaster, Her Majesty the Queen, has paid a number of visits.

The tour then becomes more sombre, as we were taken into the really old part and shown leg irons, a "scolds bridle", flogging instruments and slave chain irons. There is also what is probably the solitary confinement cell for the religious prisoners, accused witches and other malefactors of the time.

The old cells that were used are next on the tour - these are small rooms, about 10 x 10 foot which would house prisoners waiting for trial by Judge and Jury. Sometimes they would be in there for months waiting for the Judge to visit. No sanitation, no natural light, packed in with others, fed and watered but facing death by hanging or deportation if convicted - If they did not die first, since disease was rife.

Children as young as 9 were known to be deported for stealing - to America, until it became independant, and then Australia subsequently. Murderers were convicted of course, but debts, witchcraft, illegal oaths, religious convictions were all regarded as criminal too. For anyone who knows that their ancestors were tried and convicted at Lancaster castle, there is a Convicts database. Visitors to the Castle include those who have traced their ancestry back to transported Convicts.

As the Court had risen we were able to see the County Court - still in use for some trials. Many of the so called "big" trials now go to Preston, but notable trials in the recent past include the trial of the "Birmingham Six".

The final part of the tour is arguably the most gruesome - it is the "Drop Room". Here the condemned came to be hanged. Their last view of the outside world may well have been the handsome Priory Church alongside the Cathedral.

Priory Church

A gallows was erected outside the drop room and the condemned was first taken into the adjoining Chapel and then their arms tied behind them, head covered by a hood and taken to the waiting noose.

They would be hanged in front of a large crowd, gathered from near and far to view the "spectacle". After an hour or so the body was brought back to the room via a trap door and then taken away. If the hanged was a murderer the body was taken by the doctors for dissection. Others were buried in quicklime near the Castle.

I hope you are feeling OK after all that detail! The Tour Guide was full of graphic detail and was excellent. It was a very interesting visit as you may gather from this rather long blog - history is my "thing", as if you didn't know!

A brief History of the Castle and Lancaster can be found here, if you are interested in more!

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