Guildhall Gaol - Gaol Hill - Norwich, Norfolk, Great Britain. - Retired Prisons on Waymarking.com

Norwich Guildhall is an historic listed building on Gaol Hill in the city of Norwich, United Kingdom. It was constructed between 1407 and 1413 and served as the seat of city government from the early 15th century.

"As well as various courts, a prison and a chapel the building contained facilities for accounting and tax collection, accommodation for civic officials (it remains the home of the Sheriff's parlour today) and storage space for records, money and civic regalia.
The undercroft, beneath the east end pre-dates the building, and is thought to be an original feature of the earlier toll-house on this site. It was used to accommodate more dangerous criminals." Text Source: (visit link)


Gaol - vs - jail

Gaol is an obsolescent spelling of the word now usually spelled jail. Other than the spelling, there is no difference between the words. Gaol was common outside North American until fairly recently (it was stamped out of American English in the early 19th century, and dropped out of Canadian use about a century later), but it underwent a steady decline through the 20th century and now appears only rarely. Its most common use today is in the names of jails, but it is still possible to find a few scattered instances of gaol as a common noun in recent writing. For reasons mysterious to us, it appears to be most common in Ireland and Australia. Text Source: (visit link)

Address: The Guildhall Gaol Hill Norwich, Norfolk Great Britain Open to the public: No Hours: Not listed Fees?: Not listed Web link: Not listed

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Date Logged Log   07/16/2023 CEO44 visited it 03/22/2013 veritas vita visited it

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