Warwick County Gaol - Barrack Street, Warwick, UK
N 52° 17.003 W 001° 35.364
30U E 596223 N 5793494
This plaque is over a cell door of the former County Gaol in Warwick. It is on the south east side of Barrack Street at the junction with Northgate Street at the north corner of the Shire Hall complex.
Waymark Code: WMR3HW
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 05/08/2016
Views: 4
The plaque is attached to a wooden beam over the door and is inscribed:
Originally outer door of a prisoners' cell
formerly within the County Gaol rebuilt
on this site 1695 (following destruction
of the original building by fire in 1694)
and remaining in use until 1861
The Our Warwickshire website, under an article entitled Old Warwick Gaols, tells us:
A gaol was built in Warwick in the early 13th century and part of the castle was used as a gaol around 1600. The gaol in Northgate Street where the dreadful night felons’ dungeon was located burnt down in the great fire of 1694 but a cell door from it has been preserved and can still be seen in Barrack Street. The gaol – along with much of the rest of the town centre – was rebuilt in the late 17th century and again in the late 18th century; the façade of the latter still survives today. The 1851 Board of Health map shows the dreaded treadmill in the middle of a prison courtyard. After the new prison was built in Cape Road, the old gaol closed and it was converted into a militia barracks in 1862-3, giving its name to the adjacent street; this building is now used as Council offices.