Has there ever been a prison in Sheffield?

[jaiden]

not quite sure on the actual year I may be a couple out but borstals were not brought into use until around 1934 the first one being in a small village near ROCHESTER IN KENT funny enough the village was called Borstal and the name was taken from this.

a couple of years after this approx 100 borstal boys were marched from kent to a place in Lincolnshire called Freiston just outside Boston and they were put to work reclaiming the land from the sea. From the time they started to when work ceased completely in 1988 60 sq miles had been reclaimed from the sea. It is now known as NORTH SEA CAMP probably the largest prison farm in the UK. These two place were the first borstals in the UK. I mention this because you will see it is impossible for Hollow Meadows to have been a borstal before this time and most people know it as been a mental since 1940 at least

 

north sea camp was also a detention center in the seventies and then a prison which it still is , geofrey archer was in there and working in lincoln and going home every weekend until he broke the rules and got shipped out.

[Erin]

Borstal

 

 

Formerly used in Great Britain for delinquent boys aged 16 to 21. The idea originated (1895) with the Gladstone Committee as an attempt to reform young offenders. The first institution was established (1902) at Borstal Prison, Kent, England. Main elements in the borstal programs included education, regular work, character-formation, discipline,obedience and respect for authority. Acts of violence in borstal could result in a birching, which was the only official corporal-punishment allowed. However borstal governors openly used canes and heavy leather straps long after birching had been stopped, but there were very few official complaints from lads more concerned with getting out than having extra time added to their sentence by trying to complain to un-sypathetic authorities. The Criminal Justice Act 1982 abolished the borstal system.

[Erin]

On the 3rd of September 1925, Tom Pierrepoint carried out a double hanging at Armley and on the following day a further single execution. The first two prisoners were Alfred Bostock who had killed his mistress, Elizabeth Sherratt and 23 year old William Fowler, who was a Sheffield gangster who had taken part in the murder of an ex boxer called William Plommer in a street ambush. Fowler's brother and leader of their gang, Lawrence, was to die the following day for the same crime.

Alfred Bostock and Elizabeth Sherratt both worked for the Parkgate Ironworks in Rotherham and had fallen for each other virtually on sight. Albert was married but had a passionate affair with Elizabeth which went along very well until Elizabeth announced that she was pregnant, a setback that Alfred could simply not accept. On May 3rd, 1925, her body was found floating in the river at Rawmarsh - she had been battered to death. Bostock was the prime suspect and quickly arrested for the murder. He presented a weak alibi in his defence and although the evidence against him was circumstantial, it only took the jury 15 minutes to convict him. It is unclear why he was hanged alongside William Fowler and not alone. One surmises that the prison authorities thought there would be trouble between the Fowler brothers so had decided to hang them separately. Lawrence and William Fowler were leaders of a Sheffield gang that had been terrorising the city for some time and who considered themselves beyond the law. One of the gang's members, Trimmer Welsh, had got into a fight with William Plommer over his treatment of the barmaid in the pub where they were both drinking, and Plommer gave the man a good hiding. Plommer was ambushed by another two members of the gang, including young Wilfred Fowler, but they were no match for this powerfully built and courageous ex fighter either. Two defeats for the gang were more than its pride and arrogance could stomach so a mob of a dozen or so went to Plommer's house and when he came out to face them, they beat, stabbed and kicked him to death. They were soon rounded up, some getting prison sentences and Lawrence and William, being convicted of murder, sentenced to hang. Their executions brought to an end the gang terror in Sheffield in the 1920's.

[dean1]

Hi, another sort of jail in sheffield,

 

Ecclesall Gaol and Court of Requests, was at Tudor Street, now Thomas Street, just off Fitzwilliam Street, Charter Row.

 

anyone any more info?

 

Dean.

[Pegasus]

a mob of a dozen or so went to Plommer's house and when he came out to face them, they beat, stabbed and kicked him to death.

 

Times haven't changed much then? Ah the good old days.

[hazel]

not quite sure on the actual year I may be a couple out but borstals were not brought into use until around 1934 the first one being in a small village near ROCHESTER IN KENT funny enough the village was called Borstal and the name was taken from this.

a couple of years after this approx 100 borstal boys were marched from kent to a place in Lincolnshire called Freiston just outside Boston and they were put to work reclaiming the land from the sea. From the time they started to when work ceased completely in 1988 60 sq miles had been reclaimed from the sea. It is now known as NORTH SEA CAMP probably the largest prison farm in the UK. These two place were the first borstals in the UK. I mention this because you will see it is impossible for Hollow Meadows to have been a borstal before this time and most people know it as been a mental since 1940 at least

 

I worked at Freiston Borstal in the late 1950s and the boys were still reclaiming the land from the sea.

It always amazed me at the time that so many of the boys signed their names with a cross.

hazel

[The Manager]

Meadowhall, that's about it.

 

Theres a prison now its called the labour party prison:hihi:

[lazarus]

There was a Debtors Prison on or around Moore St roughly where the Tax offices are. It is shown on some old maps in the 1800s, in fact I worked with a lovely man called Bill Wathall who told me he was actually born in the place.There was also a small Town lock up in King St.

[bus man]

Am I correct in assuming that most cities have prisons and Sheffield is an exception to this rule?

 

 

Yes , the only custodiol place we have is the juvinile detention centre at Dore.

[Sheffreject]

Tapton school ,Crosspool !!