Crime & Punishment

Etal Castle

 

Etal Castle in Northumberland was one of the centre points around James IV and his plan to invade England in 1513. He had brought a powerful army, destroying and taking over Etal Castle and Ford Castle yet his overall plan to take the North failed due to the weather and surface conditions, also the Scottish King's armies choice of weapon being the pike, completely failed them and allowed the King to be captured by the Earl of Surrey. A famous battle in the North East, representing yet another English victory, even in the absence of our king, Henry VIII.

 

Because the castle wasn't very big, the now Black Bull pub located in Etal villiage, the only thatched roof building left in Northumberland today, is thought to of housed the prisoners of that time and of King James IV of Scotland before the battle of Flodden. 

 

"The bar maid (maybe the owner or manager) told me about her experiences when I asked if the pub was haunted, as our tour guide had informed us. I sat and had a glass of whiskey waiting for something odd to happen- but nothing did. The bar maid told me about the history of the pub and that it was originally used as a holding place for the prisoners of Etal Castle after they had been tried, found guilty, and sentenced for death."

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Carliol Square Gaol / Prison

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'Carliol Square was chosen to be the site of the borough gaol and House of Correction, designed by Dobson, in 1827.  The old prison at nearby Newgate had fallen into disrepair but why chose this particular prosperous quarter of the town for its replacement?  In reality, certain corners of the area were already gaining notoriety as places of ill-repute.  

Proximity to the river and therefore a transient sailor population meant that many of the buildings had been given over to licensed lodging houses.  In addition, the town’s court was not far away.  The area’s reputation for nefarious activities is further borne out by court records describing the large ware room buildings close-by being used as criminal hide-outs and for storing ill-gotten gains.
  
At a cost of £35000, the new building would comprise a series of radiating wings surrounded by a 25 foot wall and central tower, giving wardens a view onto the enclosed courtyard below.  The gaol housed both men and women and there were sick rooms, work rooms, a chapel and even a treadmill!  

These were still brutal times – soldiers would be recruited for the army from the prison population and sailors would be press-ganged for the navy. Executions were still held in public, as much as a form of entertainment and spectacle as a deterrent.  Capital punishment applied to pick-pocketing, horse thieving and counterfeit coining as well as to murder. Debtors could spend the rest of their lives in prison.  Use of the pillory had only ended in Newcastle in 1790 and was still used in Sunderland for a further twenty years.  However an inspector visiting the earlier Newgate gaol did find the conditions to be better than in most prisons, with proper bedding, coal fires, and occupations for the inmates such as weaving and spinning.  The opinion was growing that prisoners would improve and prosper as men if they were engaged in useful activity.  John Dobson’s remit for the new institution was that it would provide safe custody, punishment but also reformation.  So although the regime in Carliol Square would still have been harsh, a well-designed new building and the humane involvement of many charitable bodies would certainly go some way to improving the prisoners’ lot.  
Carliol Square Gaol, which was to be the last of Newcastle’s town centre prisons, closed in 1925. ' 

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Charlotte Square Gaol

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In 1909,  The corner of St Thomas Street is the site of the Palace Theatre, where the militant suffragettes staged one of their best-organised protests. Lloyd George was making a week-end visit to Newcastle on Saturday October 9, to deliver an important budget speech and a dozen chosen women met Christabel Pankhurst beforehand in a 'lodging-house'. This remarkable gathering included Lady Constance Lytton and Emily Wilding Davison. Walter Runciman's car was hit by the stone thrown by Lady Constance and her book Prisons and Prisoners gives a touching account of her subsequent time in the Charlotte Square gaol in Newcastle. She was sentenced to four weeks, but after a fifty-six hour hunger strike was released, supposedly because of a heart condition discovered by the prison doctor. To expose this preferential treatment, Lady Lytton later dressed up as a working-class girl. Sentenced as 'Jane Warton' in Liverpool, she received quite different treatment this time - and no medical examination. 

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Gallow Gate

The 'Gallows Hole' was a place of public executon in the vicinity of the current St James' Park. In 1960, there were horrifying spectacles where 22 people; including 15 witches were hung in one day as capital punishment was not confined to those who had taken another persons life.

These were not the only hanging to take place. In 1783, William Alexander was hung for forging a bank note, Henry Jenkins was excuted for stealing horses; and the last hanging took place in 1844, only three decades before the first ball was kicked at the site.

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The Close

The only medieval house and warehouse complex with a private quay to survive in Newcastle where it was separated from the river in 1985. The present building are the 16th century and later, most restored from 1982 - 84. The Close Gate evidently derived it's tower name from the street called The Close. After the fall of the Tyne Bridge in 1771, it's tower was converted into a temporary prison.

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Cathedral of St. Nicholas

The Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas along with the Castle Keep and The Moot Hall all played a role in the keeping of the justice in Newcastle through the ages. The Cathedral was used as a County Assizes court for two years when the old Moot Hall was demolished in 1810. The Cathedral is one of the most unusual buildings to have played a part in Newcastle's crime past. It has been a court house (Assizes Court) trying serious crimes, some resulting in the death penalty. It's bells have tolled to signify amnesties for criminals entering Newcastle. Judges known as the King's Justices, arriving in Gateshead to open Assizes Week would always visit St. Nicholas.

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Newcastle Castle Keep

From a fort to a court, the Castle Keep has a long and impressive history and also played a significant role in local justice. Described as one of the most disgraceful and primitive prisons by prison reformer John Howard, the keep was being used as the Count Gaol, and the Great Hall as an Assizes Court, for many years wth some very infamous names held here.

By the late 1400's criminals wanted in Newcastle could also use the castle yard as a sanctuary to escape, as the castle was officially part of Northumberland and outisde the jurisdiction of Newcastle town authorities. All of the prisoners held here had received severe sentences; often death by hanging,  and many were sentenced to transportation. Other punishments included whipping - very common and harsh. On Assizes Sunday the prisoners were put on dispay and for six pence you could come and ridicule them.

 

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