
Isaac Darkin, the highwayman guide
So one of twelve guides – in my case a highwayman who had quicklime poured into his body after he had been hung to prevent university students thieving his body for dissection – led a school outing and me around the castle that became a prison and concentrated on just what the kids wanted, the horrible bits! When one schoolchild stood in the stocks, the guide told of drunks who might urinate on the unfortunate victim as they staggered back from a local tavern; needless to say the kids uttered suitable noises of disgust mixed with barely concealed glee. A few sniggered as they realised they couldn’t follow this old ritual but dearly felt the urge to do so. They heard about Rowland Jencks, a man who had his ears nailed to the pillory and had to wrench them free after his sentence ended but who might have got his own back as he cursed the court when his sentence pronounced. Coincidentally –or not – 300 people died within the space of a few weeks and all had been in court or were connected to it.

the entrance and St George's tower

enjoying the prison gardens today

some previous unruly school party members?
You’ll see that a Charles Sigwell, a nineteen year old, was given three months hard labour for embezzling one shilling and ninepence and a thirteen year old called Robert Hall was sentenced to prison for 14 days for stealing a leather strap, sentences that seem harsh. But then in Victorian times, the prison was expanded and each prisoner had his own cell which is something that Ronnie Barker never had in Porridge. The tour reveals a mixture of hardship and cruelty as seen from today yet has some features thought enlightened by our standards.
How many kids or parents made knowing looks at each other when told that much of the prison wing is today a hotel! But with better beds. Probably.