Village Lock-up

A village lock-up is a historic building once used for the temporary detention of people in England and Wales, mostly where official prisons or criminal courts were beyond easy walking distance. Lockups were often used for the confinement of drunks, who were usually released the next day, or to hold people being brought before the local magistrate. The archetypal form comprises a small room with a single door and a narrow slit window, grating or holes. Most lock-ups feature a tiled or stone-built dome or spire as a roof and are built from brick, stone and/or timber.

Such a room was built in many shapes; many are round, which gives rise to a sub-description: the punishment or village round-house (). Village lock-ups, though usually freestanding, were often attached to walls, tall pillar/tower village crosses or incorporated into other buildings. Varying in architectural strength and ornamentation, they were all built to perform the same function.

Nicknames and forms

They have acquired local nicknames and descriptions including blind-house, bone-house, bridewell, village cage, punishment cage, jug, kitty, lobby, guard-house, round-house/roundhouse, tower and watch-house.

Rise of the village lock-up

The majority of surviving village lock-ups date from the 18th and 19th centuries when rural communities struggled to police thefts, burglaries, shootings, drunkenness, the obstruction of watchmen and the stealing of livestock. During this period a number of lock-ups were built, by official decree, as a temporary place of detention for local rogues and miscreants until they could be removed to a town. For example, in 1790 the Derbyshire court of quarter sessions issued an order that required that "all parishes in the county where there is not already a Round House, House of correction, or Gaol, shall provide a place of temporary confinement for the reception of vagrants, paupers, felons and the like". Over time they became synonymous with drunkenness and many references to this coupling can be found in famous works of literature, including ''Barnaby Rudge'' (1841) by Charles Dickens, and '' The Water-Babies'' (1863) by Charles Kingsley, which contains the line:

:Put him in the round house till he gets sober

An 1830 description of a lock-up in Taunton describes "... a hole into which drunken and bleeding men were thrust and allowed to remain until the following day when the constable with his staff of office take the poor, crippled and dirty wretches before a magistrate, followed by half the boys and idle fellows of the town".

Some lock-ups also had stocks, ducking stools, pillories, or pinfolds, alongside them and the origins of the 18th-century village lock-up evolved from much earlier examples of holding cells and devices.

The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' refers to a round-house as a place of detention for arrested persons and dates its first written usage to 1589.Oxford English Dictionary

Decline and later uses

The rooms fell out of use when the County Police Act 1839 was introduced and more stations were built with their own holding facilities. The Act allowed justices of the peace to set up a paid police force in each county and made it compulsory for that force to be provided with proper police stations and secure cells. The village lock-up became a redundant edifice as a result and only a small fraction have survived.

During World War II many were used by the Home Guard as sentry posts and arms stores.

In recent decades many owners have repaired these structures and/or seen nomination as listed buildings; a presumption of acceptance applies to buildings earlier than 1840. Some are local heritage attractions; others are in a ruinous state; others have been converted into parts of homes, yards or gardens.

A register of these structures, including those which have been lost, is held by the Village Lock-up Association.

Notable village lock-ups

The crest of Everton Football Club features Everton Lock-Up which still stands on Everton Brow, Liverpool.

D. H. Lawrence and his German-born wife Frieda had to report to the lock-up in Wirksworth during the First World War when they lived at Middleton-by-Wirksworth.

In 1281 an analogous building (the Tun) was erected in Cornhill, central London – a two-storey barrel shaped design with a single cell on each floor.

Surviving lock-ups in England and Wales

England

;Notes

Gallery

File:Alfriston lock-up 00 (cropped).jpg, Alfriston lock-up
File:Alton Lock up - geograph.org.uk - 121753.jpg, Alton lock-up
File:Old Town Lock-up - geograph.org.uk - 6426004.jpg, Amersham Lock-up
File:Bathford lock-up.JPG, Bathford lock-up
File:BisleyLockup.jpg, Bisley lock-up
File:The Blind House, Box - geograph.org.uk - 812752.jpg, "The Blind House", Box
File:Bradford on Avon lock-up.JPG, Bradford-on-Avon lock-up
File:Braintree Cage (Parish Lock-up), Hilly Gant, off New Street - geograph.org.uk - 1411900.jpg, Braintree Cage
File:Old Lock-up (geograph 7416198).jpg, Old Prison, Bridstow
File:Bromham Wilts lockup Doug Lee.jpg, Bromham lock-up
File:Canewdon Village Lock-up and Stocks, High Street, Canewdon (NHLE Code 1147585) (May 2024) (2).jpg, Canewdon lock-up, made circa 1775
File:Circular lock-up - geograph.org.uk - 472113.jpg, Castle Cary lock-up
File:Greensand Cycleway Lock up and pound, Clophill, Bedfordshire.jpg, Clophill lock-up
File:Deeping-StJames-Lockup-geograph-693417-by-Ian-Paterson.jpg, Deeping St James lock-up
File:Lockup - geograph.org.uk - 172689.jpg, Digby lock-up
File:Everton Lock Up 2.jpg, Everton lock-up
File:Fenstanton Clock Tower & Lockup - geograph.org.uk - 80781.jpg, Fenstanton lock-up clock tower
File:Gnosall Village Lock-up - geograph.org.uk - 375964.jpg, Gnosall lock-up
File:The Lock-up, Harrold - geograph.org.uk - 1252177.jpg, Harrold lock-up
File:Former Hampstead parish lock up, Cannon Lane.jpg, Hampstead lock-up
File:House of Correction, Hawarden 01.jpg, House of Correction, Hawarden
File:Hilperton lockup.jpg, Hilperton lock-up
File:Hunmanby Lock up June 209 (Nigel Coates).jpg, Hunmanby lock-up
File:Kelsall lock-up.JPG, Kelsall lock-up
File:Monkton Combe lock up.jpg, Monkton Combe lock-up
File:The village lockup, Packington - geograph.org.uk - 184419.jpg, Packington lock-up
File:Village lock-up, Pangbourne - geograph.org.uk - 1479204.jpg, Pangbourne lock-up
File:Pensford lock up.JPG, Pensford lock-up
File:Watchman's hut and lock-up - Petersham Road, Petersham, London.jpg, alt=Watchman's hut and lock-up - Petersham Road, Petersham, London, Watchman's hut/lock-up & pound Petersham, London, erected in 1787
File:The Roundhouse, Ruabon - geograph.org.uk - 589787.jpg, The Roundhouse, Ruabon
File:Silsoelockup.jpg, Silsoe lock-up
File:Smisby Roundhouse - geograph.org.uk - 199334.jpg, Smisby lock-up
File:Snaith Town Lock-up - geograph.org.uk - 584583.jpg, Snaith Town lock-up
File:Lock-up, Steeple Ashton - geograph.org.uk - 1417626.jpg, alt=Small building used as a prison with obelisk., Steeple Ashton lock-up
File:Tollesbury-Village-Lock-Up.jpg, Tollesbury lock-up
File:TrowbridgeBlindHouse.jpg, Trowbridge Blind House
File:Entrance to the Blind House, Warminster - geograph.org.uk - 330709.jpg, alt=Small building used as a prison., Warminster lock-up
File:Wavertree Lock-up - geograph.org.uk - 39230.jpg, alt=Small building used as a prison, Wavertree lock-up
File:Church Loft Meeting House, West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire - geograph.org.uk - 2282136.jpg, Church Loft, West Wycombe

See also

* Bridewell Palace
* One-room jail

References

Further reading

*

{{Commons category, Village lock-ups

Buildings and structures in England
Prisons in the United Kingdom
Street furniture