Catching the Past - Westgate Gaol

Last month, I talked about the scary period in Jane Austen's lifetime when one could be arrested in England and refused the right to defend yourself in court (read more about that here).

Following on from that theme, let's chat about one of the gaols at Canterbury because someone in A Heart to Treasure ends up in there--I'm just not going to tell you who! ;)

I found a lot of info about the Canterbury gaols. I even tracked down some official reports, including numbers and reasons for being incarcerated (Did you know that siring a child out of wedlock could get you incarcerated?). For these reports, one of the inspectors was really—and I mean REALLY—annoyed at the conditions at the Westgate Gaol, and he ranted on and on, giving me all kinds of useful information.

Plus, someone did a YouTube walk around Westgate Gaol. It let me really ‘see’ the gaol (it should be noted that the gaol has greatly changed, but it was still helpful when combined with the reports to get a good visual).

Why is it called Westgate Gaol?

Because the gaol used to be the west gate to Canterbury from WAY back when there was a wall around the whole city. Everyone entering the city from the west walked in on the road sitting between the two towers (hence the name), and even when the city walls were knocked down, the gate stayed and was turned into a gaol.

From the image above, you can see there is still a road that goes through the gate, although apparently most people don't drive through it anymore and there is talk about banning people from driving on it. But let's get back to history. :)

In 1794, the gaol was nothing more than two towers joined in the middle above the road, and the keeper lived nearby not actually in the gaol. The living conditions were not great, but believe it or not, they got decidedly worse just a decade later. But for today, I'm going to focus on the time my story is set, 1794.

What was it like at night?

In the 18th and early 19th century, there was a men’s tower and a women’s tower. Prisoners did not have separate cells. Each gender all shared a single room of about 11 feet in diameter in their respective towers at night.

These night cells were “well ventilated” according to the grumpy inspector who fussed so much about the foul air of the common day room. (To me that sounds really cold! But I suppose it would help with the smell.)

They had no access to water overnight, and a bucket served as their sewer.

Beds were a bit of rush—if you were so lucky.

Blankets were supposed to be provide but rarely were.

You might get a rug, depending on when your stay occurred because some benevolent soul donated about 12 rugs in July 1809, but there wasn't much left of them by 1810.

What was it like during the day?

The common day room was about 27 feet squared in total, but depending on when you stayed there, you'd either find a wall separating the men from the women (present in 1780s) or no wall at all.

In 1812, that divider was gone, and the room had been reduced considerably as they took some of the floor space to make a few more cells. Men, women, felons, and debtors alike were all crammed into that day room without even a privacy screen to cover the open toilet. (Even if some of the men weren't in there because of having children out of wedlock, I'd still be as outraged as the grumpy inspector was at this).

The common day room had a fireplace in one corner and a stone sink. The open sewer did at least have a pump with fresh water, but it stank horribly regardless.

Criminals and debtors were together and not separated whether there was or wasn't a wall to separate the women from the men. And if that wasn't bad enough, there were no rules or orders to be kept.

Exercise, fresh air? You wish.

There was no yard for exercise, and prisoners might be allowed to walk about the top/roof of the gaol in the 1812 report, but it was not allowed in the 1780 report. Even when allowed, the gaoler had to be inclined to go with them, and the 1812 fellow said he'd never heard of someone being afforded this luxury.

Walking along the roof was called 'walking about the leads' (so called because the roofs were made of lead).

By the 1800s, it was reported that prisoners were double shackled because of numerous escape attempts. (Little wonder they wanted to leave...) One must conclude, the additions of shackles would have made any personal attempts at exercise even in a limited space almost impossible or at the very least painful.

What did they eat?

Prisoners were given an allotment of bread, half of a half galloon loaf per day (one would think it would be easier to say a quarter galloon, but that's how it was worded in the report).

In addition to the daily allotment of bread, meat and vegetables were collected by an old man who went around begging bits off butchers and green grocers around town every Saturday. For this service the man was provided with one greatcoat a year, a hat, and a weekly share of the food. The remainder was then divided between the prisoners.

How much food prisoners were given depended on the benevolence of the shopkeepers (one can only image that wasn't very much, or at least not of great quality), friends who might supply extra, and how many other people were locked up with you at the time.

Washing of the gaol

In both reports, it was said the gaoler did not pay any attention to the injunction to whitewash the walls every year. The furious inspector thought the gaol would be greatly improved if washed with unslackened lime and sprinkled with vinegar, but apparently this had been recommended by him before to no avail.

Those who should attend the Gaol

In 1810, the report said the local Magistrates either never bothered to visit the gaol, never read the numerous reports he'd sent, or simply didn't care. Because none of his recommendations were ever implemented nor were proper provisions provided by the City, unless by a kind benefactor.

There was no clergyman assigned to the gaol, but one from the church right next door (yes, it's literally right next door) would come if someone was sentenced to death.

A surgeon would attend when called, but the prisoner must pay his fees.

There was a box for people to leave donations for the prisoners, but it was so overgrown it was almost invisible. Which seems to imply that no one ever put any money in there.

Prisoners with money

Prisons with money (or connected to someone with money) could pay to stay with the gaolkeeper, like renting a room. This happened in more places than just Westgate, but for our discussion today, I'll talk about what staying with the gaolkeeper in Westgate was like.

In the Georgian Era, the gaolkeeper lived near the Westgate gaol but not in the gaol itself. Which certainly adds intrigue to the thought of people paying to stay with him instead of the tower itself. I wonder how he kept them from running away? (The reports didn't say.)

How many people were there?

The reports showed that there weren’t many people in the gaol at any given time (on average it was 5ish and often less). This could have been because Canterbury had more than one gaol, and also because the laws in the 1790s decided to make almost everything a hangable offense to cut down on the number of people in prison. This did not mean that more people were hung. Rather, they tended to fudge how much something was worth or simply not charge the person at all.

FYI, the number of inmates increased dramatically when the number of hangable offenses was reduced in the early 1800s.

More Information:

If you’d like to read the reports for yourself, you can do that here: https://theprison.org.uk/CanterburyTG/ 

If you’d like to watch the video I talked about, you can do that here: https://youtu.be/8TU4IgIu8hY?si=YQul8EGdmFJLSj07 (please note that the Westgate gaol part starts at about the 9:30 minute mark)

If you have any stories to share about prison conditions in the Georgian Era, please share them in the comments! Thanks for joining me today.

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Photo Attributions: DeFacto, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons