C O N T E X T 1 0 8 : M A R C H 2 0 0 9 19 widely familiar in the western world while hulks (floating prisons), prison and slaving ships created connecting networks for the passage of captives across great distances. The Court Service website illustrates how historic listed buildings are still the regular meeting places of courts of justice, complete with cells for the temporary holding of persons on trial. It is an impressive sector of our history and heritage. At Lancaster Castle, the history began with the Norman keep of around 1150. The rare, surviving Bentham-ite panopticon female penitentiary was added from 1818–1821. The County Gaol became one of Her Majesty’s Prisons in 1877, using the area within the medieval curtain walls and gatehouses of the castle. The remarkable panopticon plan, through which incarceration, many forms of labour and even the conduct of institutional chapel services could be surveyed from a single, central point, was frequently copied around 1800. It received some of its most extreme manifestations in France in the works of Boullee (1728–1799) and Ledoux (1736–1806). In the UK Salford New Bailey, Greater Manchester (1790), still existed in 1851. It contained a chapel, many exercise yards, a circular dining room for females, and even a mill house and tread-wheels for forced hard labour, all of which were laid out as panopticons. Top: Horsham New Gaol, 1779–1845.The Sussex building was the first in the world to place each inmate in a separate cell. Bottom: Petworth House of Correction, Sussex, 1785-1882. A famously harsh prison with separate cells, treadwheels and a chapel with highsided pews that prevented prisoners from seeing each other. A perimeter wall cut off this cell block from any contact with the outside. Acknowledgement Sussex Record Society, volume 85, Sussex Depicted by J H Farrant, 2001 Graham Tite, contracted to Essex County Council as senior historic buildings advisor, dedicates this article to the memory of a former colleague, Helen Rosenau (1900-1984). MIKE WYE & Associates Natural Decorating & Building Products The finest quality at the best prices • Lime Mortar 3/1 tonne from £103.25 • NHL 3.5 25kg from £7.70 • Finest Limewash 20 litres from £12 These are just 3 examples from our huge range of the highest quality traditional products. For building work, training and supplies www.mikewye.co.uk 01409 281644
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