Resource
This Prison, first inhabited in October, 1807 , has, on the ground-floor, two of the Keeper's rooms in front. These are divided by a passage 4 feet 6 inches wide, leading to the Gaol door, and entrance into a lobby 24 feet long, and 4 feet 6 inches wide ; with an iron-grated and glazed casement at the end of it, 19 inches by 16 ; and into this lobby five sleeping-cells open.
The smallest cell is 9 feet 5 by 7 feet 8, and 8 feet 4 inches high to the crown of the arch ; the whole of stone, fitted up with wooden bedsteads for two persons, loose straw, two blankets, and a coverlet : a small uncovered tub for a sewer, emptied every morning ; and a wooden stool to sit on . Every cell-door has an inspecting wicket 8 inches square.
On the North side is a court-yard for Men, who are allowed to be out for one hour in the day, accompanied by the Keeper : It is 42 feet square, and, in the centre, has a sewer, and a pig-stye ; and part of it is planted with cabbages.
The Women's court is on the South-side, 63 feet by 36, with a detached sewer in it. The area forms the Keeper's garden, and is planted with vegetables . Females have the use of this garden one hour in the day.
Above stairs are three sleeping-cells for Women , of the same size with those below, and opening into a lobby of like dimensions. Their cells contain two
wooden bedsteads for two persons each, and are fitted up like those assigned for the men.
There is also a large work-room on this floor, of 22 feet by 12, with two large grated and glazed lift-up sash windows, and a large fire-place ; for which coals
are allowed during the six winter months. For the rest of the year the prisoners work in their sleeping-cells, which, having no grate, are frequently very cold.
The Magistrates hold their Petty Sessions every fortnight in a convenient room above stairs. No rules, however, or regulations are printed and stuck up . Here
are no rooms set apart for the sick : No day-room allotted : No bath or oven to purify foul or infected clothes : No water accessible : even the Keeper, for his own use, fetches it from a pump 300 yards distant ! The Act for preserving the Health of Prisoners, and Clauses against Spirituous Liquors, are not hung up.
The employment of the Prisoners consists in beating hemp, picking oakum, winding cotton, cutting candle-wicks, spinning and knotting of rope. The aver-
age of earnings is 3d. per day, which the Keeper has, in aid of maintenance. The Prisoners have no share ; neither do they receive any money on being discharged, to carry them home, or prevent those necessities, which may impel them to predatory acts, when happily liberated from a gaol.