Shepton Mallet Prison re-opens after revamp

Shepton Mallet Prison has used the time during the pandemic to revamp the interpretation spaces at the site.

These include:

• 1625 to 1700 cell: Here men, women and children were all thrown in together. There was no sanitary facilities apart from maybe a bucket, no privacy and for the poorer classes very little food.
• Victorian woman and baby cell: – In the Victorian era women brought their babies into prison with them or some gave birth whilst imprisoned.
• A victim of gaol fever being nursed
• Cell depicting oakum picking: This was a common form of hard labour in Victorian prisons and workhouses. Prisoners were given old ropes which they had to ‘pick’ at in order to breakdown the rope by untwisting into strands and then to the individual fibres.

• Example of stone breaking: There were a total of 22 stone breaking yards spread around the prison site. The stones had to be broken down to a small uniform size – another form of hard labour.
• Suffragette cell: Suffragettes were imprisoned at Shepton Mallet Prison. Mabel Capper was sentenced to one month in November 1911 and released on Christmas Eve 1911. She was one of the first suffragettes to be force fed.

The prison has also increased the number of information boards and sound boxes at the site.

Shepton Mallet Prison re-opened on Monday (May 17) in line with the latest government guidelines.

To book your visit to the prison or to find out more visit sheptonmalletprison.com.