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The Old Bridewell in Devizes

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Dec 17, 2010

Tagged in: workshop , Wiltshire , walls , vagabonds , Thomas Platt , The Old Bridewell , The Grange , suspects , surgeon , State of the Prisons , Southwell , solitary confinement , segmental , sashes , Salisbury , rogues , Richard Ingleman gaol , red-brick houses , prison reformer , Principal , pre-trial , polygonal prison , Police station , Oxford , Norwich , Nether Stowey , Margaret Parrott , London , Lincs , Ladies’ School , keystone , John Howard , Jane E. Hollis , jail , initials , infirmary , idle poor , Health of Prisoners Act , grafitti’d , governess , garden , Folkingham , fire , exercise yard , Eliza Hopkins , Dorothy Treasure , Devizes Almshouse Trust , Devizes , detaining , County Gaol , committee , Cheltenham , burnt down , Bridewell Street , Bridewell prison , bridewell , Borough , boarded with her , attics , apothecary , almswomen

 In the centre of Devizes is an unassuming building, not very different from those red-brick houses flanking it. It has large, airy two-by-two pane sashes with typical segmental arches which contain a shaped keystone. Behind the net curtains can be glimpsed a cosy living room, and a pretty garden beyond. This is The Grange and it was once the old Devizes jail, or bridewell, in Bridewell Street.


The Old Bridewell, Devizes

 The Old Bridewell, Devizes

The Bridewell started life in 1579 as a timber-framed building in the street which now bears its name. It was established after the opening of the Bridewell prison in London in 1556 as a new type of prison to deal with the growing numbers of those regarded as rogues and vagabonds or the idle poor. This example had been followed in Oxford in 1562, Salisbury in 1564 and Norwich in 1565. It was burnt down twice and rebuilt: after a fire in 1619 and another more serious fire in 1630, but still in timber, much of which survives today.






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An Architecutural Feature for Lords and 'Hum'ble Cottage Dwellers....

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Aug 17, 2010

Can you guess what it is? If a previous member of Wiltshire Buildings Record hadn’t identified this feature I doubt I would have been able to. The team was called to look at Littleton House, Littleton Pannell, in the parish of West Lavington.
The feature in question
The Feature in Question...

This old farmhouse had been owned by generations of Pococks who farmed the land for sheep and arable. The house itself goes back to the 17th century at least, and successive owners have each put their own stamp on it. Narrow mullioned windows gave way to broad, airy sashes in the 18th century, and chunky, louring beams to fine plastered ceilings in the 19th century.


As time went on the living accommodation proliferated, with more specialised functions being carried out in different rooms. By the end of the 19th century there were in addition to the usual reception rooms and kitchens a dairy, butler’s pantry, pump house, brew house, coal and wood house, as well as separate cellars for wine and for beer. To find out the identity of the feature, please 'read more'...

 




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