As I was in Cornwall, I couldn’t resist a trip across the moor to see Bodmin Gaol. Apparently, Yvette Fielding from Ghost Hunters found it the scariest place she had ever visited, so I had to go…
There is something darkly fascinating about old, eighteenth century ruined prisons and this one had a very interesting history as it was first a normal prison, then a naval prison and finally a psychiatric hospital or nut house as my pc friends would call it.
Well it said it was dog friendly so I took Fizz too as he loves out sniffing new places.
We went through the old high gates and the first thing I saw was this family running across the cobbled courtyard with the mum screaming,
“Quick, they are going to execute a sandbag!”
A bit bizarre or what…
Well the hanging bell sounded so Fizz and I headed for the execution pit. It was just like a large shed at the corner of the courtyard but was slightly different too most sheds (I hope) as it had a noose and a false bottom to the bit underneath the rope…. Apparently, with a 7 feet drop!
We then had a 20 minute lecture on how to hang a person successfully and the origins of the regulations re:hanging.
This really sucked the enjoyment out of watching the sandbag hang but I did learn that Pierrepointe the first hangman (slightly weird) was not a very successful hangman (I had no idea you could be a bad executioner but there you go).
Then we went into the prison itself. It’s a semi ruined, slightly musty smelling building set on 6 floors, accessed by steep stone winding staircases.
I expected it to be a bit like the London Dungeons but it was more like your typical English Heritage ancient ruin.
Unfortunately, even though the prison was dog friendly, Fizz decided it wasn’t, he put his tail firmly between his legs and would not move.
This was halfway up the staircase, with lots of people waiting behind us…. So for the rest of the visit I had to carry the coward, a dead weight of over a stone, which got very tiring, very quickly!
The scariest part of the gaol was the lowest floor, below ground level, it smelt and was really dingy.
The cells were bare and dark with tiny windows set really high up in the walls. On one of the walls was a photo of the doctor and the psychiatric nurses, none of their patients could of looked less normal.... than those severe, menacing faces.
Well, Fizz started getting very heavy at this point so we went back up to the ground level cells, where they had the naughty plaques up, saying who had been locked up and why.
There were a few murderers,
A boy had stolen 2 ducks,
Potatoes had been stolen,
Vagrants locked up and
Someone had cursed a woman and
Another woman had been arrested for befriending fairies.
Not exactly, crimes to make Yvette’s’ blood run cold, I hope!
One man was sentenced for 3 months for loving sheep too much, I thought OMG how embarrassing! His poor family are going to be forever embarassed about that! LOL!
Then I came to the next plaque.
Looked at the name, it was CB, one of my ancestors on my Mum’s side.
Transported to Australia.
For offences against sheep.
Oops! How shameful is that!
It’s good to have your ancestors transported to Australia if they were something cool like a smuggler or highwayman but sheep fancier…. Ooh! That’s just gross.
