HMP Shepton Mallet, sometimes known as Cornhill, is a former prison in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England. When it closed in 2013, it had been the United Kingdom's oldest operating prison, following the closure of HMP Lancaster Castle in 2011. Before closure, Shepton Mallet was a category C lifer prison holding 189 prisoners. The prison building is Grade II* listed, while the former gatehouse and perimeter walls are Grade II. The prison was opened before 1625 but was already in poor repair by the end of the First English Civil War in 1646. It was expanded in 1790 but conditions were again criticised in a report of 1822 and further building work was undertaken in the 1820s and 1830s. This included the installation of a treadwheel for those sentenced to hard labour. In 1843 the number of cells was increased by adding a second storey to each wing. The prison was damaged during a fire in 1904. In 1930 the number of inmates had fallen and the prison was closed. Following the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the prison was reopened as a military prison. It was initially used by the British Army and later by American forces who constructed a new execution block to hang condemned prisoners. It was also used for the storage of important historical documents from the Public Record Office in London, including the Domesday Book of 1086. Following the war the prison continued as a military "glasshouse" until it was returned to civilian use in 1966. The prison was decommissioned in 2013 and now serves as a tourist attraction, with guided tours and other activities.
History prior to the Second World War
17th and 18th centuries The prison was established as a house of correction in 1625 to comply with the 1610 Bridewell Act of King James I requiring that every county have such a house. The building and surrounding land of 1 acre (0.40 ha) was bought from the Reverend Edward Barnard for £160. In the 17th century Shepton Mallet was not the only place of imprisonment in Somerset: the County Gaol was in Ilchester; there was another house of correction at Ilchester; and one at Taunton. At the time all prisoners – men, women and children – were held together in reportedly dreadful conditions. The gaoler was not paid, instead making an income from fees from his prisoners; for example, for providing them with liquor. By the end of the First English Civil War in 1646 the house of correction was described as being in poor repair. During the Bloody Assizes following the Monmouth Rebellion at least 12 local men were held at the gaol before being hanged, drawn and quartered at the Market Cross. In 1773, a commissioner appointed by Parliament to inspect prisons around the country reported that sanitation at Shepton Mallet House of Correction was extremely poor. He said:
Many who went in healthy are in a few months changed to emaciated, dejected objects. Some are seen pining under diseases, expiring on the floors, in loathsome cells, of pestilential fevers, and the confluent smallpox. Victims, I will not say to cruelty, but I must say to the inattention of the Sheriffs, and Gentlemen in the commission of peace. The cause of this distress is, that many prisons are scantily supplied, and some almost totally unprovided with the necessaries of life. In 1790 additional land was purchased to extend the prison, and around this time men and women began to be held in separate areas. Further extensions were carried out from 1817 to 1822, with the prison holding about 200 prisoners.
19th century
A report into the state of prisons in Somerset by Sir John Hippisley of Ston Easton Park in 1822 criticised the conditions in which prisoners were held. He proposed a five-year plan to expand the prison at a cost of £5,000. In 1823, a large treadwheel, designed by William Cubitt and built by Stotherts of Bath, later Stothert & Pitt, was installed within the prison, in the 1840s Stotherts were contracted as engineers to build the new Bath City Gaol in Twerton, and later went on to build the treadwheel at that prison. The building for the treadwheel and other new buildings were designed by George Allen Underwood. Men who had been sentenced to hard labour would serve their punishment on this. 40 men would tread the wheel for many hours at a time, a punishment which was recorded as causing hernias in some convicts. The wheel was used to power a grain mill situated outside the prison wall. The wheel remained in use until 1890. Other prisoners were engaged in breaking stones which were used for roadbuilding, oakum picking (unpicking old ropes) and other tasks. Further building work to designs by Richard Carver, the county surveyor, was undertaken in the 1830s and 1840s. This included the rebuilding of the front range and the addition of the gatehouse. The chapel was built in 1840. The wings were adapted and a second storey added to each one. Additional building work completed the enclosure of the quadrangle or exercise yard. In 1842 inspectors appointed by the government reported that Shepton Mallet prison was:
in greatest want of new cells for the purpose of dividing the prisoners from each other ... In number 11 of Ward 8, no less than eight men have slept in the same room in company from January to September, 1841, although in this very room there are only six bedsteads. Boards are brought in and placed on the floor when the bedsteads are not sufficiently numerous. Ilchester Gaol closed in 1843, with the inmates being transferred to Shepton Mallet and Taunton. In 1845 the prison was recorded as holding 270 prisoners. By 1897 the population was only 61, overseen by a governor, three warders, six assistant warders and a night watchman. Other staff included a chaplain and assistant chaplain, a surgeon, a matron and a school master. In 1884 it was designated as the county gaol for Somerset under the Prison Act 1877.
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