HM Prison Shepton Mallet

The house of correction was established in 1625 to satisfy King James I's Bridewell Act of 1610, which required every county to have one; the building and an acre of ground were bought from the Reverend Edward Barnard for £160. By the end of the First English Civil War in 1646 it was already described as being in poor repair. Prisoners of all ages and both sexes were held together in conditions reported as dreadful, and the gaoler drew no wage, making his living instead from fees charged to those in his care — for supplying them with liquor, among other things. A commissioner appointed by Parliament reported in 1773 that sanitation here was extremely poor; in his report on the country's prisons he wrote of men who "went in healthy" and within months were "emaciated, dejected objects", some "expiring on the floors, in loathsome cells".

Land was bought in 1790 to extend the prison, and around this time men and women began to be held in separate areas; further extensions followed between 1817 and 1822. A critical report by Sir John Hippisley in 1822 prompted a five-year expansion plan, and in 1823 a large treadwheel designed by William Cubitt and built by Stotherts of Bath was installed: forty men at a time would tread it for hours, driving a grain mill outside the wall, a punishment recorded as causing hernias in some convicts. It remained in use until 1890, while other prisoners broke stones for roadbuilding or picked oakum. The chapel was built in 1840, and in 1843 a second storey was added to each wing to increase the number of cells — government inspectors having reported the year before that the prison was "in greatest want of new cells for the purpose of dividing the prisoners from each other".

Death is part of the record here, and plainly stated. During the Bloody Assizes that followed the Monmouth Rebellion, at least twelve local men were held at the gaol before being hanged, drawn and quartered at the Market Cross. Seven judicial executions took place within the walls between 1889 and 1926 — the total for the prison's earlier years is unknown — and those hanged were buried in unmarked graves inside the prison, as was then customary.

Fire broke out in C block on the night of 2 July 1904; prisoners worked the hoses and pumps alongside warders and four fire brigades, there were no fatalities, and not one prisoner attempted to escape. The prison closed in September 1930 as under-used, standing empty but for a caretaker until it reopened in October 1939 as a military prison — first British, later American, the latter building a new execution block. After the war it continued as a military "glasshouse" until returning to civilian use in 1966, finishing its working life as a category C lifer prison holding 189 men.

The prison was decommissioned in 2013 and now operates as a tourist attraction, with guided tours and other activities. A daytime tour is the best way to take in the documented history — the treadwheel, the 1904 fire, the wartime years — and the listed fabric itself: the Grade II* listed prison building, with its Grade II gatehouse and perimeter walls.

Organised public ghost hunts are also held at the venue by event companies, and booking onto one is the only sensible way to see the place after dark; this is private property, and there is no casual wandering. Book ahead, dress for cold stone and unheated landings whatever the season, and bear in mind that real people died here — the three soldiers of room 142 among them.