Within York’s prison walls

Let it never be said that we don't keep our word.

The pictures on these pages today – once again courtesy of York historian Hugh Murray – take you right inside the prison that once dominated the Eye of York.

In its heyday this was, according to the History of York website, “one of the largest and most remarkable buildings in York.” It was certainly one of the grimmest.

The “new” prison, as it then was, was built between 1825 and 1835 to accommodate what the History of York site calls the “increasing numbers of felons” in the city.

It effectively turned the whole castle area into a prison.

There was a huge new wall made of dark millstone grit surrounding the entire prison and cutting it off from the rest of the city. Inside, four prison blocks radiated from a central hub containing the prison governor's quarters.

Another radiating arm contained a long, narrow passageway known as the “last walk”, which led to the infamous last drop - the gallows where prisoners were executed.

Until 1801, public hangings had taken place at the Tyburn, but they were then moved to York Castle so that “the entrance to the town should no longer be annoyed by dragging criminals through the streets.”

Public hangings continued at the prison until 1868, when an Act of Parliament decreed they should be held behind closed doors. From then, until the last hanging in York in 1896, it was to the last drop that prisoners were brought for execution.

Mr Murray's collection includes photographs of both the last drop itself – a suitably dismal-looking place – and of the long, cheerless passage which led to it.

Today, a York pub is named after this place of execution. But it doesn't require much imagination to put yourself in the mind of a prisoner taking that long, last walk.

The prison remained in use as a civil prison until 1900, after which it became a military detention centre before being closed and demolished by the city council in the 1930s.

One of Mr Murray's photographs shows the gatehouse and the wall leading to it actually in the process of being pulled down– revealing the castle mound to public view for the first time in a hundred years.

The dark stone of the walls didn't go to waste, however. It was used for building elsewhere – including in Stockton Lane. “Many of the gardens on the left going out of York have gritstone walls,” Mr Murray says.

There is an odd emptiness and sense of desertion about many of Mr Murray's photographs. He believes that is probably because they were taken shortly after the civil prison closed in 1900.

They nevertheless provide a fascinating look inside the grim building – a look which many readers of Yesterday Once More will never have seen before.

One photograph shows the inside of a prison block, with its rows of walkways. Another shows the prison treadmill, where prisoners would be set endlessly treading and treading. It was work for work's sake, Mr Murray says – with no end result. That must simply have made it all the more heartbreaking.

A dark millstone grit wall surrounded the entire prison, cutting it off from the rest of the city.

A cell block inside York Prison.

The prison is demolished in 1935 revealing the castle mound for the first time in a hundred years.

• We welcome contributions from readers to Yesterday Once More. However, we would ask you not to send in original old photographs, as we cannot guarantee that these will be returned. If you have old photographs or documents you would like to share with us, either send copies, phone Stephen Lewis on 01904 567263 or email stephen.lewis@nqyne.co.uk