THE TREADMILL AND THE ROPE The History of a Liverpool Prison

Softcover. Unlike most prisons thoughout the World, which have survived for 100s of years as permanent reminders to the human race that they must obey the rules of the controlling power, the Kirkdale House of Correction, to give it its official title, lasted less than 100 yrs, during the 19th century being built on open land in what is now the centre of Liverpool. First occupied in 1819 and completed in 1821, it was appointed "The House of Correction for the Hundred of West Derby in the County of Lancashire". Before 1819 prisoners of the Hundred were lodged in the Borough Gaol of Liverpool but this was found to be too small and inconvenient for administration. This problem being caused not only by the rapid growth of the prison population but the necessity to "collect for shipment" the thousands of people sentenced to be transported to "Lands across the Seas". Increased pressure on penal establishments, combined with the work involved in attending to the execution of felons, was caused by the great unrest and riots in the Country and petty thieving for food that living conditions necessitated. The governing political parties of the time, combined with the land and property owners in electing the judiciary, ensured that any threat to property, by either word or deed, was ruthlessly crushed. It was the implementation of the "law" that filled the existing prisons and resulted in the building of The Kirkdale House of Correction. It was within this building, during its short existence, that the executive ensured that many of the greatest of British intellectual minds were imprisoned (which often also meant death) or transported to Australia. At the end of the 19th century, the building was flattened to the ground and in an effort to remove its history many of the records applying to its existence were destroyed, misplaced or stored in archives far away from its original location in Liverpool. It was with difficulty that these records were located, analysed and checked, to give an idea of the life and times of the prison itself and the people who, in some little way, either by choice, or without the option, were involved in its brief, but horrific history. With Source Material and References. 64pp. trade size softcover. F. with no creasing to covers. Scarce.