HERE IS A BIT OF INTERACTIVE TITILLATING …. “TONGUE IN CHEEK” INSIGHT INTO SOME OF OUR INTRIGUING AND THOUGHT PROVOKING TOOLS OF THE TRADE USED ON LADIES SUFFERING FROM HYSTERIA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA THAT ARE ON DISPLAY AT THE JAIL … IN AND AMONGST OUR VERY CLUTTERED, DIVERSE CURIOSITIES AND OTHER COLLECTIONS
Are these power tools? Medieval torture devices? Ancient hairdryers? Vintage egg whisks? No, they are Victorian, er, personal massagers (including one you had to handcrank)
Late 19th, early 20th century self-vibrators on display in Gloucestershire
Were originally created by Victorian doctors to cure women of hysteria
Female patients were treated with ‘pelvic massage’ using plug-in vibrators
On display at Littledean Jail, former courthouse, in the Forest of Dean
PUBLISHED: 14:18, 26 September 2013 | UPDATED: 18:44, 26 September 2013
Take a look at these pictures and consider for a moment what these rather brutal looking metal contraptions might be.
Are they power tools? Medieval torture devices? The world’s first hairdryers? Archaic egg whisks? Nope, these are actually Victorian vibrators, a collection of vintage self-massagers currently on display at Littledean Jail in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, a former house of correction, police station and courthouse-turned-visitor attraction.
And exhibits include Dr Macaura’s Pulsocon Hand Crank Vibrator, which dates back to 1890 and resembles an old-fashioned egg whisk.
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This may look like an early hair dryer with different attachments, but it is actually a vintage ‘self-massager’, used by women as a vibrator in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
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Dr. Macaura’s Pulsocon Hand Crank (1890) Vibrator, which resembles an archaic egg whisk, is now on display at Littledean Jail, Forest of Dean,
According to Philip Larkin, sex began in 1963, between the end of the Lady Chatterley ban and the Beatles’ first LP.
But this collection of Victorian vibrators shows self-pleasuring has been going on for a whole lot longer than that.
Littledean Jail owner and curator Andy Jones, 51, described the assortment of sex toys as ‘a fascinating insight into women’s pleasure during Victorian times’.
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The ‘ACME’ hand-held vibrator shows self-pleasuring has been going on for a whole lot longer than we originally believed
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When compared to today’s vibrators such as the pink plastic rampant rabbit, the ACME is certainly a lot less… girly
But despite its pleasurable connotations, the modern-style vibrator was actually invented by respectable Victorian doctors.
‘Pelvic massage’ was a common treatment for female hysteria during the Victorian era.
However, doctors found the process of administering the massage by hand tiring and time-consuming, and so devised a device to do the job for them.
Dr Joseph Mortimer Granville patented an electromechanical vibrator around 1880, a story told in the 2011 film Hysteria, featuring Maggie Gyllenhaal.
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Despite its pleasurable connotations, the modern-style vibrator was actually invented by respectable Victorian doctors
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‘If you plug them in, the force is incredible. They’re loud and some of them look like hairdryers’
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The vibrators come packed neatly in cases with a number of different attachments, and resembles an old-fashioned drill and its bits
While some of these contraptions now look like they belong more in a torture chamber than beneath the sheets, they serve as testament to the ingenuity of Victorian inventors.
The sex toys also offer a fascinating insight into the supposedly ‘prim and proper’ Victorian world, in which some families would supposedly cover up table legs since they were seen as suggestive and risque.
‘If you plug them in, the force is incredible,’ Jones said. ‘They’re loud and some of them look like hairdryers.
‘I would imagine it would have been quite a painful exercise, judging by what I’ve seen of them, like having a kango hammer pressed against your body.’
ABOVE: A VERY EARLY POSTCARD IMAGE OF LITTLEDEAN GAOL,SPELT HERE IN THE OLD FASHION WAY .
IT WAS ALSO FORMERLY USED AS A “HOUSE OF CORRECTION “, LATER TO BECOME A POLICE STATION,COURTHOUSE AND NOW IS THE HOME OF THE INFAMOUS CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION .
ABOVE: Original Victorian 3-handcuffed leather body belt and original leather bound handcuffs
ABOVE : EARLY VICTORIAN LITTLE DEAN PRISON WARDEN/GUARD TUNIC BUTTON ( A VERY RARE FIND FOR SURE )
Possibly of little significance to visitors …. however I love this item which has been recently discovered and acquired for display here . Intriguingly this early Victorian Prison Warden/Guard tunic button is worded LITTLE DEAN (AS TWO WORDS) WITH PRISON BENEATH (INSTEAD OF GAOL ) … as opposed to it’s early title as having been “Littledean Gaol”.
BELOW: ORIGINAL VICTIORAN STRAIGHT JACKET THAT WAS FOUND IN LITTLEDEAN JAIL’S ATTIC SPACE BY BUILDERS DURING RENOVATION WORK BACK IN 1986 AND SUBSEQUENTLY DONATED TO THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION FOR PERMANENT DISPLAY HERE AT THE JAIL
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT THROUGH THE AGES AS WELL AS AN INSIGHT INTO PRESENT DAY CORPORAL PUNISHMENTS TOO, AS FEATURED AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION HERE AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL
ABOVE :AN ARRAY OF VARIOUS 19TH CENTURY HANDCUFFS, RESTRAINTS AND LEG IRONS HERE ON DISPLAY AT THE JAIL .
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN MALAYSIA FOR RAPE, ARMED ROBBERY , DRUGS ETC
ORIGINAL EARLY 16TH- 17TH CENTURY HANDMADE OAK “VILLAGE PUNISHMENT STOCKS” RESTORED IN THE 19TH CENTURY WITH ADDITIONAL SUPPORTING IRONWORK AND PRESERVED FOR POSTERITY ….. AS CAN NOW BE SEEN AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL,LITTLEDEAN, FOREST OF DEAN, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UK
VILLAGE STOCKS
Stocks are devices used in the internationally, in medieval, Renaissance and colonial American times as a form of physical punishment involving public humiliation. The stocks partially immobilized its victims and they were often exposed in a public place such as the site of a market to the scorn of those who passed by. Since the purpose of putting offenders in the stocks was to expose them to ridicule and mockery, passers-by were encouraged to throw mud, rotten eggs, moldy fruit and vegetables, smelly fish, offal, and excrement (both animal and human) at those being punished.
ABOVE AND BELOW : WITCHES DUCKING STOOL AND LIFTING PULLY ON DISPLAY AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL
VARIOUS EARLY VICTORIAN LEATHER BOUND WHIPS AND CAT O’NINE TAILS USED WITHIN UK PRISONS ….. HERE ON DISPLAY AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL
VARIOUS WHIPS, CAT O’NINE TAILS , BLUDGEON AND LEATHER BOUND HANDCUFFS USED WITHIN UK PRISONS HERE ON DISPLAY AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL
CLOSE-UP IMAGE OF ROUND HANDLED LEATHER BOUND EARLY VICTORIAN WHIP USED WITHIN UK PRISONS
AS ABOVE
EARLY VICTORIAN BLACK CLOTH BOUND, ROUND HANDLED CAT O’NINE TAILS USED IN UK PRISONS
AS ABOVE
EARLY VICTORIAN FLAT HANDLED CAT O’NINE TAILS USED IN UK PRISONS
AS ABOVE
CLOSE UP IMAGE OF VICTORIAN LEATHER BOUND HAND RESTRIANTS AS USED HERE AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL
AS ABOVE
EARLY VICTORIAN LEATHER BOUND BODY RESTRAINT WITH ATTACHED HAND CUFFS USED IN UK PRISONS AND NOW ON DISPLAY AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL
CLOSE UP OF ABOVE
CLOSE UP OF ABOVE
AS ABOVE
AS ABOVE
AS ABOVE
AS ABOVE
AS ABOVE
BELOW : ORIGINAL 1930’s LEATHER BODY BELT RESTRAINT COMPLETE WITH WRIST RESTRAINTS ACQUIRED FROM THE MONICA BRITTON MUSEUM COLLECTION AT FRENCHAY HOSPITAL , BRISTOL AND NOW ON DISPLAY HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL , GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UK
BELOW: ORIGINAL 1930’s LEATHER RESTRAINT STRAPS ACQUIRED FROM THE MONICA BRITTON MUSEUM COLLECTION AT FRENCHAY HOSPITAL , BRISTOL AND NOW ON DISPLAY HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL , GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UK
PRISON WARDEN INSCRIBED 18TH CENTURY TRUNCHEON AND EARLY VICTORIAN BODY RESTRAINT BELT HERE ON DISPLAY
INSCRIBED GEORGE 1ST PRISON WARDEN TRUNCHEON HERE ON DISPLAY AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL
EARLY VICTORIAN BLUDGEON USED IN UK PRISONS …. HERE ON DISPLAY AT THE JAIL WITH PRISON WARDEN TRUNCHEON AND HIATT STEEL HANDCUFFS
EARLY VICTORIAN BLUDGEON USED IN UK PRISONS
CLOSE-UP OF HIATT STEEL HANDCUFFS
corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable. The term usually refers to methodically striking the offender with an implement, whether in judicial, domestic, or educational settings.
Corporal punishment may be divided into three main types:
Parental or domestic corporal punishment: within the family—typically, children punished by parents or guardians;
School corporal punishment: within schools, when students are punished by teachers or school administrators, or, in the past, apprentices by master craftsmen;
Judicial corporal punishment: as part of a criminal sentence ordered by a court of law. Closely related is prison corporal punishment, ordered either directly by the prison authorities or by a visiting court.
Corporal punishment of minors within domestic settings is lawful in all 50 of the United States and, according to a 2000 survey, is widely approved by parents.[1]It has been officially outlawed in 29 countries.[2]
Corporal punishment in school is still legal in some parts of the world, including 20 of the States of the USA, but has been outlawed in other places, including Canada, Kenya, Japan, South Africa, New Zealand, and nearly all of Europe except the Czech Republic[3] and France.[4]
Judicial corporal punishment has virtually disappeared from the western world but remains in force in many parts of Africa and Asia.
The practice was recorded as early as c. 10th Century BC in Book of Proverbs attributed to Solomon:
He that spareth the rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him correcteth him betimes.[5]
Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell.[6]
It was certainly present in classical civilisations, being used in Greece, Rome, and Egypt for both judicial and educational discipline.[7] Some states gained a reputation for using such punishments cruelly; Sparta, in particular, used them as part of a disciplinary regime designed to build willpower and physical strength.[8] Although the Spartan example was extreme, corporal punishment was possibly the most frequent type of punishment. In the Roman Empire, the maximum penalty that a Roman citizen could receive under the law was 40 “lashes” or “strokes” with a whip applied to the back and shoulders, or with the “fasces” (similar to a birch rod, but consisting of 8–10 lengths of willow rather than birch) applied to the buttocks. Such punishments could draw blood, and were frequently inflicted in public.
In Medieval Europe, corporal punishment was encouraged by the attitudes of the medieval church towards the human body, flagellation being a common means of self-discipline. This had an influence on the use of corporal punishment in schools, as educational establishments were closely attached to the church during this period. Nevertheless, corporal punishment was not used uncritically; as early as the eleventh century Saint Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury was speaking out against what he saw as the excessive use of corporal punishment in the treatment of children.[9]
From the 16th century onwards, new trends were seen in corporal punishment. Judicial punishments were increasingly turned into public spectacles, with public beatings of criminals intended as a deterrent to other would-be offenders. Meanwhile, early writers on education, such as Roger Ascham, complained of the arbitrary manner in which children were punished.[10] Perhaps the most influential writer on the subject was the English philosopher John Locke, whose Some Thoughts Concerning Education explicitly criticised the central role of corporal punishment in education. Locke’s work was highly influential, and may have helped influence Polish legislators to ban corporal punishment from Poland’s schools in 1783.[11]
During the 18th century, the concept of corporal punishment was attacked by some philosophers and legal reformers. Merely inflicting pain on miscreants was seen as inefficient, influencing the subject only for a short period of time and effecting no permanent change in their behaviour. Some believed that the purpose of punishment should be reformation, not retribution. This is perhaps best expressed in Jeremy Bentham’s idea of a panoptic prison, in which prisoners were controlled and surveyed at all times, perceived to be advantageous in that this system supposedly reduced the need of measures such as corporal punishment.[12]
A consequence of this mode of thinking was a reduction in the use of corporal punishment in the 19th century in Europe and North America. In some countries this was encouraged by scandals involving individuals seriously hurt during acts of corporal punishment. For instance, in Britain, popular opposition to punishment was encouraged by two significant cases, the death of Private Frederick John White, who died after a military flogging in 1846,[13] and the death of Reginald Cancellor, who was killed by his schoolmaster in 1860.[14] Events such as these mobilised public opinion, and in response, many countries introduced thorough regulation of the infliction of corporal punishment in state institutions such as schools, prisons and reformatories.
In the 1870s, courts in the United States overruled the common-law principle that a husband had the right to “physically chastise an errant wife”.[15] In the UK the traditional right of a husband to inflict moderate corporal punishment on his wife in order to keep her “within the bounds of duty” was similarly removed in 1891.[16][17] See Domestic violence for more information.
In the United Kingdom, the use of judicial corporal punishment declined during the first half of the 20th century and it was abolished altogether in 1948, while most other European countries had abolished it earlier. Meanwhile in many schools, the use of the cane, paddle or tawse remained commonplace in the UK and the United States until the 1980s. In several other countries, it still is: seeSchool corporal punishment.
Domestic corporal punishment, i.e. of children and teenagers by their parents, is usually referred to colloquially as “spanking“, “whipping“, “smacking,” or “slapping.” One possible method of spanking is to have the child or teenager lying, stomach down, across the parent’s lap, with the parent bringing their open hand down upon the child’s buttocks. Alternatively, the youngster might be told to bend over, or lie face down across a bed.[18] Spankings may be delivered over the trousers, over the undergarments, or upon the bare buttocks.[19]
In an increasing number of countries it has been outlawed, starting with Sweden in 1979.[2] In some other countries, corporal punishment is legal, but restricted (e.g. blows to the head are outlawed and implements may not be used, and/or only children within a certain age range may be spanked).
In the United States and all African and most Asian nations, “spanking,” “whipping,” “smacking,” or “slapping” by parents is currently legal; it is also legal to use certain implements such as a belt or paddle.
In Canada, spanking by parents or legal guardians (but nobody else) is legal, as long as the child is not under 2 years or over 12 years of age, and no implement other than an open, bare hand is used (belts, paddles, etc. are strictly prohibited). Provinces can legally impose tighter restrictions than the aforementioned national restrictions, but none currently does so.
In the UK, spanking or smacking is legal, but it may not leave a mark on the body and in Scotland since October 2003 it has been illegal to use any implements when disciplining a child.
In Pakistan, Section 89 of Pakistan Penal Code allows corporal punishment. The Government of Pakistan has yet to repeal this law.[20]
Legal corporal punishment of school students for misbehaviour involves striking the student on the buttocks or the palm of the hand in a premeditated ceremony with an implement specially kept for the purpose such as a rattan cane or spanking paddle, or with the open hand.
Some countries retain judicial corporal punishment, including a number of former British territories such as Botswana, Malaysia, Singapore and Tanzania. In Malaysia and Singapore, for certain specified offences, males are routinely sentenced to caning in addition to a prison term. The Singaporean practice of caning became much discussed around the world in 1994 when American teenager Michael P. Fay was caned for vandalism.
A number of countries with an Islamic legal system, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan and northern Nigeria, employ judicial whipping for a range of offences. As of 2009, some regions of Pakistan are experiencing a breakdown of law and government, leading to a reintroduction of corporal punishment by ad hocIslamicist courts.[21] As well as corporal punishment, some Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran use other kinds of physical penalties such asamputation or mutilation.[22][23][24] However, the term “corporal punishment” has since the 19th century usually meant caning, flogging or whipping rather than those other types of physical penalty.[25][26][27][28][29][30][31]
According to its proponents, corporal punishment offers several advantages over other kinds of punishment, such as that it is quicker to implement, costs nothing, and deters unruliness.[32][33]
The American Psychological Association opposes the use of corporal punishment in schools, juvenile facilities, child care nurseries, and all other institutions, public or private, where children are cared for or educated. It claims that corporal punishment is violent and unnecessary, may lower self-esteem, and is liable to instil hostility and rage without reducing the undesired behaviour. The APA also states that corporal punishment is likely to train children to use physical violence.[34]
The professor of philosophy, David Benatar, points out that using this last argument, fining people also teaches that forcing others to give up some of their property is an acceptable response to unwanted behaviour in others. “Why don’t detentions, imprisonments, fines, and a multitude of other punishments convey equally undesirable messages?” According to Benatar, the key difference lies in the legitimacy of the authority administering the punishment: “[T]here is all the difference in the world between legitimate authorities—the judiciary, parents, or teachers—using punitive powers responsibly to punish wrongdoing, and children or private citizens going around beating each other, locking each other up, and extracting financial tributes (such as lunch money). There is a vast moral difference here and there is no reason why children should not learn about it. Punishing children when they do wrong seems to be one important way of doing this.”[35]
Kay Hymowitz in her book, Who Killed Discipline in School? states, “Ask Americans what worries them most about public schools and the answer might surprise you; discipline. For several decades now, poll after poll shows it topping the list of parents’ concerns. Hymowitz says that, “the public’s sense that something has gone drastically wrong with school discipline isn’t mistaken. Over the past thirty years or so, the courts and federal government have hacked away at the power of educators to maintain a safe and civil school environment.”[36]
Anatomical target
Different parts of the anatomy may be targeted:
The buttocks, whether clothed or bare, have often been targeted for punishment, particularly in Europe and the English-speaking world.[28] Indeed, some languages have a specific word for their chastisement: spanking in English, fessée in French, nalgada in Spanish (both Romanesque words directly derived from the word for buttock). The advantage is that these fleshy body parts are robust and can be chastised accurately, without endangering any bodily functions; they heal well and relatively quickly; in some cultures punishment applied to the buttocks entails a degree of humiliation, which may or may not be intended as part of the punishment.
Chastising the back of the thighs and calves, as sometimes in South Korean schools, is at least as painful if not more so, but this can cause more damage in terms of scars and bruising.
The upper back and the shoulders have historically been a target for whipping, e.g. in the UK with the cat-o’-nine-tails in the Royal Navy and in some pre-1948 judicial punishments, and also today generally in the Middle East and the Islamic world.
The head is a very dangerous place to hit, especially “boxing the ears“.
The hand is very sensitive and delicate, and use of an implement could cause excessive damage.[37]
The soles of the feet are extremely sensitive, and flogging them (falaka), as has been sometimes done in the Middle East, is excruciating.
Corporal punishment in official settings, such as schools and prisons, has typically been carried out as a formal ceremony, with a standard procedure, emphasising the solemnity of the occasion. It may even be staged in a ritual manner in front of other students/inmates, in order to act as a deterrent to others.
In the case of prison or judicial punishments, formal punishment might begin with the offender stripped of some or all of their clothing and secured to a piece of furniture, such as a trestle or frame,[38][39](X-cross), punishment horse or falaka. In some cases the nature of the offence is read out and the sentence (consisting of a predetermined number of strokes) is formally imposed. A variety of implements may be used to inflict blows on the offender. The terms used to describe these are not fixed, varying by country and by context. There are, however, a number of common types that are encountered when reading about corporal punishment. These include:
The rod. A thin, flexible rod is often called a switch.
The birch, a number of strong, flexible branches of birch or similar wood, bound together with twine into a single implement.
The rattan cane (not bamboo as it is often wrongly described). Much favoured in the British Commonwealth for both school and judicial use.
The paddle, a flat wooden board with a handle, with or without holes. Used in US schools.
The strap. A leather strap with a number of tails at one end, called a tawse, was used in schools in Scotland and some parts of northern England.
The whip, typically of leather. Varieties include the Russian knout and South African sjambok, in addition to the scourge and the French martinet.
The cat o’ nine tails was used in British naval discipline and as a judicial and prison punishment.
The hairbrush and belt were traditionally used in the United States and Britain as an implement for domestic spanking.
The plimsoll or gym shoe, used in British and Commonwealth schools, often called “the slipper”. See Slippering (punishment).
In some instances the offender is required to prepare the implement himself. For instance, sailors were employed in preparing the cat o’ nine tails that would be used upon their own back, while school students were sometimes sent out to cut a switch or rod.
In contrast, informal punishments, particularly in domestic settings, tend to lack this ritual nature and are often administered with whatever object comes to hand. It is common, for instance, for belts, wooden spoons, slippers, hairbrushes or coathangers to be used in domestic punishment, while rulers and other classroom equipment have been used in schools.
In parts of England, boys were once beaten under the old tradition of “Beating the Bounds” whereby a boy was paraded around the edge of a city or parish and would be spanked with a switch or cane to mark the boundary.[40] One famous “Beating the Bounds” took place around the boundary of St Giles and the area where Tottenham Court Road now stands in central London. The actual stone that separated the boundary is now underneath the Centre Point office tower.[41]
Corporal punishment, paraphilia and fetishism
The German psychologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing suggested that a tendency to sadism and masochism may develop out of the experience of children receiving corporal punishment at school.[42] But this was disputed by Sigmund Freud, who found that, where there was a sexual interest in beating or being beaten, it developed in early childhood, and rarely related to actual experiences of punishment.[43]
Capital punishment in the United Kingdom was used from the creation of the state in 1707 until the practice was abolished in the twentieth century. The last executions in the United Kingdom, by hanging, took place in 1964, prior to capital punishment being abolished for murder (in 1969 in Great Britain and in 1973 in Northern Ireland). Although not applied since, the death penalty remained on the statute book for certain other offences until 1998.[1]
Sir Samuel Romilly, speaking to the House of Commons on capital punishment in 1810, declared that “…(there is) no country on the face of the earth in which there [have] been so many different offences according to law to be punished with death as in England.”[citation needed] Known as the “Bloody Code“, at its height the criminal law included some 220 crimes punishable by death, including “being in the company of Gypsies for one month”, “strong evidence of malice in a child aged 7–14 years of age” and “blacking the face or using a disguise whilst committing a crime”. Many of these offences had been introduced to protect the property of the wealthy classes that emerged during the first half of the 18th century, a notable example being the Black Act of 1723, which created 50 capital offences for various acts of theft and poaching.Background
Whilst executions for murder, burglary and robbery were common, the death sentences for minor offenders were often not carried out. However, children were commonly executed for such minor crimes as stealing. A sentence of death could be commuted or respited (permanently postponed) for reasons such as benefit of clergy, official pardons, pregnancy of the offender or performance of military or naval duty.[2] Between 1770 and 1830, 35,000 death sentences were handed down in England and Wales, but only 7,000 executions were carried out.[3]
There were prisons, but they were mostly small, old and badly-run. Common punishments included transportation — sending the offender to America, Australia or Van Diemens Land (Tasmania), or execution — hundreds of offences carried the death penalty. By the 1830s people were having doubts about both these punishments. The answer was prison: lots of new prisons were built and old ones extended. The Victorians also had clear ideas about what these prisons should be like. They should be unpleasant places, so as to deter people from committing crimes. Once inside, prisoners had to be made to face up to their own faults, by keeping them in silence and making them do hard, boring work. Walking a treadwheel or picking oakum (separating strands of rope) were the most common forms of hard labour.
Reform
In 1808 Romilly had the death penalty removed for pickpockets and lesser offenders, starting a process of reform that continued over the next 50 years. The death penalty was mandatory (although it was frequently commuted by the government) until the Judgement of Death Act 1823 gave judges the power to commute the death penalty except for treason and murder. The Punishment of Death, etc. Act 1832 reduced the number of capital crimes by two-thirds. Gibbeting was abolished in 1832 and hanging in chains was abolished in 1834. In 1861, several acts of Parliament (24 & 25 Vict; c. 94 to c. 100) further reduced the number of civilian capital crimes to five: murder, treason, espionage, arson in royal dockyards, and piracy with violence; there were other offences under military law. The death penalty remained mandatory for treason and murder unless commuted.
The Royal Commission on Capital Punishment 1864-1866[4] concluded (with dissenting Commissioners) that there was not a case for abolition but recommended an end to public executions. This proposal was included in the Capital Punishment Amendment Act 1868. From then executions in Great Britain were carried out in prison. The practice of beheading and quartering executed traitors stopped in 1870.[5]
Juveniles under 16 could no longer be executed from 1908 under the Children Act 1908. In 1922 a new offence of Infanticide was introduced to replace the charge of murder for mothers killing their children in the first year of life. In 1930 a parliamentary Select Committee recommended that capital punishment be suspended for a trial period of five years, but no action was taken. From 1931 pregnant women could no longer be hanged (following the birth of their child) although in practice since the 18th century their sentences had always been commuted, and in 1933 the minimum age for capital punishment was raised to 18 under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. The last known execution by the civilian courts of a person under 18 was that of Charles Dobel, 17, hanged atMaidstone together with his accomplice William Gower, 18, in January 1889.
In 1938 the issue of the abolition of capital punishment was brought before parliament. A clause within the Criminal Justice Bill called for an experimental five-year suspension of the death penalty. When war broke out in 1939 the bill was postponed. It was revived after the war and to everyone’s surprise was adopted by a majority in the House of Commons (245 to 222). In the House of Lords the abolition clause was defeated but the remainder of the bill was passed. Popular support for abolition was absent and the government decided that it would be inappropriate for it to assert its supremacy by invoking the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 over such an unpopular issue.
Instead, then Home Secretary, James Chuter Ede, set up a new Royal Commission (the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, 1949–1953) with instructions to determine “whether the liability to suffer capital punishment should be limited or modified”. The Commission’s report discussed a number of alternatives to execution by hanging (including the US methods of electrocution and gassing, and the then-theoretical lethal injection), but rejected them. It had more difficulty with the principle of capital punishment. Popular opinion believed that the death penalty acted as a deterrent to criminals, but the statistics within the report were inconclusive. Whilst the report recommended abolition from an ethical standpoint, it made no mention of possible miscarriages of justice. The public had by then expressed great dissatisfaction with the verdict in the case of Timothy Evans, who was tried and hanged for murdering his baby daughter in 1949. It later transpired in 1953 that John Christie had strangled at least six women in the same house; if the jury in Evans’s trial had known this, Evans would probably not have been found guilty. There were other cases in the same period where doubts arose over convictions and subsequent hangings, such as the notorious case of Derek Bentley.
The Commission concluded that unless there was overwhelming public support in favour of abolition, the death penalty should be retained.
By 1957 a number of controversial cases highlighted the issue of capital punishment again. Campaigners for abolition were partially rewarded with the Homicide Act 1957. The Act brought in a distinction between capital and non-capital homicide. Only six categories of murder were now punishable by execution:
in the course or furtherance of theft
by shooting or causing an explosion
while resisting arrest or during an escape
of a police officer
of a prison officer by a prisoner
the second of two murders committed on different occasions (if both done in Great Britain).
The police and the government were of the opinion that the death penalty deterred offenders from carrying firearms and it was for this reason that such offences remained punishable by death.
Abolition
The only known photograph of the death sentence being pronounced in England and Wales, for the poisoner Frederick Seddon in 1912[8]
Murder
In 1965 the Labour MP Sydney Silverman, who had committed himself to the cause of abolition for more than 20 years, introduced a private member’s bill to suspend the death penalty, which was passed on a free vote in the House of Commons by 200 votes to 98. The bill was subsequently passed by the House of Lords by 204 votes to 104.
The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 suspended the death penalty in England, Wales and Scotland (but not in Northern Ireland) for murder for a period of five years, and substituted a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment; it further provided that if, before the expiry of the five-year suspension, each House of Parliament passed a resolution to make the effect of the Act permanent, then it would become permanent. In 1969 the Home Secretary, James Callaghan, proposed a motion to make the Act permanent, which was carried in the Commons on 16 December 1969,[9] and a similar motion was carried in the Lords on 18 December.[10] The death penalty for murder was abolished in Northern Ireland on 25 July 1973 under the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973.
Following the abolition of the death penalty for murder, the House of Commons held a vote during each subsequent parliament until 1997 to restore the death penalty. This motion was always defeated, but the death penalty still survived for other crimes:
certain purely military offences under the jurisdiction of the armed forces, such as mutiny[12] (until 1998). Prior to its complete abolition in 1998, it was available for six offences:
failure to suppress a mutiny with intent to assist the enemy.
However no executions were carried out in the United Kingdom for any of these offences, after the abolition of the death penalty for murder.
Nevertheless, there remained a working gallows at HMP Wandsworth, London, until 1994, which was tested every six months until 1992. This gallows is now housed in the Galleries of Justice inNottingham.[13]
Wales: Vivian Teed, 24, in Swansea on 6 May 1958, for the murder of William Williams, sub-postmaster of Fforestfach Post Office.[15]
Last death sentences
Northern Ireland and in the United Kingdom: William Holden in 1973 in Northern Ireland, for the capital murder of a British soldier during the Troubles. Holden was removed from the death cell in May 1973.[16]
England: David Chapman, who was sentenced to hang in November 1965 for the murder of a swimming pool nightwatchman in Scarborough. He was released from prison in 1979 and later died in a car accident.
Scotland: Patrick McCarron in 1964 for shooting his wife. He hanged himself in prison in 1970.
Wales: Edgar Black, who was reprieved on 6 November 1963. He had shot his wife’s lover in Cardiff.
The Naval Discipline Act 1957 reduced the scope of capital espionage from “all spies for the enemy” to spies on naval ships or bases.[17] Later, the Armed Forces Act 1981 abolished the death penalty for espionage.[18] (The Official Secrets Act 1911 had created another offence of espionage which carried a maximum sentence of fourteen years.)
Beheading was abolished as a method of execution for treason in 1973.[19] However hanging remained available until 1998 when, under a House of Lords amendment to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, proposed by Lord Archer of Sandwell, the death penalty was abolished for treason and piracy with violence, replacing it with a discretionary maximum sentence of life imprisonment. These were the last civilian offences punishable by death.
On 20 May 1998 the House of Commons voted to ratify the 6th Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibiting capital punishment except “in time of war or imminent threat of war.” The last remaining provisions for the death penalty under military jurisdiction (including in wartime) were removed when section 21(5) of the Human Rights Act 1998 came into force on 9 November 1998. On 10 October 2003, effective from 1 February 2004,[20] the UK acceded to the 13th Protocol, which prohibits the death penalty under all circumstances,[21] so that the UK may no longer legislate to restore the death penalty while it is subject to the Convention. It can only now restore it if it withdraws from the Council of Europe.
As a legacy from colonial times, several islands in the West Indies still had the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as the court of final appeal; although the death penalty has been retained in these islands, the Privy Council would sometimes delay or deny executions. Some of these islands severed links with the British court system in 2001 in order to speed up executions.[22]
In the Channel Islands, the last death sentence was passed in 1984; the last execution in the Channel Islands was in Jersey on 9 October 1959, when Francis Joseph Huchet was hanged for murder.[23] The Human Rights (Amendment) (Jersey) Order 2006[24] amends the Human Rights (Jersey) Law 2000[25] to give effect to the 13th Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rightsproviding for the total abolition of the death penalty. Both of these laws came into effect on 10 December 2006. The 13th Protocol was extended to Guernsey in April 2004.[26]
The last execution on the Isle of Man took place in 1872, when John Kewish was hanged for patricide. Capital punishment was not formally abolished by Tynwald (the island’s parliament) until 1993.[27]Five persons were sentenced to death (for murder) on the Isle of Man between 1973 and 1992, although all sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. The last person to be sentenced to death in the UK or its dependencies was Anthony Teare, who was convicted at the Manx Court of General Gaol Delivery in Douglas in 1992; he was subsequently retried and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1994.[28] In 2004 the 13th Protocol was adopted,[29] with an effective date of 1 November 2006.[30]
Overseas territories
Like the Crown dependencies, the British overseas territories are constitutionally not part of the United Kingdom. However, the British government’s ultimate responsibility for good governance of the territories has led it over recent years to pursue a policy of revoking all statutory provision for the death penalty in those territories where it had up until recently been legal.
The last executions in an overseas territory, and indeed the last on British soil, took place in Bermuda in 1977, when two men, Larry Tacklyn and Erskine Burrows, were hanged for the 1973 murder of the then territory’s Governor Sir Richard Sharples.[31]
The British government was unable to extend the abolition via Order in Council to Bermuda, the UK’s most autonomous overseas territory with powers of almost total self-governance — but warned that if voluntary abolition was not forthcoming it would be forced to consider the unprecedented step of ‘whether to impose abolition by means of an Act of Parliament’.[33] As a result the Bermudian government introduced its own domestic legislation in 1999 to rectify the problem.[34]
Further measures have subsequently been adopted to revoke technicalities in British overseas territories’ domestic legislation as regards use of the death penalty for crimes of treason and piracy. Since 2002, the death penalty has been outlawed under all circumstances in all the UK’s overseas territories.[35]
Public support for reintroduction of capital punishment
A November 2009 television survey showed that 70% favoured reinstating the death penalty for at least one of the following crimes: armed robbery, rape, crimes related to paedophilia, terrorism, adult murder, child murder, child rape, treason, child abuse, or kidnapping. However, respondents only favoured capital punishment for adult murder, the polling question asked by other organisations such asGallup, by small majorities or pluralities: overall, 51% favoured the death penalty for adult murder, while 56% in Wales did, 55% in Scotland, and only 49% in England.[36]
In August 2011, the Internet blogger Paul Staines – who writes a political blog as Guido Fawkes and heads the Restore Justice Camptign – launched an e-petition on the Downing Street website calling for the restoration of the death penalty for those convicted of the murder of children and police officers.[37] The petition was one of several in support or opposition of capital punishment to be published by the government with the launch of its e-petitions website. As of August 12, an e-petition calling to retain the ban on capital punishment has received 20,000 votes[38], 17000 more than the e-petition calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty.[39] Petitions attracting 100,000 signatures would prompt a parliamentary debate on a particular topic, but not necessarily lead to any Parliamentary Bills being put forward.[40]
Also in August 2011, a representative survey conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion showed that 65 per cent of Britons support reinstating the death penalty for murder in Great Britain, while 28 per cent oppose this course of action. Men, respondents aged 35-to-54 and those over the age of 55 are more likely to endorse the change.[41]
Notable executions in the United Kingdom
Note: This list does not include the beheadings of nobility.
1724, 16 November: Jack Sheppard, housebreaker, was hanged at Tyburn for burglary after four successful escape attempts from jail. His partner-in-crime, highwayman Joseph “Blueskin” Blake, was executed for the same burglary five days earlier.
1725, 24 May: Jonathan Wild, criminal overlord and fraudulent “Thief Taker General”, was hanged at Tyburn (over six months after Jack Sheppard’s and Blueskin’s executions) for receiving stolen goods and thus aiding criminals.
1746, 30 July: nine Catholic members of the Manchester Regiment, Jacobites, were hanged, drawn and quartered for treason at Kennington Common (now Kennington Park).
1899, 19 July: Mary Ansell was hanged at St Albans, for poisoning her sister. At 22 she was the youngest woman to be hanged in the post-1868 ‘modern era’ (non-public, and by the ‘long drop’ method).
1915, 13 August: George Joseph Smith was hanged in Maidstone Prison for the pattern of serial killings known as the “Brides in the Bath Murders”.
1916, 3 August: Roger Casement was hanged at Pentonville for treason as one of the seven leaders of the failed Irish Easter Rising.
1920, 2 November: Private James Daly of the Connaught Rangers was shot for mutiny in India, the last member of the British Armed Forces to be executed for mutiny.
1931, 3 January: Victor Betts for murder committed during the course of a robbery. The case had established that a person need not be present when a crime is committed to be regarded as an accessory after the fact.[42]
1946, 3 January: William Joyce, better known as “Lord Haw-Haw“, for treason in London’s Wandsworth Prison. He was an American citizen, but was convicted of treason because, as the holder of aBritish passport (albeit fraudulently obtained), he was held to have owed allegiance to the British sovereign. Theodore Schurch, hanged for treachery the next day, was the last person to be executed for an offence other than murder; he was executed at Pentonville. As a member of the armed forces he had been tried by court-martial.
1947, 27 February: Walter Rowland in Manchester for the murder of Olive Balchin despite maintaining his innocence. While he had been awaiting execution, another man confessed to the crime.[citation needed] A Home Office report dismissed the latter’s confession as a fake, but in 1951 he attacked another woman and was found guilty but insane.[citation needed]
1949, 12 January: Margaret Allen, aged 43, for killing a 70-year-old woman in the course of a robbery, the first woman to be hanged in Britain for 12 years.
1950, 9 March: Timothy Evans at Pentonville for the murder of his baby daughter Geraldine at 10 Rillington Place, North West London. He initially claimed to have killed his wife, but later withdrew the claim. A fellow inhabitant at the same address, John Christie, later found to be a sexual serial killer, gave key evidence against Evans. Christie was executed in 1953 for the murder of his own wife. Evans received a posthumous pardon in 1966. In 2004 the Court of Appeal refused to consider overturning the conviction due to the costs and resources that would be involved. See John Christie (murderer).
1950, 28 March: George Kelly at Liverpool for murder, but had his conviction quashed posthumously by the Court of Appeal in June 2003.
1952, 25 April: Edward Devlin and Alfred Burns, for killing a woman during a robbery in Liverpool. They claimed that they had been doing a different burglary in Manchester, and others involved in the crime supported this. A Home Office report rejected this evidence. Huge crowds gathered outside Liverpool’s Walton Prison as they were executed.
1952, 3 September: Mahmood Hussein Mattan, a Somali seaman, in Cardiff for murder. The Court of Appeal quashed his conviction posthumously in 1998[43] after hearing that crucial evidence implicating another Somali was withheld at his trial.
1953, 28 January: Derek Bentley at Wandsworth Prison as an accomplice to the murder of a police officer by his 16-year-old friend Christopher Craig. Craig, a minor, was not executed and instead served 10 years. Bentley was granted a posthumous pardon on 29 July 1993, and the Court of Appeal overturned his conviction on 30 July 1998.
1955, 12 July: Ruth Ellis, aged 28, the last woman to be hanged in Britain. She was the 15th and youngest woman hanged in the 20th century. (See also Mary Ansell, above).
1958, 6 May: Vivian Teed, 24, in Swansea, the last person to be executed in Wales.
1962, 4 April: James Hanratty at Bedford after a controversial rape-murder trial. In 2002 Hanratty’s body was exhumed and the Court of Appeal upheld his conviction after Hanratty’s DNA was linked to crime scene samples.
Built in 1791… Littledean Jail was a former House of Correction, Court House, Police Station and is now home to The Crime Through Time Collection .
HERE IS A BRIEF INTERACTIVE, HOPEFULLY EDUCATIONAL VIDEO AND PICTORIAL INSIGHT INTO SOME OF THE VERY THOUGHT PROVOKING ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY TREATMENT (ECT) .. USED ON PATIENTS HOUSED IN LUNATIC AND MENTAL ASYLUMS . BOTH HERE IN THE UK AND WORLDWIDE FROM THE VICTORIAN ERA THROUGH TO THE 1960’S . ALL OF WHICH WE FEATURE HERE ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL .
ORIGINAL 1930’s LEATHER BODY BELT COMPLETE WITH WRIST RESTRAINTS ACQUIRED FROM THE NOW CLOSED MONICA BRITTON MUSEUM COLLECTION AT FRENCHAY HOSPITAL , BRISTOL AND NOW ON DISPLAY HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL , GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UKKK
ORIGINAL 1930’s LEATHER BODY BELT COMPLETE WITH WRIST RESTRAINTS ACQUIRED FROM THE NOW CLOSED MONICA BRITTON MUSEUM COLLECTION AT FRENCHAY HOSPITAL , BRISTOL AND NOW ON DISPLAY HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL , GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UK
ORIGINAL 1930’s LEATHER BODY BELT COMPLETE WITH WRIST RESTRAINTS ACQUIRED FROM THE NOW CLOSED MONICA BRITTON MUSEUM COLLECTION AT FRENCHAY HOSPITAL , BRISTOL AND NOW ON DISPLAY HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL , GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UK
ORIGINAL 1930’s LEATHER RESTRAINT STRAPS ACQUIRED FROM THE NOW CLOSED MONICA BRITTON MUSEUM COLLECTION AT FRENCHAY HOSPITAL , BRISTOL AND NOW ON DISPLAY HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL , GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UK
ORIGINAL 1930’s LEATHER RESTRAINT STRAPS ACQUIRED FROM THE NOW CLOSED MONICA BRITTON MUSEUM COLLECTION AT FRENCHAY HOSPITAL , BRISTOL AND NOW ON DISPLAY HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL , GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UK
ORIGINAL 1930’s LEATHER RESTRAINT STRAPS ACQUIRED FROM THE NOW CLOSED MONICA BRITTON MUSEUM COLLECTION AT FRENCHAY HOSPITAL , BRISTOL AND NOW ON DISPLAY HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL , GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UK
ABOVE IS A VERY RARE “GLOUCESTER MENTAL HOSPITAL ” – METROPOLITAN WHISTLE DATING BACK TO THE EARLY 1920’S AS WAS USED BY THE CHIEF WARDEN IN THE INFAMOUS HORTON ROAD MENTAL ASYLUM , GLOUCESTER . USED PRIMARILY AS A FORM OF ALARM … PARTICULARLY SHOULD THEIR BE CAUSE FOR CONCERN WITH THE PATIENTS .
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The History of the Asylum
This section has been written to ammend the previous history pages of the Asylum, which were in desperately in need of replacing. The Victorian Asylum is a system that has long gone and it is doubtful that such a system will exist again. This section is dedicated to a building system that is now defunct and disappearing fast, planning mix ups and the will of the establishment to abolish the system have prevailed. We don’t hope to cover everything, or answer all your questions. But this should hopefully answer a few questions you may have. Please note, any phrases used within this page is used within its historical context.
How did the Asylums come about?
The first recorded Lunatic Asylum in Europe was the Bethlem Royal Hospital in London, it has been a part of London since 1247 when it was built as a priory. It became a hospital in 1330 and admitted its first mentally ill patients in 1407. Before the Madhouse Act of 1774, treatment of the Insane was carried out by non-licensed practitioners, who ran their “Madhouses” as a commercial enterprise and with little regard for the inmates. The Mad House act established the licensing required to house insane patients, with yearly inspections of the premises taking place. In 1792, the York Retreat was set up by William Tuke. This was the first establishment in the UK to treat their patients as human beings and offer a therapeutic setting for them. Mechanical restraints were discontinued and work and leisure became the main treatment. In 1808, the County Asylum Act was passed, which allowed counties to levy a rate in order to fund the building of County Asylums. The intention was to remove the insane from within the Work Houses and provide them with more a sufficient and dedicated care system. However, due to the Act deficiencies, only 20 County Asylums were built around the country.
How did the mass construction come about?
Due to deficiencies of the 1808 Act, counties did not begin mass construction of Asylums throughout the country. It was not until the passing of the County Asylum / Lunacy Act in 1845 did the construction begin to take hold. Due to a change in the law, Counties were legally obliged to provide Asylum for their Lunatics. This Act, based on the work of John Conolly and Lord Shaftsbury saw the lunatics being treated as Patients and not prisoners. It also took into account the moral treatment pioneered by William Tuke and saw the care of the lunatics being funded by the individual County. During this time, the Asylums become vastly overcrowded and rapid expansion of the ensued. Between the passing of the act and 1890, when the next act was passed, over 60 Asylums were built and opened (A further 40 were opened after this date).
What was it like for the Patients?
Without a time machine, it is hard to say! In all honesty, it varied depending on which era you looked at, conditions were ever changing. The most notable condition for the patients was the segregation of the sexes. It was not until the early 20th century that the sexes were allowed to mix, albeit they still slept in same sex wards. Patients lived within the confines of the hospital, privacy was minimal. Wards were able to house up to 50 patients, in very close proximity and little personal space. The daily regime was strictly regimented, with little room for variation and often under the watchful eye of staff. During the early years of the Asylums, wards were locked and security was kept high as attendants were fined for every patient that escaped on their watch. As the years passed, this was more relaxed, and by the time the asylums were coming to a close, patients were allowed much more freedom and were actively encouraged to leave the hospital and visit the local towns. Throughout the entire life of the Asylum system, patients were encouraged to work and undertake recreation. Local artisans were employed to teach skills and aid in the production of goods that were sold and used to fund social events. Sports teams were formed, and inter-hospital rivalries were formed. The able bodied were put to work around the hospital grounds, males running the farms and traditional male activities, and the females the laundry and kitchens. The sick and infirm patients were housed in their own wards and will have spent the majority of their time there. Angry, violent or suicidal patients were housed within the wards, and on occasions, locked within a padded cell. Seclusion rooms were also employed, but these were mainly used for patients who would disturb others during the night, in latter years they were sued for patients as a reward so that they could have some privacy.
What was the Work and Recreation?
Work and Recreation was central to life within the Asylum. Sport was made available to the patients, but walking within the grounds and woodlands was the most widely available. This started out as being heavily supervised walks, but as time passed, it was realised that other activities such as art, music and dancing were beneficial. The social activities of the hospital progressed with those of society as a whole, and holidays and interaction with outsiders was encouraged, helping to rehabilitate them. Sports became more prevalent as time passed, and many different teams were formed. The Farm was the main centre of employment for the male patients, where they grew food stuff for the hospitals consumption. The farms proved to be one of the most profitable activities the patients undertook, but with the advent of the NHS the farms began to close and the land sold off. The kitchens were also a great source of employment, with food grown and produced by the patients being served. Patients were also employed in the distribution of the dinners, and each patient undertook that task every day. So one patient would make porridge for the entire hospital, everyday! The Laundry was the largest female employer within the Asylums. Clothing and bedding were sorted in the wards, booked out and transported to the laundry for washing. Patients who worked in the laundry were normally housed within the Laundry Ward. There was also various other work departments around the buildings, dealing with trades such as shoe repair, printing, clothing repairs, the libraries and various aspects of the engineering departments. It was known for patients to be paid for the work.
How was it different for the sexes?
The Females
According to case notes, most women came in for short periods only simply to recover from the stress and exhaustion of their domestic lives – once rested and relaxed they were sent on their way. Women were also admitted from problematic marriages or as a result of giving birth to illegitimate children – even if a result of rape. Post natal depression was also a common reason for a women admittance. The females wards differed vastly from the male wards; they were based around Victorian ideals of femininity with little opportunity for them to go outside and even fewer opportunities to play games. It was only later that this changed. As with the tradition at the time the women’s activities were confined to the indoors, which led to a strong bond being formed between both female patients and staff. The women were put to work throughout the asylum, mainly undertaking jobs in the needle room, the laundry and general housekeeping duties around the ward – the latter was kept for problematic patients. The daily routine of the ward remained unchanged for many many years, patients would rise at 7am for breakfast which would consist of coffee, tea or cocoa with porridge and bread as the main. After breakfast the ‘good’ patients would have been taken to there respective jobs in the laundry or needle room – the others would have waited around until the airing courts were opened later in the morning. Lunch would have been served at around 12:30 and would have consisted of food produced on the local farm; this was the main meal of the day. The airing courts were then opened up again in the middle of the afternoon for just over an hour. Tea was served in the early evening and was known to consist of bread and cake. Due to staff shortages on the female side of the hospitals, nurses were known to have dosed the patients with paradehyde in the evenings to ease the load.
The Males
The majority of male patients within the asylum system before the first world war were often poor and without spouses to look after them. After WWI, ‘Shell Shock’ was a prevalent condition among men admitted to the Asylums. At the time of this condition being diagnosed it cause controversy due to the condition being similar to the female psychosis. Alcoholism and the delusion related with it were also common reasons for certification. Unlike the female sides of the asylums, the male sides were smaller in numbers. Escape was more common with male patients than females; but due to the smaller numbers of males in some hospitals it was noted that they had a more stable time within the ward. The males wards had the same daily schedule as the female wards and instead of being involved with the laundry and needle rooms, they worked the kitchen and the bakehouse. They were also involved in the daily housekeeping of the wards. Other than the difference in activities the male wards were normally run with a stricter discipline; which most of the patients would have been used to given their backgrounds within the military. The male population of the Asylums received a wider range of activities for their recovery; they were allowed to join sports teams and the hospital band (if there was one); there were also inter-hospital leagues fort hem to compete in. Rational patients were also employed on working the farms and the upkeep of the grounds and gardens; they were also employed in various workshops and engineering practices. One such example is an account from Severalls of a male patients were used to lay 2-inch piping to the cricket ground, and build a band stand.
What were the treatments that were used?
The treatments used throughout the history of the Asylums have varied massively. When the Asylums first opened, there was little knowledge of the psychiatric conditions or how to treat them. The lunatics were kept calm and occupied as much as possible, and when the need arouse then restraint was employed. The first therapy that was employed throughout the Asylum system was the treatment of General Paralysis of the Insane, caused by Syphilis, with Malaria infected mosquitoes. This treatment was used through until the 1950’s when a new drug was developed. The next treatment that was developed was the Deep Insulin Therapy, where it was believed that Schizophrenia was caused by a high blood sugar in the brain. Insulin would be administered until the body went into shock and then the patient was revived with a sugary dose of tea. In the 1930’s, two major treatments were developed in Europe, these were the Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) and the Lobotomy. Both these treatments involved stresses to the brain. ECT involved passing a current through the brain and induce an epileptic fit, which was known to cause injury to the patient. ECT proved to be very effective for patients suffering with depression and still used in very rare cases today. The lobotomy involved cutting the brain tissue within the frontal lobes of the brain. This had mixed results and was discontinued in the 50’s. The big breakthrough in the psychiatric treatments was the introduction of drugs to the Asylum system. The first drug to be used, discovered by a French Naval Surgeon was (Largactil) and was the first antipsychotic to be developed and it had a huge impact on the condition of patients. This development led to the rapid introduction of drugs within the psychiatric world. The next large development was talking through patients problems, and occupational therapy.
Were mechanical restraints used?
In short, yes. Before the advent of drugs and other treatments, manic, aggressive and suicidal patients were dealt with through restraint. Padded cell were also used to house patients who were self harming, or violent towards other (see our padded cell section). The most common restraints were the “straight jacket” and fingerless gloves. Both of these inhibited the movement of the patient. Less common forms were the used of continuous baths – patients were placed in a warm bath and a sheet affixed over the top, with their head and shoulders coming through it – and bed restraints. In the early years of the Asylums, restraints were common place, and their used recorded. After the 1890 Act, the use of restraints was severely limited and had to be approved by a medical officer and each use recorded.
Why did they close?
They had become to large, unwieldy and the system had opened itself up to abuse. In 1961 the Minister of Health, Enoch Powell was invited to speak at the AGM of the National Association for Mental Health. In his speech he announced that it the government of the day intended to “the elimination of by far the greater part of the country’s mental hospitals.” At the same time, regional boards were asked to “ensure that no more money than necessary is spent on upgrading and reconditioning”. This announcement had stunned the medical professions as there had been no indication that the government was going to head in this direction; only a handful of experimental community care programmes existed around the country. It would take 25 years for these plans to take afoot and the closures to start. There were two reasons for the decline in the large institutions, the advancement in psychiatric treatment meant that a standard hospital was able to provide care to acute cases that required immediate attention, and the drugs available meant that patients did not need twenty-four hour care. This meant that the traditional asylum was left with fewer long term patients to care for – patient numbers reduced from over 150,00 in 1950 to 80,000 in 1975. The second reason for the closure of the mental hospitals was the passing of the Mental Health Act 1983 – this saw the people being committed to the large asylums being given back their full rights and having the ability to appeal their certification; it also saw the mentally deficient being moved back into the community under the care in community projects. The first hospital to close due to the shift in medical treatment and public perception was Banstead Hospital in 1986, others followed suit over the next twenty years, with only a handful remaining open today. The medical staff at many hospitals still keep in contact with their old patients to make sure that the arrangements are working for them. The hospitals themselves either stand empty and derelict, or have been demolished and converted to cheap affordable housing, with only a few reminders to the residents of the previous history there. The Victorian Asylums are now a long forgotten memory, however in a recent NHS study, they have found that people suffering from mental illnesses recover when they are in a safe environment and are involved in their treatment, rather than being allowed to fend for themselves. In speaking with a number of retired nurses who had worked within the system, they were unsure as to whether the mass closures and the entire move to the care in the community method was the right one. One even felt that the number of hospital that closed shouldn’t have been so high, with a few being kept as regional specialists that could provide a more comprehensive support system. At the grounds of Horton Hospital, two of the old villas have recently been refurbished to act as a care home for the mentally ill.
THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION .... HERE AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL, FOREST OF DEAN , GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UK 
