prison history | The British Newspaper Archive Blog

Blog

Hot Off The Press – New Titles This Week

This week at The Archive we are delighted to present a Northern Irish newspapers special, as we have updated a trio of our titles from Northern Ireland. We have also added 106,898 brand new pages over the last week alone, whilst we have added one brand new title from London. So read on to discover more about all of our new and updated titles of the week, and also to learn about the first ever Borstal, which was opened in

Continue Reading

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

‘In Durance Vile’ – Exploring Life Behind Prison Bars Over A Century Ago

Following on from our look at life on board the prison hulks of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in this special blog we are going to take a look at what life was like behind prison bars over a century ago. Dartmoor Prison | The Sphere | 10 December 1927 Using our newspapers, we will try to understand what life was like for the men and women sentenced to prison time in the United Kingdom in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries:

Continue Reading

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

‘Colleges of Villainy’ – Life Onboard the Prison Hulks

On 15 July 1910 the Sheffield Evening Telegraph recorded the anniversaries of the day. One particular entry was this: Prison hulks first seen on the Thames…1776 But what were the prison hulks, and what was life like on board these ‘floating hells,’ as they came to be known? Prison hulk Warrior at Woolwich | Illustrated London News | 21 February 1846 As part of our history of law and crime month here on The Archive, we will take a look at what life was like on

Continue Reading

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,