Lincoln Castle

About 100m from Lincoln Cathedral is the castle. I made that my first port of call this morning as the forecast for later was rain and I wanted to walk on the castle walls which give the best views of Lincoln Cathedral. You can walk the whole circumference of the walls giving great views over the city and surrounding countryside.  Lincoln Castle is also home to one of only four surviving copies  of the Magna Carta.

The castle is almost 1000 years old. After William the Conqueror's success at the Battle of Hastings he had a castle built in Lincoln to serve as a reminder that the Normans were in charge. Centuries before the Romans had built a fortress on the same hilltop.


As you stand on the castle walls you can see why building a fortress here was so important.

The spiral staircase leading up to the walls. There is also a lift for people who are less able to walk up the stairs.

Within the castle walls is a Victorian prison which is now a museum.

You can see the cathedral from miles around.

Between 1817 and 1859, 38 condemned prisoners were hanged on a wooden gallows constructed on the tower roof. These public executions were watched by vast crowds outside the prison.

The prisoners were held below the tower awaiting their execution.

Graffiti on the walls done by the prisoners.


The unnamed gravestones of prisoners.

Once I had walked around the castle via the walls I went to have a look inside the prison.

The red bricked Georgian jail opened here in 1788 replacing an earlier one deemed unfit for the safety and health of the prisoners. When philanthropist and penal reformer, John Howard, visited in 1776 he found prisoners were kept in dungeons that were dirty and offensive. A new jail was built that included a chapel, infirmaries and a wash house. Today only the front section of the Georgian jail remains as the rest was demolished to make way for a Victorian prison.

The Victorian prison was designed with single cells to hold prisoners in isolation away from the influence of other inmates. Overcrowding, fever outbreaks and shortages of staff made it difficult to operate this system. All prisoners, except Roman Catholics, the sick and women with babies, attended daily prayers, as well as two services on Sundays. The male prisoners were locked separately into the wooden stalls by the warders. They could see the chaplain but not one another. Female prisoners sat at the front of the chapel.

The view from the pulpit.

The  seats sloped downwards so that anyone falling asleep would slip off.

Within months of opening the prison was overcrowded. Cholera had broken out in London's Millbank prison and convicts due to be sent there had to remain in Lincoln. Without enough cells to hold the male prisoners separately, the magistrates abandoned the separate system.