We were able to self tour the old Beaumaris Gaol (Jail) in Wales. I was super stoked to not just get to explore one, but two prisons while in Europe! Of course these were the highlights for me. This jail was not near as creepy as the one in Ireland but had some really medieval punishment apparatus. The jaiL was built in 1829. It was expanded in 1867 to accommodate approximately 30 inmates but was closed just 11 years later. The building then became a police station until the 1950s when it became a children's clinic and lastly a museum in 1974.
Hayley and Els could not have been better hosts and tour guides. I hope to return the kindness this summer when they visit us in the US.
The crazy contraption above is for a prisoner to sit on the bench and use his legs to create a human powered mill.
This is another place I could have spent a lot more time in but we got here an hour before closing. Probably a good thing.
Two hangings took place at Beaumaris. The first was that of William Griffith, in 1830, for the attempted murder of his first wife. On the morning of his execution he barricaded himself inside the cell. The door was eventually forced open and he was half dragged and half carried to the gallows. The second execution was that of Richard Rowlands in 1862, for murdering his father in law. He protested his innocence right up to the final moment and legend has it that he cursed the church clock from the gallows, saying that if he were innocent the four faces of the nearby church clock would never show the same time. Both men were buried in within the walls of the gaol in a lime pit, but the exact location of their burial is unknown. The only prisoner to escape from the gaol was John Morris, who escaped on 7 January 1859, using rope he had stolen whilst working with it. He broke his leg whilst escaping, but made out of the town, before being recaptured.
Check out this shank!
My Crew
Wales was full of adventures but not all were documented because we were too busy having fun, attending parties, riding mountain coasters and climbing the highest mountains in the UK in the rain, wind and cold.