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First screened 30 March 2003
Jailhouse rocks
From the late 1700s onwards, Britain went through a period of great social reform as changing attitudes led to many alterations to the country's legal and social systems. One of the areas of change was how society dealt with crime and punishment.
Today, Appleby police station stands on the site of the original 1771 gaol house and court in the town, which were built to serve the now defunct county of Westmoreland. The fact that the gaol house was constructed and developed during this period of reform meant that many of the new social attitudes were reflected in the design of the building.
In this new age of crime and punishment, men and women prisoners were separated; executions were held privately, instead of in public places; prisoners had their own cells, rather than being kept in large, communal ones; and a regime of repetitive, mindless tasks was imposed to break the will of the inmates. Could Time Team find any evidence of the original gaol and the regime that it represented?
Various plans
With various plans to work from, the Team set out to uncover the different phases of the gaol's development. These involved two major rebuilding phases – in the 1820s and 1870s – after the initial construction in 1771.
Beneath the modern tarmac car park surface, the ground was found to be hard and unforgiving. But after some perseverance the first evidence was unearthed for the most recent phase of the prison development, dating from the 1870s, when Phil Harding discovered a treadmill room, where prisoners would have been forced to labour for hours on end like hamsters on a wheel.
Following a full survey of the site, Stewart Ainsworth matched up the plans and maps with the emerging archaeological evidence. Foundations for the second phase of the prison, built in the 1820s, were uncovered, including a new women's wing to the prison. Finally, the groundplan of the larger 1771 gaol was defined, completing the history of the site.
Under lock and key
Choosing an 18th-century jail for the last programme in the 2003 series took Time Team into new territory. Series producer Tim Taylor says the site fitted well with the overall selection of locations for the series – and was of special interest precisely because Time Team had never excavated a prison before.
One of the most interesting aspects of the programme turned out to be the reconstruction cameo of what life would have been like for the prison's inmates. Regular Time Team digger Jim Mower was approached to see if he would like to be locked up in a cell for the night. 'Sounds interesting,' he replied – but this would be no ordinary cell. Stripped of modern appliances, like a toilet and bed, and given a frugal covering of straw and a wooden plinth for sleeping on, the atmosphere of the reconstructed cell became quite ominous.
Jim was not to be left alone in his experience. Real-life Appleby police sergeant, Grant Warwick, was to watch over him – dressed in the full original uniform of the period, including steel toe-capped boots, slash peaked hat and truncheon.
Daily life
Life in the prison in the late 1700s would have been ruled by strict discipline and routine. Prisoners were not allowed to talk or even look at each other. Not a single action could be made without the direct instruction of the guard. A prisoner could not speak, sing, stand, sit or move without permission. Serious repercussions would result from any infractions – such as speaking before being told to do so, or making prolonged eye contact with a jailer or another inmate.
The whole prison experience was based upon breaking the prisoners' independent will. Regimented timetables organised the day into sessions of hard manual labour and monotonous pointless exercises, interspersed with prayers and low-calorie, poor-quality sustenance.
The Time Team experiment
How far can a re-enactment go towards reconstructing the past?
Of course, 'prisoner' Jim could wear an inmate's rags, carry out the same mind-numbing tasks and sleep on the same bristly straw; and 'turnkey' or 'jailer' Grant can put on an old-fashioned prison uniform and dispatch the old-fashioned prison discipline. But can going through the motions really recreate the experience?
One thing that nobody on this programme was prepared for was the profound psychological effect that the experiment had on both of the characters taking part. In a remarkably short time, the reconstruction cameo changed from simple play-acting to what was, at times, a genuine battle, raising real emotions, in both the 'prisoner' and his 'jailer'. Throwing Jim and Grant back 200 years into an archaic prison system affected them both more than either had expected.
Jim's story
'I knew before I started that it was going to involve some hard manual labour,' says Jim. 'We work hard on Time Team anyway so I wasn't scared of that. I'd seen the cell and the clothes, and met Grant, so I thought it was going to be okay. I guess I just wasn't prepared for the psychological side of it.'
Jim's tasks included hours of breaking rocks and winding a ratchet machine (which counts the number of revolutions of a handle but serves no other purpose). He was also permanently shackled and fed only basic bread and gruel.
'I started out okay and just got into the part,' Jim continues. 'I thought I would narrate to the diary camera as things moved on. Then some food was brought in to me and I said, "Well that doesn't look too nice", and all of a sudden Grant came in and said, "Shut up. Don't talk. Eat." He had his hand on the truncheon at the time and I just thought, "Crikey, this is going to be serious."
'Grant is about 18 inches taller than me and he was very intimidating. I was pulled and pushed around, couldn't make eye contact with him, and found I was completely under his control in a very short time. At night, just when I was falling asleep, I would hear his boots coming down the corridor at regular intervals. He was an ever present force, which was very dominating. Even seeing him now, when the experiment is over, makes me feel uneasy. The experience has made me feel sympathy for those prisoners. I certainly wouldn't want to do it again.'
Grant's story
'I was given strict instructions by the crime and punishment expert, Simon Renton, about how I was supposed to behave,' says Grant. 'I could only issue commands and had to berate the prisoner for even the slightest mistake. At night, the film crew said that I could leave Jim in the cell, but I felt uneasy just leaving him there on his own, so I stayed the night at the station. Every now and then I would go down to the cells to check the poor guy was alright, but he didn't appear to sleep a wink.
'In the morning I went into the cell and told him to collect his slops bucket and follow me. He reached for his boots and froze. I realised then that I hadn't actually told him to put his boots on. Jim paused and then picked up the bucket and followed me outside in his bare feet. I guess then it really struck me how much control I had over this person.'
As a real-life police sergeant, Grant found the experience quite fascinating. 'It was amazing how little time it took for both of us to fall into our roles. I certainly would not have wanted to do that job 200 years ago. It was nothing like the police force we have today.
'I think if there was one thing I could take away from all this it would be the fact that at the time the wardens would have had complete control over their prisoners and could have made them do anything they wanted. They could have completely broken them. The whole experience brings home man's inhumanity to man. I really hope Jim doesn't go away thinking he'll never come to Appleby again!'
Life on the outside
After the 24-hour experiment, Jim and Grant were given bottles of scotch by the film crew for their outstanding performances, and later that evening they had a few beers with the Team at the end of shoot party. Though both carry away a strong impression of the re-enactment, Grant shouldn't feel too bad: Time Team digger Kerry Ely managed to sneak in a chocolate bar and hide it under Jim's bed while Grant was being distracted by digger Alice Roberts in the exercise yard.
Other websites.
This website contains links to other websites which are not under the control of and are not maintained by Channel 4 Television. Channel 4 Television is not responsible for the content of these sites and does not necessarily endorse the material on them.
The history of judicial hanging in Britain
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/6142/hanging1.html
A detailed, and at times gory, account of judicial hanging in Britain. The website, which includes images of real executions, ranges over the whole subject, from the places of execution to the methods used, right through to the abolition of hanging in the 1960s.
Crime and punishment through time: Industrial Britain 1820-1900
www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/classroom/gcse/crime_punishment2_industrial.htm
History Channel GCSE notes covering crime, punishment, prisons, police and reform in Victorian Britain.
Elizabeth Fry, prison reformer
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REfry.htm
Spartacus educational notes about the devout Quaker and prison reformer, Elizabeth Fry.
H M Prison Service
www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk
Website of H M Prison Service for England and Wales, including detailed information about prisons today.
Prison Reform Trust
www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk
Website of reforming charity with range of material about modern prisons. Includes an opportunity to see what it's like inside prison with films and interviews from Dorchester prison.