Crime&Punishment – Galleries of Justice (Nottingham)

If you’re interested in finding out about the history of the justice system in the UK (or at least in Nottingham), you should definitely check out the Galleries of Justice. It started out a bit slow, maybe because we were a tad late and or maybe because the Sheriff of Nottingham was not my favorite of the three characters we encountered during the tour. But, it was interesting to find out that the Galleries of Justice was used for sentencing as recently as 1990.. that they used to have public executions on site.. and we discovered who the lady on the £5-note is (Elizabeth Fry).

View from the prisoner’s box

View from the witness boxes (to the back)

View from the witness boxes (to the front)

ORDER IN THE COURT!

Read for your flogging?

The gallows

This contraption was used on people who spoke out (including wives against husbands)

Burned at the stake…

Rules of the County Gaol (back in Georgian times)

This is where the gaoler stayed.. pretty posh, right?

Part of the women’s quarters (after women were separated from the men.. in Victorian times)

More laundry equipment..

This bed was supposed to hold 2 to 10 women!

Women and children were educated so they could at least say their prayers

The noose

Shoemaker

Different examples of chains and shackles

Examples of doors

Prisoners used to carve their names in the brick walls (like ancient graffiti)

These blocks memorialize prisoners who were buried in the prison yard

The prison yard

There was an exhibit about “Transportation” of prisoners to Australia

run away!

Old Police Car

Police Shed (like Dr. Who!)

We actually learned a lot from the museum… especially about the differences between how the Georgians treated prisoners and how the Victorians treated prisoners. The main difference being that the Georgians were ruthless with the treatment of their prisoners, whereas the Victorians came along with all sorts of reform, like productive and unproductive work and separating the women from the men. There was also an exhibit on Her Majesty’s (HM) Prison, but we were allowed to take pictures in that exhibit.