Newcastle Gaol was closed and demolished in 1925, but in the nineteenth century it was a huge imposing structure in the city.
The new Newcastle Gaol website reveals the grisly details of the conditions inmates were kept in, the crimes they were being punished for and what everyday life was like inside the gaol. It also contains archive photos of many of those who were detained, including children as young as seven.
Funded by the Catherine Cookson Foundation, the website is based on research carried out by Dr Shane McCorristine, from Newcastle University's School of History, Classics and Archaeology with Dr Patrick Low, a graduate of Sunderland University and Megan Adams, a former history student at Newcastle University.
The website is the first phase in a long-term project to gather together research, ideas, memories, images and other content that can help tell stories about the gaol, the area around Carliol Square where it was located, crime and punishment in Newcastle, and more broadly, the East Pilgrim Street area and its history.
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