A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



additional offices for the County Council and a record 

 room and students' room for the Northamptonshire 

 Record Society.^^^ 



The prison of the vill of Northampton, as distinct 

 from the prison in the castle, is mentioned in 1253** 

 when the keeper of the prison is named. From an 

 incident narrated by the jurors of 1274-5 ^ ''^ appears 

 that the baihffs kept the key of the prison, and that 

 any person who had a thief to imprison could apply 

 to them for it. There is no means of locating the 

 town gaol til! the i6th century ; then it is mentioned 



in Northampton after the closing of the county g.Jol 

 in 1889, was also closed in 1922, and Bedford prison 

 now serves Northampton for male prisoners and Bir- 

 mingham for female. 



The earliest mention of the Town Hall is found in 

 1285, when the justices in eyre held their session for 

 the borough ' in the common hall ' (in communi aula).*^ 

 The Guildhall or ' Gihalda,' is mentioned in the 

 charter of Richard II of 1385,*- as the place where 

 the mayor and baiUflfs hold their pleas, and in 1387*' 

 as the place where the court of husting sat. Henry 



■Mm 

















!«I"M„|,^, 



»lll||(/|Jl,.. .,. 



Northampton : The County Hall 



as adjoining the town hall, in Abington Street, and 

 from 1584 some cf the rooms under the town hall 

 were used as prisons for some 200 years." In 1 777, 

 owing, it may be, to Howard's visit, complaint was 

 made that the town gaols were close and unfit fur 

 the reception of prisoners,^ and a levy upon the town 

 was ordered for the necessary repairs.^ About 1 800 

 the use of these rooms was abandoned, and a gaol 

 was built by the town on a site in Fish Lane given 

 by the corporation, and subsequently altered in 

 1823 and 1840.'* This gaol was superseded in 1845 

 by the new town gaol on the Mounts, built by Hull 

 on the PentonviUc model and capable of holding 80 

 prisoners.^ The gaol in Fish Lane became a police 

 station. The gaol on the Mounts, the only prison 



Lee says that the old Town Hall was in a little close, 

 adjoining the last house on the right hand in the 

 lane going from the Mayorhold to tlie Scarlet well, 

 and he had seen a circular mark of stonework on the 

 west end of the adjoining houses."" The second Town 

 Hall, which stood at the south-cast of the IMarket 

 Square, between Abington Street and Dickers Lane, 

 was apparently of 14th century origin.** The third 

 story may have been added in the I5t!i century: 

 possibly when the assembly began to be held here after 

 1489. Tlie basement was used for shops in the 

 Tudor period, and in the 17th and l8th centuries 

 for a town gaol. The assembly books and the accounts 

 report various repairs to the Town Hall in the 17th 

 and 1 8th centuries.** The building was of tiiree 



•••Inf. from Clerk lo the Co. Council. 



" Anizs R. 615, III. nd. 



" Rol. Ilund. ii, 5. 



•• BoTC. Ric. ii, 175. 



" Aiitmbly Rook, 3 Feb. 1777. 



•• Ibid. 9 Feb. 177H. 



•'Hold. Rer. ii, 176; Pari. I'apen, 1833, 

 vol. niii, p. 51. 



" Ci. N. Wetton, Guidebook U Norih- 

 ampi. and its ytctnity (1849), p. 47. 



36 



" .\»si/c R. 619. 111. 74. 

 " Roro. Ree. i, 367 (;iA/J un/n). 

 " Ibid, i, 160. CyidrhMe 1432, ibid.. 

 I, 269. ••• Lee, Coll. 91. 



•' lloro. Rrc. ii, 172. •' Ibid. 172-3. 



