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Gloucester Bridewell
SRPrints/GL30.9
Initially the Gloucester bridewell was a new structure, built of brick on the north side of the old castle and it was known as 'the bridewell or new brick building’ to distinguish it from the county’s ‘common gaol’, which was known as 'the stone buildinge’. Its precise location is uncertain, but it is probably the building built onto the left of the buttressed keep seen in this image. However, in 1707, for unknown reasons – but possibly due to concerns over space – it was relocated to the City’s Eastgate, to be shared with the city and to keep it distinct from the common gaol, allegedly 'for the benefitt of the publick’. This failed to last and by the late 1700s the bridewell had moved back to the castle site.
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