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The Gloucester County Gaol
SRprints/GL30.4GS
In 1777, the reformer John Howard reported very unfavourably on the old county gaol and in 1783, a leading county magistrate, Sir George Onesiphorus Paul, began promoting the reform and rebuilding of the gaol along Howard’s lines. Just two years later, Paul had obtained an Act of Parliament authorising the county magistrates to build a new gaol for which they purchased the central part of the castle site from the Hyett family to do it. The demolition of the castle keep began in 1787 and the new gaol, designed by William Blackburn, was completed in 1791 at a cost of nearly £50,000 with the first inmates being transferred on the last Friday of July 1791. This shows the south-east aspect of the gaol, looking north-westwards.
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