5/9/2023 0 Comments The ballad of reading jailHe designed it with his partner William Bonythorn Moffatt. The present neo-Tudor building was built between 18 and was one of the earliest designs by George Gilbert Scott (later Sir Gilbert). The Compter Gaol was known as the ‘counter’ in 1560, and was later located within the former main gateway of Reading Abbey adjacent to St Laurence's church. It seems to have been used by the Borough as a debtor prison until it was closed and partly demolished in 1786. However, by 1578, it had become a hospital for the poor and from the early seventeenth century it was the Borough Bridewell and house of correction. The Borough Bridewell opened after King Henry VII gave permission for the town's guild (the predecessor to the Borough Council) to have a gaol 'in some convenient place within said borough'. In 1543, the nave of the former Greyfriars church was acquired for use as the Guild Hall. Men and women shared a day room, but had separate night rooms. It housed both convicted felons and debtors. This was probably both the King's and Abbot's gaol in the medieval period. The County Gaol was in Castle Street on the site now occupied by St Mary’s Church. For many years, Reading had three locations for imprisonment: the County Gaol, the Borough Bridewell, and the Compter Gaol.
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