Lancaster Castle, Castle Parade, Lancaster, Lancashire
This is a medieval stone castle, replacing an earlier wooden motte and bailey castle. It is on the site of an earlier Roman fort and Saxon fortification. Roger de Poitou is credited with the restoration or rebuilding of the castle with a keep prior to 1102. The castle was taken by Hubert de Burgh in 1199 and partly destroyed by the Scots in 1314. The castle was besieged by Royalists during the Civil War. It is now the site of a prison. The first reference to a gaol inside the castle occurs in 1196. It was used as a prison from 1745. It then became the County Gaol for Lancaster. Extensive additions were made from 1788 onwards to the designs of Thomas Harrison. The Governor's house was the first of the new buildings. The former Crown Hall at the west was rebuilt and extended to the north to include a new Crown Court (1798) and circular Grand Jury Room. To the west a new Shire Hall was built. The female felons' prison was completed in 1793, and the male felons' prison to the north was also built in the 1790s. Following a break, work continued under the supervision of J M Gandy in 1802. The interior of the Crown Court was completed, and the female penitentiary was added in 1818-21. A treadwheel for use as a punishment was added in 1822. Between 1845 and 1877 further extensions were made. The prison closed in 1916. A programme of refurbishment was started in 1954 and the prison re-opened in 1955.
