‘A Fitting Receptacle for the Depraved and Abandoned’

Rethinking Punishment at Bristol’s New Gaol, 1816–1831

Bristol’s new gaol on Cumberland Road first opened its doors for business in 1820. Ambitiously conceived as a modern alternative to the crumbling, insecure and insanitary old prison at Newgate, the architects of the New Gaol sought to turn punishment into a science. Systems of hard labour, a treadwheel, constant surveillance, segregation, religious instruction and minimal interpersonal association were intended to target prisoners’ minds as well their bodies. The New Gaol’s reputation amongst […]

James Acland and The Bristolian (1827-1831)

In 1827, radical journalist James Acland launched the West Country’s first daily newspaper. He called it The BRISTOLIAN. Undercutting the advertising rates of existing weekly papers, conducting a lively letter column and breaking the law by publishing at one and a half pence without paying the newspaper stamp tax, Acland’s publication was a muck-raking popular radical paper for the working classes. The paper concentrated on exposing the abuses both of the unreformed Corporation which ran Bristol […]