A couple of weeks ago, myself & Jon had the very rare opportunity to head out for the day with only our eldest son Tyne as my parents had kindly offered to look after the babies for the afternoon.
We gave Tyne the freedom to choose where we would visit, but we all knew where he was going to pick - he had been talking about Bodmin Jail for weeks, ever since I first mentioned it to him when he had asked me about being allowed to visit "a real prison".
Tyne is almost 4 years old you see, and ever since he read Allan Ahlberg's Cops & Robbers and watched Home Alone at Christmas, he has been utterly fixated with "robberies" (which is what he calls robbers!), arresting people and sending them to jail!
So I told him about Bodmin Jail - a historic former prison built in the late 1700s that is now a family tourist attraction - and he couldn't wait to visit.
Bodmin in Cornwall is around a 90 minute drive from where we live, so we set off around 11.30 am and arrived for 1pm which was great timing.
As soon as you drive up to the jail, the feeling of eeriness creeps over you - the building is large and imposing, and something about it just lets you know that it's a place of darkness and misery.
A Spooky Experience....
When we arrived, I was rather desperate for the loo after our long drive and hopped out of the car to nip into the portacabin toilets while Jon parked the car up in the overflow car park.
I hadn't looked at the building or its surroundings at all at this point, I was just very much in need of a wee so I popped into the loo, did my business and came out of the cubicle...it was only at that moment, as I turned to my left to walk towards the sink and wash my hands, that I suddenly felt very uneasy.
I had this feeling of dread and fear wash over me...I don't know where it came from as I had felt just fine only moments before, but I suddenly had a very strong desire not to walk in that direction...I felt that something truly dreadful was waiting for me over there to my left and that if I willingly walked that way then I would be sorry.
I was even frightened to look too far over in that direction, and instead I decided to forego washing my hands (ick) and just LEAVE the toilets as quickly as possible....I practically ran out of the door (and almost collided with a member of staff outside, oops!).
Don't worry, I had hand sanitizer so it was all good....but remember this story for later on...the ending was quite interesting!
Inside The Jail...
An example of modern prison life...
Compared to prison life back then...
So...Jon & Tyne joined a slightly spooked me, and we headed inside to the jail itself...we paid our entrance fee of £20 (£10 each for adults, and under 5's go free!) and walked around to the exhibition entrance behind the cafe.
The jail is set over 6 levels, and you are free to walk around in your own time in any order you want to....we decided to explore the entry level first and then head up to the top before working our way down to the basement.
The jail cells contained mannequins to portray the various prisoners of years gone by, with plaques on the walls explaining who they were and how they came to be in Bodmin Jail.
Some of the stories were extremely sad but all of them very interesting.
The first cells we came to were the condemned cells, and the plaque on the wall informed us that the first two prisoners held there to await their executions were Selina Wadge for the murder of her infant son and William Bartlett for the murder of his illegitimate baby daughter.
The mannequins weren't exactly Madame Tussauds style quality or realism but this didn't take away from the attraction at all, as it was their stories that were the real draw...to read about the practises that took place and the way the prisoners lived, as well as what drove many of them to commit their crimes and the punishments they faced was both enthralling and unnerving all at once.
One particular tale that really haunted me was that of a woman who was hung for begging, and was taken to the gallows with her children clinging to her skirts and her baby still suckling at her breast....as it was common practise for children to be locked up with their mothers for lack of anything else to do with them.
There were other stories that haunted me too, and seeing the place where the condemned were taken to be executed gave me a real chill.
In the "long room" (I forget which level this was on, unfortunately!) there is a fantastic display around the story of Selina Wadge...whom I mentioned earlier as being the first person to be hung at Bodmin Jail... Selina's story is one that has haunted me since our visit.
She was a young single mother to two children - by all accounts a good and loving mother - but when she met a man who offered to care and provide for her and her eldest child on the condition that she did away with the youngest child (due to his disability), she could apparently see no other option so she took her baby out onto the moors and dropped him down a well.
Selina was sentenced to death, and was filled with remorse and guilt at her actions - her spirit is said to roam the halls of bodmin jail to this day, appearing mostly to young children as she attempts to apologise and make up for the harm she brought to her own young child.
I found the story so sad and moving in itself, but the display really added to the overall feel...there was a projection of Selina as she dropped her baby to the well, followed by a moving projection of her ghost with a voiceover talking through her feelings and thoughts around her act - it was honestly very powerful and very well put together - a must-see although perhaps a tad spooky for any particular easily-spooked younger visitors so maybe check that area out first yourself if you're concerned that your little ones may not like it.
In other areas of the prison there items on display such as instruments of torture and hard labour, displays around the kitchen and the food the prisoners lived on (I was quite amused to see scouse on the list...a dish my mother has forced on me since childhood which I often compared to prison gruel!) as well many more stories around the prisoners who once resided in Bodmin Jail's walls - the wall dedicated to the stories of the child prisoners was another that stuck with me.
