# Lancaster Castle jail to close



## elbows (Jan 13, 2011)

Its been a long time since I lived in Lancaster, but just saw this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12178498



> Ashwell prison in Rutland and Lancaster Castle in Lancashire will shut, while Morton Hall in Lincolnshire changes to an "immigration removal centre".





> Lancaster Castle is leased from Lancashire County Council while the land itself is owned by the Duchy of Lancaster. It has a capacity of 238 and will also close by the end of March.



I wonder what they have planned for the castle now.


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## Kanda (Jan 13, 2011)

Less threat of attack these days.

e2a: Doh, missed the fact it was a jail


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## cyberfairy (Jan 13, 2011)

They are planning on making it into more of a tourist attraction and pushing the Lancashire Witches thing a bit more. Tis a nice castle, I live within sight of it.


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## Throbbing Angel (Jan 13, 2011)

Yeah, they have been talking about this for ages.

The recent change in priorities has probably forced this through - the lease ran out last year (from the Duchy of Lancaster to the Prison Service) but there was lots in the news about the fact there were only 80 places left in prisons nationally (or whatever the figure was) so I think a short term deal was done.
I went for a job there about 2½ yrs back for the resident writer position - it is like a warren inside as you might imagine.  It seemed like a well run place where the administration 'gave a shit' iykwim.  Lancaster farms YOI up the road is a very different kettle of fish - completely different clientèle and administration.

Seems a shame that they have moved the Tourist Info Centre from right across the street from it (I think it is all the way around the corner now   )

I *really* wanted that job but the remit included setting up an in-prison Tv station for the residents to train at/work on, so the candidate who had just left Channel4 won, obv 

The inmates there tended to be local and older, quite a lot of drug issues I believe.

There is a room in the back of the prison chapel where some local men go and sit 0 from there they can see Williamsons Park - some of them used to watch their own kids playing in the park a few miles away - some could even see their own houses -made me really sad that bit when the resident Chaplin showed us round.

Anyway - guided tour anyone?  http://www.lancastercastle.com/html/tour/language.php?c=1


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## pootle (Jan 13, 2011)

cyberfairy said:


> They are planning on making it into more of a tourist attraction and pushing the Lancashire Witches thing a bit more. Tis a nice castle, I live within sight of it.


 
I visited it as a kid and went to the old cells in the castle, where they said the Pendle Witches were held and burnt on the day I was there...same date hundreds of years ago, obvs.

Two days earlier a crazier great aunt I met for the first time, pointed at me and said "she's got the witch in her" and then proceeded to tell me how I was descended from the Pendle Witches.   Which was nice.


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## maldwyn (Jan 13, 2011)

I was a kid when the Birmingham pub bombings trial began in June 1975 in the Castle, security was tight and I remember both me and my mum being stopped and searched on my way to primary school on a daily basis - under the eyes of roof top snipers.

It will be nice to see become a fully accessible tourist attraction,


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## Bakunin (Jan 14, 2011)

Lancaster Castle was once the hanging jail for the county of Lancashire and Lancaster Court still has the reputation of passing more death sentences than any other court in England.


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## redsnapper (Feb 1, 2011)

I spent 12 months at a residential drugs rehab in Lancaster not far from the castle. About half way thru my time there we had a new resident joining us from the prison and I was asked to go along with one of the staff members to pick him up on his release. His face and demeanor on getting out of there is something I've never forgotten, he'd not seen the outside world for 15 years (he'd been life'd off on the 3 strikes rule for serial aggravated burglary). It was like the whole world had changed into a place he didn't recognise or understand. Needless to say within a couple of months he'd absconded and was immediately placed on the police wanted list and would go straight back to jail for another long stretch once caught. He said to me many times while he was in the rehab that he could cope with prison all day long but life on the out was just full of too many temptations to commit crime for him. If he's still alive I expect he'll be doing time somewhere right now. Alan, he was a right laugh, a stereotypical scouser in many ways but you could imagine the guy turning mental and doing people damage.


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## Shirl (Feb 5, 2011)

I went there on a school trip 50 years ago!
I was really interested in the Pendle Witches as I grew up in Burnley and could see Pendle Hill from my bedroom window.


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