Off to Prison

Don't worry, I didn't get loaded at the Bicester Christmas market and cause trouble. No, the prison in question is the Oxford Castle and Prison that Bruce & I decided to visit.

The site dates to shortly after the defeat of the Anglo-Saxons by William the Conqueror in 1066. Norman land baron Robert O'Doyly built the castle which later played a role in the civil war of the Anarchy (a war between England and Normandy.) Robert D'Oyly the younger inherited the castle from his uncle in the 1130s. After initially supporting King Stephen, Robert declared his support for Empress Matilda, Stephen's cousin and rival for the throne and in 1141 the Empress marched to Oxford to base her campaign at the castle. In the autumn of 1142, Stephen responded by attacking and seizing the town of Oxford and besieging Matilda in the castle. He assumed that she would quickly run out of supplies and have to surrender, but Matilda outsmarted him. In the snowy winter, she and four of her knights, tied bedsheets together and lowered themselves over the wall. Dressed in white to camouflage themselves against the snow, they escaped across the river and through the woods, walking backwards to make it look as though people had been walking toward the castle, not away from it. Matilda safely reached Abingdon-on-Thames and Oxford Castle surrendered to Stephen the next day. She didn't win the day but, ultimately, her son was crowned King Henry II.

The castle also played a part in the First English Civil War of 1642 when the Royalists made Oxford their capital. Parliamentarians successfully besieged Oxford and in 1646 the city was occupied by Colonel Richard Ingoldsby and his troops. In the Third English Civil War, the Parliamentarians deserted Oxford castle, pulling down some of its defensive walls, and retreating to New College in Oxford. After the Civil war, the castle served as a prison.

The only way to tour the castle and prison is on a guided tour. When our tour time arrived we were met by our guide, a ghost who had died in the prison. Okay, she was a local actress, but her persona was that of the ghost of someone who had died in the prison. Of course, as she told her story, it revealed itself to be historically inaccurate because women would not have been imprisoned with men during the time at which she claimed to have died Okay, I'm splitting hairs. Still...

She led us up the St. George tower with its Norman tripping steps. These steps were designed with trickery in mind. When invaders would start up the steps, the steps would be even - at first. After about ten steps, however, they were designed to be of different heights, different widths and different depths. The invaders would trip on the steps and fall back onto the swords of the soldiers below. Nice trick. It did make for a rather perilous trip to the top of the tower, though.

From the roof of the Tower there's a lovely view of Oxford.

We made our way down from the tower, slowly and carefully. In the entryway at the bottom of the stairs Ash, our guide, pointed out a room cheerily (?) decorated for the holidays. This is where the capstan wheel once sat. This was installed during the Victorian days of the prison, when punishment became the order of the day, replacing the rather lax rules that once stood. Prisoners would push a huge stone wheel around for hours and hours. The wheel served no purpose, it was just meant to punish the prisoners with hard labor and to break their spirit. You can see the circular pattern in the wood where the floor was worn down by the prisoners' steps.

Ash led us down into the 900-year-old crypt, the only surviving remains of St. George's Chapel where, it is said, began the education for which Oxford is famed. It is also where Geoffrey of Monmouth penned the Legends of King Arthur.

Ash then took us into the cell of Mary Blandy, a woman convicted of murdering her father when he wouldn't grant her permission to marry her sweetheart. Because of her wealth, her cell was rather nice and she was allowed company and even a servant.

Our next stop was the area where Victorian prisoners were kept. the Victorian era saw a real crackdown on crime. The law dictated that once a person attained seven years of age, they were responsible for their behavior and could be punished. This is the mugshot of Julia Ann Crumplins, aged 7, who served time for theft.

She was made labor in the laundry where the harsh soaps would probably have blistered her hands.

As if the harsh treatment wasn't bad enough, the bodies of prisoners who died were often sold to surgeons in the name of anatomical research. "Surgeons" is actually a bit of a misnomer because there were no actual qualifications required to call yourself a surgeon. In the last room you could play dress-up, choosing the clothes of a policeman or a straightjacket. I can't imagine why Bruce wouldn't try on the straightjacket. Do you suppose he thought I wouldn't let him out?

In a bizarre bit of repurposing, part of the old prison is now a hotel. All in all, Oxford Castle and Prison was a little kitchy, but I did learn a bit about Oxford's history.

Because Oxford has a branch of Mowgli Street Food we had to go there for lunch. It's located in the Westgate Mall, which was crowded with Christmas shoppers.

On the way out we passed this restaurant. Love their little motto.

Bruce then left for a pub crawl & I walked back to the train station, passing the Oxford canal along the way with its wonderful narrowboats.

I thought I recognized the street alongside the canal from one of the Inspector Morse episodes.

Maybe not, but I'm choosing to believe it was.