Talk on debtors prisons in city
Lancaster’s Judges Lodgings Museum this week welcomes the manager of nearby
Lancaster Castle to star in their Lunchtime Lectures programme.
In his talk, entitled Georgian Debtors Prisons, on Monday, June 17, Dr Colin Penny (right) will tell his audience all about the bygone practice of locking up those who owed money in cells until they could pay their creditors.
It is a subject on which he has first-hand knowledge since Lancaster Castle itself once served as a debtor’s prison and the cells can still be seen beneath what is now Lancaster’s Crown Court.
Castle staff offer guided tours which often include the nerve racking experience of being locked inside one of the debtors cells, just as many unlucky souls once were.