Any info on Cotwold Heritage Centre?
 

I'm heading back to study at Oxford again this summer. Many thanks to those who offered suggestions last year. The trip was terrific and your suggestions were helpful.

This year I'm doing a paper on 19th century crime and punishment in the Cotswolds. I know this sounds like an odd topic for such a bucolic region. I guess I have a touch of Miss Marple in me.

Many of the criminals I've researched were sent to the House of Correction in Northleach. Recently the buildings were used as the site for the Cotwold Heritage Centre. Prison life and artifacts were featured in part of the collection. However, the Centre may have closed due to lack of funds.

Does anyone know where I might email, or phone for info. on the Northleach prison? Or for tourist information in Northleach? I'm leaving for UK on 6/30/06.

Thanks for all help.

Topping and I hope you get some help.

I found this online. Hope it helps:

Northleach Tourist Information Centre
Cotswold Heritage Centre, Northleach
Gloucestershire, GL54 3JH
Tel: +44 (0) 1451 860715
Fax:: +44 (0) 1451 860091

Check here also:

http://tinyurl.com/zvd8o

If anyone knows anything it will be CotswoldScouser (and NOT because he has intimate knowledge of houses of correction :)

Hopefully he will see your post.

But probably your best bet is to call the number(s) carrybean gave you for the TIC. Someone there will be able to help you.

Look. It was a misunderstanding. I was politely trying to explain to the US ambassador the error of his country's ways in Vietnam. The police totally over-reacted.

Since when (and it WAS nearly 40 years ago), my knowledge of houses of correction in central England has been a bit third hand. The place in Northleach always seems closed when I pass it. That doesn't signify anything, since we're awash with hokey heritage centres round here, developed with lottery funds around the year 2000 by people unable to get it into their heads that they needed continuing income after they were built.

Look. It was a misunderstanding. I was politely trying to explain to the US ambassador the error of his country's ways in Vietnam. The police totally over-reacted.

Since when (and it WAS nearly 40 years ago), my knowledge of houses of correction in central England has been a bit third hand. The place in Northleach always seems closed when I pass it. That doesn't signify anything, since we're awash with hokey heritage centres round here, developed with lottery funds around the year 2000 by people unable to get it into their heads that they needed continuing income after they were built.

Since there are a million other calls on local funds (and volunteers' time) - many of them serious, world-class, gobsmacking artefacts - some of these centres end up opening a couple of hours a week. I'll look into it a bit further when I'm next walking past it.

Trouble is, it's too hot this weekend for serious walks. If you'd like to email me at my "public" address ([email protected]), I'll tell you what I find - but it might be a week or so.

Incidentally, I'm intrigued Northleach featured so strongly. In the 19th century, most people in the Cotswolds (and presumably most malefactors) lived over on the west, round Stroud, where the jobs were. Northleach would have pretty inconvenient for the authorities, I'd have thought.

In the very pretty Cotswold village of Bisley on the hills above Stroud, there is still a rare example of the Lock-Up...

http://www.bisley-glos.net/places/lockup.htm

Many thanks for all your responses. I haven't had luck with the phone #s, but I'm planning to call the Northleach Post Office as they may know if the Centre is still in service.

I hadn't come across the Bisley site. It had a nice photo and info. on a local "lock up". Most of my info. has been on larger "model" prisons, so the information on the village lock up was helpful.

I must have missed the posting regarding flanneruk's misadventure with the U.S. Ambassador. (Was this a part of the posting for "I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison?")

It seems we shared similar views 40 years ago. Perhaps he'd be up to a word with the current Ambassador?

You raise a good point regarding the distance of Northleach prison from population centers in the west. Looking at a map, Northleach seems a hop and a skip from the villages. I must remember that 20 miles of Cotswold travel is nothing like 20 miles of California travel.

We are also plagued by underfunded, or hokey heritage sites. California has a short history. However, if you would like to view horseshoes, gold mining pans, and cheesy dioramas, this is the place. You may also be treated to a postcard featuring a Chinese opium den, a shark's tooth, and a chance to milk a mouldering dairy goat. Hopefully, our weather, and wine, make up for our shortcomings!