PAST CRIMESwere created in order to put them to useful work. One of these was the Ross
Female Factory in Tasmania, where the nursery has been excavated. About
12,000 female convicts were sent to Tasmania between 1803 and 1854. The
women were put to work making convict uniforms, while their children were
confined to the nursery. The regulations stated that the mothers were officially
only allowed to have contact with their children while breastfeeding them. At
three years old, the children were removed to an Orphan School in Hobart,
some seventy miles away.
Evidence from the archaeological excavations has produced some lead
cloth seals, fragments of cloth, thimbles, buttons, pins and needles in the
nursery. These finds suggest that the Superintendent, Dr Swarbeck Hall,
thought to be a strict disciplinarian, might have allowed the women to do their
work in the company of their children, in contravention of the regulations. It
also seems that, on completion of their sentence, the Governor assisted the
women to find work near to where their children were being kept. This offers
a glimpse of a more humane regime than official records suggest, a level of
kindness that was never formally recognised.^7
Near Cork in Southern Ireland, a fort from the Napoleonic era was
converted in 1847 to a prison, during the peak of the Great Famine. Levels
of public disorder caused by the famine had led to a government need to
contain more prisoners. The gaol was designed to hold prisoners who were
to be transported to Bermuda and Australia. As well as convicts, political
prisoners were held there. The death toll at Spike Island prison was high–
over 1,000 in its thirtysixyear history. The prison was purposebuilt, its
architecture reflecting current thinking on penal incarceration. An
archaeological project begun in 2012 is studying how the artefacts can
illuminate the relationships between the prison warders and the convicts,
the health and fitness of the prisoners, and the labour to which they were
put, toiling to build the naval docks and military structures which still
survive today.
Most smaller towns and villages in Britain had a lockup–a place to hold
prisoners awaiting trial, or for shortterm incarceration for minor offences.
Many of these buildings still survive. One of the few to still exist in London is
in Cannon Lane, NW3, which dates from 1730. Another fine example is in
BradwellonSea. This was built in 1817, of red brick, and cost £3 10s. 9d. It
could hold six prisoners inside, with a further five places outside attached to
the pillory beside the door. The pillory has a number of rings, one of which is
sited low enough to accommodate child prisoners. There is also a whipping
post attached to the door jamb.