Photo: Tilman2007 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Beaumaris Gaol and Courthouse

Former county prison of 1829 in Beaumaris with cells, a condemned cell, a punishment cell and a treadwheel, close to the historic courthouse.

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About the museum

Beaumaris Gaol was designed by Hansom and Welch and built in 1829 as the county prison for Anglesey. It served as the county gaol until 1878, when prisons passed from the counties to central government and its last five prisoners were moved to Caernarfon. Executions here were rare: only two hangings took place, and the best-known is the execution of Richard Rowlands in 1862 for murder. According to local tradition he cursed the church clock opposite the scaffold, and the clock is said never to have kept the right time since.

The building is well preserved. It still has its cells, a condemned cell, a punishment cell and a treadwheel that once pumped water to the upper floors of the prison, so that prisoners' labour served a practical purpose. The treadwheel is described as the only one surviving in a prison in England or Wales. The gaol became a museum of prison life in the mid-1970s and welcomes around 30,000 visitors a year.

The Beaumaris Courthouse stands nearby in Castle Street. It is more than 400 years old and is described as one of the oldest courthouses in Britain. Despite changes in the nineteenth century it kept its original character, and cases are still heard there once a year.

Highlights

Dimly lit corridors and spartan cells showing prison life in the 1800s
Condemned cell and punishment cell
Treadwheel that pumped water to the cells
Story of the 1862 execution and the cursed church clock
Historic courthouse more than 400 years old

Permanent exhibition

Victorian county gaol – The preserved cells, condemned cell, punishment cell and treadwheel of the 1829 county prison, with the stories of notorious Anglesey criminals.