York Museums Trust Blog

In the fourth of his blogs Jim Butler gives a behind-the-scenes account of the build-up to our new major York Castle Prison exhibition.

We knew from the outset of this project that by unearthing the Prison’s history we would encounter troubling and emotive issues. 

Perhaps one of the most disturbing accounts we discovered was the tragic tale of Martha Chapel, a teenager who killed her newborn baby and was hanged for murder six weeks later. Martha was a servant girl, described as industrious and good-tempered, who was 18 or 19 when she fell pregnant while unmarried in 1802. The identity of the father was never discovered, though some claimed it was her employer. Whoever it was, the court established that she had no reputation as a ‘loose woman.’Martha took a new job about three or four months before the baby was due which meant she could not have looked pregnant or she would not have been employed . She told no-one she was pregnant and may not have known herself.

Complaining of being ill and in pain she gave birth, alone, on June 15, 1803 and the baby, a girl, was found dead shortly afterwards. A doctor said Martha must have killed the baby with her own hands. Martha defended herself, saying she was rendered delirious with pain and, having never given birth and with no idea what was happening, mangled the child whilst trying to hasten the delivery

 A jury took just ten minutes to find her guilty and Martha, of Ackworth, near Wakefield, was hanged at the ‘new drop’ –  the large white doors on the Castle car park side of the museum building   - on August 1, 1803. Her body was dissected by surgeons and it is unlikely she ever had a grave. Martha was quoted at trial. ‘I am a wretched woman, it was my child. I never meant it harm…I loved my child before I saw it.’Within 30 years her conviction was being questioned as unsound as attitudes to new mothers and illegitimate birth very, very slowly began to change. It wasn’t until 1922 that the crime of infanticide was created, which meant a new mother couldn’t be put to death. The act recognised that a mother might suffer derangement as a result of childbirth.This tragic tale tells us too much not to be mentioned at all but we won’t have an actor recounting the story like the others. Some of the details, particularly surrounding the body of the baby, are just too shocking for an area accessible by very young children. Instead it is likely that Martha’s story will form part of a designated learning programme where the sensitive issues raised can be more thoroughly and appropriately explored.

In the third of his blogs Jim Butler gives a behind-the-scenes account of the build up to our new major York Castle Prison exhibition.

It’s a fair bet that we’d all secretly rejoice at the discovery of a real roguish character among our ancestors.Maybe a highwayman like Dick Turpin or a political dissident cruelly hanged for fighting for a fairer society.Well, you’ll have the chance to find out if such a character really existed among your forebears as a key part of our exhibition will be a search database situated in the heart of old cells.

Visitors will be able to type in their own name or town/village and see if one of their own possible ancestors was once incarcerated within the gruesome gaol.The database is the work – and I mean countless hours of hard, painstaking work - of a big hero of our exhibition, researcher Dr Katherine Prior.Katherine has worked for many months pouring over the National Archives, British Museum records, regional archives, ancient newspapers, prison plans and written accounts of trials and hangings. Her painstaking trawl busted a few long-held myths, not least the long held belief that Turpin had been held in a cell opened to the public for many years when in fact he was more likely to have spent his last few hours in a different part of the gaol. But it’s the new information on individuals, be they murderers, rogues, debtors or petty thieves, that have really added to the buzz about this exhibition.

My previous blogs have focused on the crimes of Turpin and Elizabeth Boardingham, the last woman to have been burned at the stake in Yorkshire. But Katherine’s research has also brought us the sympathetic character of William Hartley, a man with a strong claim to be regarded as a political prisoner.Hartley, a poor tailor from near Halifax, was one of 17 Luddites executed at the prison in January 1813.

The Luddites, named after their fictional leader Captain Ned Ludd, were skilled textile workers forced into poverty by the machines of the industrial revolution and the wars against France and the USA.  At a time when unions were banned, they formed illegally with the hope of relieving their plight.They raided the house of wool-stapler, George Haigh, both for his weapons and to try and force him to charge less for the milk he sold.  But soon after, Hartley was captured on the dodgy testimony of a turncoat, Joseph Clark, desperately trying to save his own skin.Hartley, who was 41, a widower with seven children to support, admitted his presence in the raid but denied being a leader or demanding or receiving any arms. He stuck to his story in the prison and he may have got away with a lesser sentence if not for the authorities’ feverish desire to crush the Luddites. He was one of 14 hanged on a single day – perhaps the largest number executed at once in Yorkshire’s history - in front of a huge crowd and a large number of troops.

What became of his orphaned children (their mother, probably weakened from lack of food, died six months previously) is not known. Hartley asked for their plight to be published in the hope they might receive charity.A sad detail of the story is that Hartley, who had no previous record of criminal activity, initially couldn’t face seeing his daughter before his death.A tragic tale. That we can tell it is thanks to the work of Dr Katherine Prior.

In his second blog about the build-up to our forthcoming York Castle Prison exhibition, Jim Butler, Learning Manager, tells the tale of the last woman in Yorkshire to be burned at the stake.

Elizabeth Boardingham, a victim of her time and a ‘must’ character for our Prison exhibition. Although tragic by today’s standards, Elizabeth’s story reveals much about the appallingly unfair position of women in the highly patriarchal society of 18th Century England.  But by no means was she a shrinking violet.  In fact, aside from the manner of her death, it was her strength and determination in the final days of her life that made her irresistible to us.

Elizabeth, from Flamborough in the East Riding of Yorkshire, was married with five children and in her early 30s when her husband, John, was sent to York gaol for smuggling in 1775. 

                                                 Murder! Murder!
Soon after she ran off with one Thomas Aikney who, late one night following her husband’s release, stabbed John twice before running off. John staggered into the street, pulled out the knife, and cried ‘murder! murder!’ before collapsing, quite dead.  Aikney was caught and later convicted of murder but blamed Elizabeth for pestering him to do it. Here’s the thing: Despite denying Aikney’s allegations and the fact there was very little evidence to support her role in the attack, Elizabeth was not just convicted of murder, but of the much worse crime of ‘petty treason’ - a crime in which the perpetrator was thought to have subverted the natural hierarchy of society, eg a servant killing a master, or a woman her husband. It was punishable by the worst means allowable, public burning at the stake. Of course the actual murderer, a man, was simply hung while his lover burned.So poor Elizabeth Boardingham, victim of her time, was let down by a feckless husband, her lover and a male-dominated society who decreed that her crime as worse than actual murder. All this simply because she was a woman. From the 17th July, Elizabeth will be one of 8 characters brought to life by actors and projected into the cells where some spent their final days.  Of course the character the public are most interested is always Richard (Dick) Turpin who I discussed in my first blog.  But actually it’s the stories of other former Castle inmates, like Elizabeth, that will really bring home the (in)justices of life in the 18th Century.The £200,000 York Castle Prison exhibition opens on July 17 at York Castle Museum (the former 18th century county gaol on the site of the Medieval castle).

Jim Butler, Learning Manager, gives a behind-the-scenes account of the build up to the opening of the new York Castle Prison experience in July and tells of the sometimes gruesome and often heartbreaking secrets of the old prison.

It’s a strange fact that York Prison was always a tourist attraction, right from when it opened in 1705.Back then people would peer through the fence to glimpse the inmates and good money was paid for the thrill of meeting a notorious criminal in the flesh. The old gaol remained a place of real gruesomeness for two centuries, where many horrors were carried out.  However, that history was a somewhat obscured when the building was reopened as the Castle Museum in the 1930s. As home to a nationally-renowned and popular collection of artefacts and our famous, recreated Victorian Street, (which became a template for other popular museums around the world) it is easy to see why the Castle’s less wholesome history was glossed-over. To this day we find some visitors don’t release our museum was once the most important penitentiary in Yorkshire.  Yet the prison aspect of the museum has also been a source of fascination for many.  So much so it was no real surprise that the decision to invest £200,000 to create our York Castle Prison experience, due to open in July, has been greeted with such interest from both media and public. In fact interest has been so great I’ve been persuaded, to write six blogs detailing key aspects of what we’re trying to achieve with the project.  Naturally the fact that, in 1739, Richard (Dick) Turpin was imprisoned and spent the final days before his execution here has always been a draw.  Turpin will be one of eight prison characters featured in the York Castle Prison experience. Their sometimes grim, sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes comic testimonies recreated and filmed for use as part of an interactive experience.                                                                 Murder

However, visitors to the York Castle Prison can forget the Hollywood view of Turpin. As a respected museum with a strong culture of education it was an easy decision for us to concentrate on the truth of Turpin and dismiss the myths of Black Bess and dashing chases.  We have discovered a lot of information on Turpin in contemporary accounts, including court reports, written with a cold accuracy, all long before the process of romanticising this nasty criminal began with Harrison Ainsworth’s novel Rookwood in 1834.  In fact Turpin, a butcher by trade who was useful to a gang of cattle and sheep rustlers, once beat and tortured an elderly man while a fellow gang member raped a servant girl upstairs.  On another occasion he murdered a servant simply for recognising him.  He wasn’t even that bright or particularly handsome. Turpin, who had a badly pockmarked face, was caught when he needlessly shot a cockerel while undercover in Brough.  He then sent a letter home and his former teacher recognised his handwriting. Hardly a master criminal.  The script we have had written for his character really gives a flavour of the true man, possibly a first in literature.  Turpin is one of our more unsympathetic characters but some of our other prisoners had heartbreaking tales to tell. Watch this space for a sneak preview of their stories.  Another key feature of the York Castle Prison project will be to give the visitor a (small) sense of what life was like in a prison rife with diseases like typhus and smallpox and where many were malnourished and the turnkey – a prison warden – was all powerful.  We will divide the area into two parts, one informative and reflective, where visitors can explore and understand the broad history of the buildings and the other, more raw and immersive, a place of ‘ghosts’, where people will come face-to-face with the prison’s former inhabitants.

This battery powered portable record player was made by Baird Ltd. in 1960 and is shown here with the original packaging. 

The black plastic base and gold metal stylus, arm and lid measures just 22cm in length and 11cm wide, but it can play both single and LP records.

The speed is produced by two drive wheels; one is triggered when the arm is in position for a single, providing 45rpm and the other wheel operates at 33rpm when there is an LP on the record player.

Three small feet open out from the base when the player is operating.  This allows it to stand above the surface and gives room for sound to come from the speaker underneath.  The record is held between the closed lid and the base.

The player was advertised as weighing less than 2lbs and operating on 1.5 volt batteries.  It sold for 15 guineas.

info by Katy

by Felicity Aylieff (b.1954)

This monumental pot is a new acquisition; it is 2m tall and weighs in at 250kgs!

It was made by Aylieff when she was resident artist in Jingdezhen, China, working at Mr Yu’s Big Ware Factory. Jingdezhen is known as the porcelain city and they make all sorts of things in porcelain, from tableware to lampposts.

The pot was made by two potters working together on a wheel, throwing it in sections that were then joined together. It was originally about 3 meters tall when made, but has shrunk during drying and firing. Aylieff decorated the pot with floral patterns in blue and white to capture the essence of traditional Chinese pottery.

info by Helen

(the pot was purchased by York Museums Trust with the support of the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and The Art Fund, 2008).

Fiction in museums?  Surely not.  But they can be a source of inspiration - and we have a few recent examples to prove it. 

Last year Tracey Chevalier curated an exhibition at York Art Gallery and used it to stimulate all sorts of literary activity in a wide range of folk, including some of YMT’s own staff. 

In November Kate Atkinson wrote in The Guardian, talking about the Castle Museum:

“The museum was a place of miracles and wonders for me, where the rooms and streets of the past were brought to life in a way that was (and still is) thrilling. My imagination was undoubtedly nurtured by those visits; in fact I am sure that they helped to build the foundations of my becoming a writer.” (full story)

And the wider community of bloggers and online writers are following suit - here, for example, is a story for kids that uses the museum as a backdrop.  So if you want to get over your writer’s block perhaps you should get along to your local museum.

by John Storey after Nathaniel Whittock

This is a large coloured lithograph showing York as it apparently appeared in the mid-19th century. The level of minute detail is impressive (click on the picture for a better look), down to boats moored on the river bank and people walking in the Museum Gardens. It is fascinating to look at the way York has changed, particularly the railway station, which was originally inside the city walls.

I could study it for hours – it is well worth a look in the flesh.  The lithograph can be seen in the exhibition “A Different View” in the Little Gallery at the Art Gallery until July 2009. 

Info by Jenny, reference R1946

York Castle Prison is a really exciting new project that has been taking up a lot of our time.  We’ve just made our plans public (see this Yorkshire Post Article).

The idea is based on the fact that the Castle Museum building is an incredibly interesting historic monument in its own right.  This has been  a bit obscured in the past by the desire to display as much of the huge and wonderful museum collection as possible.

But, from July 17, the whole of the ground floor of the 18th century  Debtors’ Prison (pictured) will be given over to telling the story of the site.  And it is a truly revealing, and sometimes terribly moving, tale.

The project team has been lucky enough to have first sight of the material that the project researcher, Katherine, has discovered.  All sorts of unexpected facts about the building have come to light, but for me it’s the stories of the individual prisoners and prison staff that really have most impact.

To give just one example, there is the case of William Petyt, a poor weaver who was imprisoned in the Castle at the same time as his mother, Ann.  He went into the prison only for owing money, something most of us can empathise with, but he never came out.  Defending his mothers’ honour, William got into a nasty scrap with the jailer and was held in an underground dungeon for 11 days as a punishment, dying a few days later.  The jailer was accused but acquitted of murder; ironically his own circumstances later changed and he, himself, died as a debtor in the Castle Prison.

The bright lights of film crews and photographers descended on the Yorkshire Museum last week after a fantastic and festive discovery by the volunteers of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society.
Hidden away in one of the many boxes of books they have been cataloguing, the volunteers stumbled upon an extremely rare find – a complete copy of David Robert’s The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia.  Published in 1842 this amazing book contains the first pictures of Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem to be published in the West.
After research by the volunteers, curator Andrew Morrison and expert Peter Freshwater the three bound volumes were found to be one of only 400 first editions ever made, with other examples owned by Queen Victoria and the Tsar of Russia. What makes the complete books even rarer is many of the 400 were taken apart so the pictures can be sold separately.

To find the books so close to Christmas was a great press story and TV, radio, national and regional newspapers and magazines all turned up to take pictures of the hand coloured lithographs in the books. As one of the reports said, museums don’t get Christmas presents better than this!