Prison Service Museum

[Pete E]

Having just replied to the Armley Gaol thread on the Yorkshire board I found the following press release from the Prison Service, thought some Rootschatters may find it of interest.
Pete

 
HM Prison Service Museum collection moves to Nottingham

04 January 2005
HM Prison Service has announced that its Museum collection is to be acquired
by the Galleries of Justice in Nottingham, and will move to the expanded
Galleries, based in the city's Lace Market's historic Shire Hall, by spring
2005. The Museum will remain open to visitors at the Prison Service Training
College at Newbold Revel, Rugby until 30 January. Ownership will then
transfer to the Galleries of Justice, and the collection will be moved to
Nottingham. Phil Wheatley, Director General of the Prison Service said:
"The collection is a valuable resource representing more than one hundred
years of rich custodial history in Britain, but we can only show a fraction
of it in its current location. Moving it to the Galleries of Justice will
mean improved public access and a greater space in which the collection can
be shown to its best advantage. The move will also mean that the collection
can be seen in a broader heritage context with complementary collections."
HM Prison Service Museum is a fully registered museum and its collection,
which is of national significance, includes objects, archives, photographs,
artwork, and uniform relating to punishment, imprisonment and HM Prison
Service, which date from the establishment of the Prison Commission in 1878.
Among the artefacts in the collection are the door from Oscar Wilde's prison
cell in Reading Gaol, a section of the treadmill from Holloway prison and
the last operational gallows in England from HMP Wandsworth. HM Prison
Service Museum was founded following the success of a temporary exhibition
held at the Officers Training School in Leyhill, Gloucestershire in 1978 to
mark the centenary of the Prison Department. This led to the establishment
of a permanent Prison Service Museum at Leyhill, which opened in 1982, and
moved to Newbold Revel when a new training site was established there in
1986. Negotiations involving the Galleries of Justice, Nottingham City
Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund and EMDA
have led to an agreement for the City Council to buy the Shire Hall for
£1.5m. The sale will enable the Galleries to refurbish its existing
facilities and reopen parts of the Shire Hall that have been closed for many
years to accommodate the Prison Service Museum collection. Mich Stevenson
OBE, Chairman of the Galleries said:  "The current Museum in Rugby is too
small to show more than a small percentage of the collections and it's a
real tribute to the international reputation of the Galleries that it was
considered the most suitable home for this prestigious national collection.
It means more jobs and a bigger and better Galleries of Justice which has
got to be good news for Nottingham."  "Just as important is the way in which
we use this material to teach young people. The National Centre for
Citizenship and the Law (NCCL) does a great deal of work behind the scenes
teaching hundreds of young people about their rights and responsibilities
including work with hard-to-reach kids in danger of drifting into crime. The
museum is a dynamic and interactive resource with, for example, young people
and actors re-enacting famous trials in the old courtroom."  (Press Release
HMPS 001/2005)