Ancestor hung at Taunton Gaol

[Jo.]

There is a tunnel from the old Police station to the Shire Hall (Crown Court) which was used until the Police station closed to take offenders from the Station Cells for their court appearance.

The goal has been redeveloped, even hubby isn't where it was actually too, he thinks it was behind the police station, but there isn't a carpark there. But if the land where prisoners had been buried to have been redeveloped, then the graves would have had to been moved, so i would try Somerset Record office, as they might have records concerning removing the graves to another location.  Council when removing graves elsewhere have to record the information.

[misstinkerbell77]

There is a tunnel from the old Police station to the Shire Hall (Crown Court) which was used until the Police station closed to take offenders from the Station Cells for their court appearance.

The goal has been redeveloped, even hubby isn't where it was actually too, he thinks it was behind the police station, but there isn't a carpark there. But if the land where prisoners had been buried to have been redeveloped, then the graves would have had to been moved, so i would try Somerset Record office, as they might have records concerning removing the graves to another location.  Council when removing graves elsewhere have to record the information.

Thank you, that’s interesting.  I’ll contact them and see what they say.  Much appreciated!

[petmas]

EXECUTION OF A WOMAN AT TAUNTON. Catherine Churchill, a middle-aged woman, convicted at the recent Somerset Assizes for the wilful murder of her husband at Knowle, near Chard, on March 4th, was executed at Taunton on Monday, in the presence of the sheriff and the prison officials. Churchill's victim was a very aged and infirm man, to whom she had shown great brutality long before she murdered him. Marwood was the executioner. No reporters were admitted, and informatiion as to the occurrence was refused. A large crowd assembled, outside the prison, and punctually at eight o'clock the black flag was hoisted.
Monmouthshire Merlin May 30th 1879

[AlanBoyd]

findagrave has an entry for Taunton Prison Cemetery and gives the coordinates as 51.01190, -3.10742.  If you paste those into a mapping app it will take you to the location (I tested with Apple Maps, Google Maps, OS maps and georeferenced maps at NLS ).

Here is a side-by-side view. The coordinates relate to a point immediately below the words Shuttern Bridge, corresponding to the modern building immediately south of the Old Police Station. Looking on Streetview this seems to be a low single-storey structure with a flat roof.

https://tinyurl.com/y3379dw8

Note that the buidling marked as Old Police Station on the modern map is not there on the 25 inch map from the 1880s: the police station at that time is across the road to the north

[KGarrad]

From:http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/1868.html

26th May 1879
Catherine Churchill
Age 55
at Taunton
Victim was her husband