Full Report for Listed Buildings
The list description is not intended to be a complete inventory of what is listed: it is principally intended to aid identification. By law, the definition of a listed building includes the entire building (i) and any structure or object that is fixed to the said building and ancillary to it and (ii) any other structure or object that forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948, and was within the curtilage of the building, and ancillary to it, on the date on which said building was first included in the list, or on 1 January 1969, whichever was later.
Summary Description
Reference Number
5580
Building Number
Grade
I
Status
Designated
Date of Designation
23/09/1950
Date of Amendment
13/07/2005
Name of Property
Perimeter walls of Beaumaris Gaol
Address
Location
Unitary Authority
Isle of Anglesey
Community
Beaumaris
Town
Beaumaris
Locality
Beaumaris
Easting
260350
Northing
376089
Street Side
S
Location
Occupying the block defined by Steeple Lane, Bunkers Hill, Gaol Street, and a narrow alley at the S end.
Description
Broad Class
Civil
Period
History
Beaumaris Gaol and House of Correction was built in 1829 by Joseph Hansom and Edward Welch, architects of York. The perimeter wall was an integral part of the original prison building. It had a high-level doorway from which public hangings took place. Two men were hanged there during the life of the prison, which closed in 1878. It has been a museum since 1975.
Exterior
The perimeter of the gaol is composed of coursed freestone walls approximately 15m high and 55m by 32m, with freestone coping and a slight batter at the base. Each side has shallow buttresses rising to three-quarter height, and clasped at the angles. The main entrance, to Bunkers Hill on the N side, is between splayed sections of the perimeter wall that abut the main prison building. It has 4 lower freestone piers with central double iron gates, and flanking bays with railings on dwarf walls.
On the S side the wall rises higher, in 2 steps, to accommodate the extension to the S wing made in 1867. Subsequently a doorway, in a concrete surround, was inserted in the wall at this point, with boarded door. On the E side is a wider buttress to the R of centre, at the top of which is a studded door, over which the gallows was fixed. On the inner side of the wall at this point is a bell surmounted by a wooden cross.
The inner side of the wall is pebble-dashed, except the SW quadrant where the original stone is exposed.
Interior
Reason for designation
Listed grade I for its special interest as a virtually unaltered early C19 prison perimeter wall from where public executions took place, and as an integral component of an exceptionally well-preserved prison of national importance.
Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]
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