Location | Northallerton, North Yorkshire |
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Security class | Young Offenders Institution |
Population | 252 (as of December 2007) |
Opened | 1788 |
Closed | 2013 |
Managed by | HM Prison Services |
Governor | Chris Dyer |
Website | Northallerton at justice.gov.uk |
HM Prison Northallerton was a prison in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, England. It operated from 1788 until December 2013. During that time, it variously housed male and female adult prisoners, women with children, youth offenders, and military prisoners. Latterly Her Majesty's Prison Service struggled to keep the old prison operating to modern standards, and citing the costs of doing so and the relatively small size of the institution, it closed the prison in 2013. The prison was bought by Hambleton District Council, which plans to redevelop the site.
In 1783, the Justices of the North Riding of Yorkshire decided to close the existing house of correction in Thirsk and replace it with a larger custom-built facility in nearby Northallerton. The Diocese of Durham donated an area of marshland east of the town's High Street. Prolific Yorkshire architect and engineer John Carr was engaged to design the new prison - Carr designed a quadrangle of four buildings, although at first only one was constructed. This initial jail (which cost 3,411 pounds 3 shillings and 11 pence) opened in 1788. The building had twelve cells for men and five for women (although a number of prisoners slept in each cell). A courthouse was added on the north side in 1800 - it was connected to the jail by a tunnel. When James Neild visited the prison (then called Northallerton Bridewell) in September 1802 it held 15 prisoners.
The prison's female wing was built on the quadrangle's east side in 1818, and the prison Governor's house and two further wings were added in the 1820s. Treadmills were installed in the 1820s; at one time Northallerton had the largest treadmill in the world. Two new wings, both three-storey, were built in the early 1850s.
The prison was closed in 1922 and the premises mothballed. On the outbreak of World War II it was transferred to the British Army for use as a storage depot and later a training facility for Royal Military Police officers. In 1943 the army began using the site as a "glasshouse", a military prison. In 1946 some prisoners, aggrieved that the end of the war had not let to the remission of their sentences, rioted, damaging the cell block and throwing roof slates into the street.