Lock-up, Lacock

The lock-up is a tiny listed building on East Street in Lacock: a square stone cell under a domed roof, joined by a wall on its west side to the tithe barn. It is thought to date from the late eighteenth century, when it held drunks and offenders overnight, and it is listed Grade II.

History

Lock-ups were the village's answer to keeping the peace before there were police stations. Historic England's listing explains that these small buildings held offenders until they could be taken before the local magistrate, and also drunks, vagrants and anyone causing a disturbance. They were usually built by the parish or a wealthy local resident, the earliest recorded examples go back to the thirteenth century, and most fell out of use in the mid-nineteenth century once regular police forces were set up. Their dim, windowless interiors earned them the name blind houses.

Lacock's is thought to be late eighteenth century. The CPRE Wiltshire walk leaflet sums up its use plainly: the village's drunk and riotous revellers spent the night here.

What to see

The cell is built of coursed ashlar on a low plinth, with a band at the line of the cornice, two buttresses on the north side and a domed ashlar roof topped by a stone ball. There are no windows, only a ventilation hole set high in the wall.

You reach it through the wall on its west side, where a timber door studded with iron and hung on thick straps with decorative ends opens into a tiny flagged yard roofed with an iron grille. A second studded door, in a chamfered stone surround, leads into the cell. The listing records a lavatory and a modern timber bed inside, so it has been fitted out in recent times.

The lock-up is listed partly for its group value: it stands beside the Grade I barn and among the other listed buildings of the village, a reminder of how order was kept in a rural parish.

Visiting

The lock-up can be seen from East Street at any time and costs nothing; we found no regular opening of the cell. The street is level, so it is easy to see from a wheelchair or pushchair. The National Trust lists toilets by its Stables Café and an accessible toilet (RADAR key) in the village.

Getting there

The lock-up is on East Street, Lacock, next to the tithe barn. Park in the National Trust car park on Hither Way (SN15 2LG), south of the village, which is free to members and has Blue Badge bays, and walk up the High Street. Chippenham has the nearest railway station, about 4 miles away by road.

Nearby

The tithe barn it is joined to belonged to the nuns of Lacock Abbey. A minute's walk east is St Cyriac's Church, with the packhorse bridge over the Bide Brook below it. The Red Lion is a few doors away on the High Street and The George Inn is on West Street.