Shepton Mallet (HM Prison) HMP Shepton Mallet, sometimes known as Cornhill, is a prison located in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England. It is the United Kingdom's oldest operating prison. Shepton Mallet is a Category C Lifer Prison and holds 186 prisoners. The prison is a grade II* listed building.

History prior to the Second World War

17th and 18th Centuries

The prison was established as a House of Correction in 1625, to comply with an Act of King James I in 1609 requiring that every county have such a House.

In the 17th century, Shepton Mallet was not the only place of imprisonment in Somerset: the County Gaol was in Ilchester, and there was another House of Correction at Ilchester and also at Taunton. In these times all prisoners, men, women and children, were held together in reportedly dreadful conditions. The gaoler was not paid, instead making an income from fees from his prisoners (for example, for providing them with liquor).

In 1773, a commissioner appointed by Parliament to inspect prisons around the country reported that sanitation at Shepton Mallet House of Correction was extremely poor. He said:

Many who went in healthy are in a few months changed to emaciated, dejected objects. Some are seen pining under diseases, expiring on the floors, in loathsome cells, of pestilential fevers, and the confluent smallpox. Victims, I will not say to cruelty, but I must say to the inattention of the Sheriffs, and Gentlemen in the commission of peace. The cause of this distress is, that many prisons are scantily supplied, and some almost totally unprovided with the necessaries of life.

—John Howard's report to Parliament, 1773

In 1790 additional land was purchased to extend the prison, and around this time men and women began to be held in separate areas. Further extensions were carried out in 1817 to 1822, at around which time Shepton Mallet held about 200 prisoners.

19th Century

In 1823, a large treadwheel was built within the prison on which men who had been sentenced to hard labour would serve their punishment. 40 men would tread the wheel for many hours at a time, a punishment which was recorded as causing hernias in some convicts. The wheel was used to power a grain mill situated outside the prison wall. The wheel remained in use until 1890.

Other prisoners were engaged in breaking stones which were used for roadbuilding, oakam picking (unpicking old ropes) and other tasks.

Ilchester Gaol closed in 1843, with the inmates transferred to Shepton Mallet and Taunton. A year earlier, Inspectors appointed by the Government had reported that Shepton Mallet prison was:

in greatest want of new cells for the purpose of dividing the prisoners from each other ... In number 11 of Ward 8, no less than eight men have slept in the same room in company from January to September, 1841, although in this very room there are only six bedsteads. Boards are brought in and placed on the floor when the bedsteads are not sufficiently numerous.

—Report of Her Majesty's Inspectorate, 1842

In 1845, the prison was recorded as holding 270 prisoners.

By 1897, the population was only 61, overseen by the Governor, three Warders, six Assistant Warders and a Night Watchman. Other staff included the Chaplain and Assistant Chaplain, Surgeon, Matron and School Master.


Population statistics

As at June 2008, the prison held 173 prisoners serving a life sentence and 12 serving indeterminate sentences for public protection. All 185 had committed offences categorised as violence against the person (including murder), and 47 were classified as sexual offenders. 16 prisoners were aged 60 or over, with the oldest aged 78 years. 134 had been at Shepton Mallet for a year or more, and 38 for four years or more.

The prison held only 5 foreign nationals, and had an usually low number of inmates from ethnic minorities: 152 prisoners were white British or white Irish, 12 other white, 16 black or black British, 1 Asian, 3 of mixed race and 1 of another ethnic origin.