Kirkdale Prison in Liverpool

Kirkdale Gaol, known as the Kirkdale House of Correction, was constructed to the then fashionable Panopticon design, with six wings radiating from a central tower and opened in 1819. It was originally designed to hold 460 prisoners. (See map)
There was a Sessions House (Court) on the site, at the end of Sessions Road to enable it to serve the West Derby Hundred (the southern division) of Lancashire. This was replaced by St George’s Hall which opened as Liverpool’s Assize court in 1854 and was the venue for many famous trials.

Liverpool became an Assize town in 1835, prisoners from this district had previously been sent for trial to Lancaster. Those condemned to death were no longer sent to Lancaster Castle for execution but hanged at Kirkdale Gaol which was the prison for southern Lancashire. Lancaster Castle was the prison for northern Lancashire and Strangeways had replaced Salford, which closed in 1868, as the prison for Manchester. The newer Walton prison took over Kirkdale’s remaining duties upon its closure in 1892, most of the ordinary inmates having been transferred there in 1890.

On Saturday the 15th of August 1835 the first South Lancashire Assizes was held at Kirkdale, before Lord Chief Justice Tindal who presided over the criminal proceedings and Lord Abinger who dealt with the civil cases. James Barlow who had murdered his wife, Priscilla, was the first person to be sentenced to death here and hanged outside the prison on the 24th of August. The court also heard the murder case against Jane Boardman from Bolton, who was accused of killing her grandson. The judge directed the jury to acquit her.

By 1842 overcrowding had become a problem. The Bolton Free Press reported in September of that year that there were 632 prisoners incarcerated on the 16th of that month. In a report by the Surveyor of Prisons it was stated that there 2524 inmates in the period 1841-2 and 3041 in the period 1846-6.

In 1847 plans were put forward to build an additional cell block at a cost £8,000. This was necessitated because the “separate system” of incarceration had been instituted here which meant that each inmate had his own cell, whereas before prisoners could share a cell. Here is a painting of the later building.

At the county sessions in Preston, it has been resolved, that towards the carrying into effect resolutions of the Courts of Annual Session 1866, authorising the General Finance Committee of the county to borrow £35,000 for altering, enlarging, and repairing the county prisons at Preston and Kirkdale, to approve of the mortgage of the rates for these purposes for the sum of £8,000.

The building, located 2 miles from centre of Liverpool, at North Dingle Lane, Kirkdale closed in 1892 and was demolished in 1897 with a recreation centre built on the site.

Executions began on the 24th of August 1835 with James Barlow and ended with the hanging of John Conway there on the 20th of August 1891. Strangely for three years, both Walton and Kirkdale prisons had execution sheds and it would seem that the Kirkdale gallows was transported to Walton for the first hanging there, that of Elizabeth Berry on the 14th of March 1887. Walton took over Liverpool executions in August 1892, that of Patrick Gibbons.

The Westmorland Gazette reported that for the execution of Barlow at noon Monday the 24th of August 1835, the New Drop gallows had been borrowed from Lancaster and set up “in the north west angle of the Kirkdale House of Correction and erected fourteen feet above the heads of the multitude assembled to witness the awful scene.” It would seem that the gallows was erected on the street outside the prison rather than on the gate house roof as was often the case at other places.

For the quadruple execution of Alvarez, Hughes, O’Brien and Thomas on the 12th of September 1863, it was reported that a screen had been set up on the gallows to hide the struggles of the four men and that the platform had been extended. Some 270 policemen were on hand in an endeavour to control the crowd, estimated at 100,000 persons.

30 men and 2 women were hanged in public at Kirkdale between 1835 and 1867. These hangings were typically carried out at noon.

Date	1st name	Surname	Age	Hangman	Crime
24/08/1835	James	Barlow	40	Samuel Hayward	Murder of wife, Priscilla
09/04/1836	Betty	Rowland	46	Samuel Hayward	Murder of husband, William
21/04/1838	William	Hill	27	Samuel Hayward	Rape & murder of Eliz. Winshall
03/09/1842	Francis	Bradley	32	William Calcraft	Murder of wife
06/05/1843	Betty	Eccles	38	William Calcraft	Murder stepson
06/05/1843	Wilmot	Buckley	22	William Calcraft	Murder of wife, Elizabeth
20/01/1844	John	Roberts	26	William Calcraft	Murder of gamekeeper
04/01/1845	George	Evans	20	William Calcraft	Murder of Mrs. Miller
04/01/1845	Thomas	Stew	21	William Calcraft	Murder of Alice Nolan
16/09/1848	William	Adams	32	William Calcraft	Murder of wife
06/01/1849	James	Kelly	24	William Calcraft	Murder of Eliza Faulkener
15/09/1849	John	Wilson	26	Nathaniel Howard	Murder of Mrs. Hinrickson
26/04/1851	Patrick	Lyons	21	William Calcraft	Murder of Peggy Fahay
05/01/1856	Jonathan	Heywood	47	William Calcraft	Murder of Margaret Jones
12/09/1857	Capt. Henry	Rogers	37	William Calcraft	Murder of Andrew Rose
01/01/1859	Henry	Reid	38	William Calcraft	Murder of wife, Susannah
08/09/1860	Thomas	Galagher	40	William Calcraft	Murder of wife
11/01/1862	Patrick	M’Caffery	29	William Calcraft	Murder of Col. Crofton
13/09/1862	William	Taylor	37	William Calcraft	Murder of Mr. Evan Meller
13/09/1862	John	Ward	30	William Calcraft	Murder of PC William Jump
03/01/1863	Thomas	Edwards	30	William Calcraft	Murder of Isabella Tonge
25/04/1863	Duncan	McPhail	34	William Calcraft	Murder of Mrs. Ann Walne
25/04/1863	George	Woods	35	William Calcraft	Murder of Mrs. Ann Walne
12/09/1863	Jose	Alvarez	22	William Calcraft	Murder of James Harrison
12/09/1863	John	Hughes	51	William Calcraft	Murder of wife
12/09/1863	James	O’Brien	26	William Calcraft	Murder of Elizabeth Callaghan
12/09/1863	Benjamin	Thomas	24	William Calcraft	Murder of Mary Rowland
09/01/1864	Luke	Charles	25	William Calcraft	Murder of wife, Mary
16/04/1864	James	Clitheroe	32	William Calcraft	Murder of Mary Woods
07/01/1865	Hugh	Brown	32	William Calcraft	Murder of Thomas McCarthy
01/09/1866	Thomas	Grimes	30	William Calcraft	Murder of James Barton
14/09/1867	Henry	Farrington	25	William Calcraft	Murder of wife

31 men and 3 women were hanged within Kirkdale prison between 1870 and 1891.

Date	1st name	Surname	Age	Hangman	Crime
10/01/1870	John	Gregson	27	William Calcraft	Murder of wife, Ellen
09/01/1873	Spencer	Richard	60	William Calcraft	Girlfriend, Elizabeth Wharton
08/09/1873	James	Conner	29	William Calcraft	Murder James Gaffney
05/01/1874	Thomas	Corrigan	23	William Calcraft	Matricide
31/08/1874	Mary	Williams	40	William Marwood	Murder Nicholas Manning
31/08/1874	Henry	Flanaghan	22	William Marwood	Murder aunt
04/01/1875	John	McCrave	20	Robert Anderson (Evans)	Corner men gang -murder of
04/01/1875	Michael	Mullen	17	Robert Anderson (Evans)	Richard Morgan
04/01/1875	William	Worthington	33	Robert Anderson (Evans)	Murder of wife, Ann
19/04/1875	Alfred	Heap	41	William Marwood	Margaret McKivett - abortion
05/09/1875	William	Baker	25	William Marwood	Murder Charles Langan
05/09/1875	Edward	Cooper	33	William Marwood	Murder of Edward Jones at sea
14/08/1876	William	Fish	26	William Marwood	Emily Holland - child murder
14/08/1876	Richard	Thompson	22	William Marwood	Murder John Blundell
21/08/1877	John	Golding	25	William Marwood	Murder friend, Daniel Lloyd
21/08/1877	Patrick	McGovern	53	William Marwood	Murder of John Campbell
12/02/1878	James	Trickett	42	William Marwood	Murder of wife, Mary
28/05/1879	Thomas	Johnson	20	William Marwood	Murder of Eliza Mary Patten
02/03/1880	Patrick	Kearns	21	William Marwood	Murder Patrick Tracey
02/03/1880	Hugh	Burns	30	William Marwood	Murder Patrick Tracey
31/05/1881	Joseph	McEntee	42	William Marwood	Murder of wife, Ellen
21/08/1882	William	Turner	52	William Marwood	Murder of wife, Ellen
04/12/1882	Bernard	Mullarky	19	William Marwood	Murder of Thomas Cruise
03/12/1883	Henry	Dutton	22	Bartholomew Binns	Murder of Hannah Hamshaw
05/03/1884	Catherine	Flannigan	55	Binns & Samuel Heath	Murder of Higgins’ husband
05/03/1884	Margaret	Higgins	41	Binns & Samuel Heath	Murder of husband, Thomas
10/03/1884	Michael	McLean	18	Bartholomew Binns	Murder of sailor E. R. Nunez
19/08/1884	Peter	Cassidy	54	James Berry	Murder of wife, Mary
08/12/1884	Arthur	Shaw	31	James Berry	Murder of wife, Elizabeth
08/12/1884	Ernest	Ewerstaedt	23	James Berry	Murder of Elizabeth Hamblin
09/12/1885	George	Thomas	29	James Berry	Murder of Margaret Askin
15/04/1890	William	Chadwick	23	James Berry	Murder of Walter Davies
30/12/1890	Thomas	McDonald	32	James Berry	Murder Elizabeth Ann Holt
20/08/1891	John	Conway	62	James Berry	Child murder, Nicholas Martin

In December 1867, Captain Gibbs, the then governor, was advised of a threat by the Fenians to attack the prison, with the governor’s house and Sessions House, being the principal targets for arson, using a flammable fluid known as “Greek fire”. Captain Gibbs increased security substantially and it does not appear that these threats were carried out. The Fenians also made threats against other buildings at this time.

John Gregson’s was the first private hanging, the gallows being erected in the north-west corner of the prison. Calcraft pinioned Gregson in the condemned cell where he was praying with the chaplain, the Rev. Piggott. A procession consisting of two visiting justices, the governor, Mr. Gibb, Gregson and the chaplain, Calcraft and two warders set out for the gallows. The execution took place on Monday the 10th of January 1870 at 8.00 a.m., with the drop falling two minutes later.

On Wednesday the 22nd of September 1886, Crimean War veteran, Major Knox, took over as governor of Kirkdale, having held the same position at Cardiff for the previous fifteen years.

Kirkdale had Dr. James Barr as its surgeon at this time, who was considered an expert on judicial hanging. He had written a paper on the subject, entitled “The Mechanics of Hanging”. He testified in depth before the Royal Commission (Aberdare Committee) in 1886. Dr. Barr had witnessed 15 executions here since 1877, including two double hangings. In three cases he recorded death by asphyxia and in the others death by fracture/dislocation. He offered views on all aspects of the execution process and criticised the over complicated pinioning process which he claimed could take 3-4 minutes to complete. Dr. Barr favoured a drop which produced a final force of 1260 lbs. ft. for prisoners of normal build and weight with a reduced figure for smaller persons. He was very unimpressed with Bartholomew Binns’ work as an executioner, especially with the execution of Henry Dutton who strangled to death. Barr also had several run ins with hangman, James Berry over the way in which he conducted hangings. In October of 1888 Dr. Barr was stabbed by an inmate after he had tried to break up a fight between the man and another prisoner. Dr. Barr was quite seriously injured in this incident but did fully recover.

After the failure of the trapdoors to open at the hanging of John Lee at Exeter in 1885, the Home Office commissioned Lieutenant Colonel Alton Beamish to design a standard gallows for use throughout the country. This consisted of two uprights with a cross beam in 8 inch section oak. The beam was long enough to execute three prisoners side by side and was set over a 12 foot long by 4 foot wide two leaf trap set level with the surrounding floor. The trapdoors were made from three inch thick oak and were released by an iron lever. This was a great improvement over some of the older designs and considerably speeded up the execution process.

The Preston Herald newspaper of 31st of December 1890 reported on the execution of Thomas McDonald and described the new gallows as follows. “The pinioning room is only a few yards from the inner door of the coach house, so that the doomed man has only to walk from one room into the other. On the last occasion (Chadwick) the gallows was 7ft above the floor and the criminal drops into a hole, the trap door on which he stands being level with the floor. Now the height of the gallows is 11ft. It is a formidable looking structure, with a 4ft chain of strong iron links dangling therefrom, with the rope firmly attached to it.”
Apparently this execution went very well. McDonald was 5 2 1/2” tall and weighed just 114 lbs. James Berry set the drop at 8’ 2” and McDonald’s neck was broken and heartbeat ceased with three minutes, according to Dr. Barr, who said afterwards “that it was the quickest execution he had ever heard of”.

A report published by the Prison Commissioners in 1882 showed that in 1877 it cost £11 8s 7d per prisoner for the average of 497 inmates. For the year ending the 31st of March 1881 the figure was £15 0s 10d for an average of 544 prisoners.

The Prison Act of 1877 brought prisons under the control of the Home Office Prison Commissioners and as a result a number of older local prisons, including Kirkdale, were closed over the next few years as the were considered either too expensive to run or unfit for purpose or both.

When Kirkdale closed the bodies of those executed were exhumed and re-buried at the cemetery in Longmore Lane in Fazakerley in November of 1893.

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