Summary
Lock up at the junction of Knight Lane and Dimble Lane.
Reasons for Designation
Lock ups or blind houses are small buildings built as temporary prisons for the incarceration of drunkards, vagrants and people disturbing the peace. Generally stone built but occasionally wooden, they are square, round or octagonal and contain either one cell or one for either sex. A small sometimes barred window was often included but the inside was always dim, hence the term blind house. In some examples, an iron cradle or wooden bench survives, on which the prisoner slept. They were often built by the parish or as a gift to the village or town by a wealthy resident and are generally centrally placed within the settlement. Blind houses went out of use in the mid-19th century when they were made redundant by the founding of a regular police service.
The lock up at Alton survives as a good example of this class of monument and is a focal point within the village which retains a number of contemporary buildings which would have been in existence in the early 19th century.
History
See Details.
Details
This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 11 June 2015. The record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System number:
ST 34
Legacy System:
RSM - OCN
Sources
Other
Legal
This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
End of official list entry
