Old Town Prison and Attached Courtyard Walls
OLD TOWN PRISON AND ATTACHED COURTYARD WALLS, SHUTE HILL
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1208925
- Date first listed:
- 04-Jun-1987
- List Entry Name:
- Old Town Prison and Attached Courtyard Walls
- Statutory Address:
- OLD TOWN PRISON AND ATTACHED COURTYARD WALLS, SHUTE HILL
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Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2004-09-06
- Reference:
- IOE01/13276/13
- Rights:
- © Helmut Schulenburg. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1208925
- Date first listed:
- 04-Jun-1987
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 09-Feb-1994
- List Entry Name:
- Old Town Prison and Attached Courtyard Walls
- Statutory Address 1:
- OLD TOWN PRISON AND ATTACHED COURTYARD WALLS, SHUTE HILL
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- OLD TOWN PRISON AND ATTACHED COURTYARD WALLS, SHUTE HILL
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Cornwall (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Helston
- National Grid Reference:
- SW 66195 27554
Details
HELSTON
631-1/5/226 SHUTE HILL
04-JUN-87 (Southwest side)
OLD TOWN PRISON AND ATTACHED COURTYARD
WALLS
(Formerly listed as:
SHUTE HILL
OLD TOWN PRISON INCLUDING WALL ADJOINI
NG NORTH EAST AND SOUTH WEST)
GV II
Prison, first floor now used as flats. 1835 datestone. By
Henry Penberthy. Granite ashlar with plinth, ground-floor
impost string to round arches; mid-floor string (chiselled
away at the front) and flat arches to 1st floor; asbestos
slate roof with red brick end stacks. Plan: ground floor has 8
cells back to back behind arcaded passage at front and rear
and passage on the right; right-hand cells only are heated.
Arcades lead into small enclosed yards except to front right
where walls have been removed. Left-hand yard at front has 2
earth closets and steps up to 1st floor, probably originally
the warden's quarters. Extending to the north west are the former exercise walls within which have been constructed ranges of garages [garages not of special interest and not included].
2 storeys; regular 4-window range. Late C19 four-pane horned
sashes; doorway with C20 door left of centre. Ground floor has
4 open arches behind which is passage and lime-washed cell
walls with original studded door and barred window to each
cell. Rear is similar but with no 1st-floor doorway. Ends have
rusticated quoins, the north-west gable with recessed date
panel.
INTERIOR: inside the arcades, and inside the lime-washed
cells, the floors are granite setts, the granite ceilings are
supported on iron beams; small iron grates to 2 cells. 1st
floor not inspected.
Subsidiary features: tall rubble courtyard walls with dressed
granite quoins and copings with coping ramped up to eaves of
prison on left; dressed granite piers to surviving front gate
on the left. Extending to the north west is the former exercise yard enclosed by granite ashlar and rubble walls within which are ranges of garages [not included]; the ground level of the exercise yard has been raised and the wall at the north west end and at the south east corner breached.
History: in 1834 Helston Prison Committee had plans submitted
by Henry Penberthy for a prison. It was designed to house male
and female prisoners, a working men's ward and 2 cells for
solitary confinement. It was built at a cost of î720.
Historically significant as a rare and complete surviving
example of a small early C19 prison.
Listing NGR: SW6619527554
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 385567
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 15-Jun-2026 at 13:11:36.
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