Abingdon Old Gaol, Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Plans for a new prison in Abingdon had been drawn up by 11th July 1804. Between 1805 and 1812 £16405 9s 11s 1/4d was spent, including the cost of the site. Daniel Harris, the Surveyor and Gaoler of Oxford Prison, worked as the Surveyor for the Abingdon prison. It had been hoped that the prison would be ready by mid 1809. The first inmates arrived in 1811 when the prison was still incomplete. Between 1812 and 1818 approximately £8000 more was spent, bringing the total expenditure on the prison to £24234 10s 6d. In 1812 Daniel Harris went insane and was replaced by Jeffrey Wyatville. By 1861 a courthouse had been added. The prison appears to have closed in 1868 following the 1865 Prison Act, when the decision of rules for prisons was moved from local officials to national ones.
