Archaeology Notes
Event ID 847376
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/847376
NO12SW 356.00 11786 22395 (Centred on Central Building)
For discovery of flints, see NO12SW 26.
NO 117 223 A phased programme of archaeological works was undertaken at HMP Perth from January to March 2006 prior to redevelopment, together with ongoing monitoring of groundworks during construction. The redevelopment included the demolition of C Hall and the erection of a series of new buildings within and adjacent to the former C Hall. The site has been in constant use as a prison since the construction of a Napoleonic prisoner-of-war depot in 1811. It was converted to a general prison in 1842 and has subsequently undergone much remodelling throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
Trial-trenching within the proposed development area exposed elements of both the Napoleonic prisoner-of-war buildings and the later Victorian structures. Within C Hall elements of a stone-built 'hub and spoke' airing or exercise yard and a tunnel structure relating to a probable Victorian air ventilation system were uncovered. Further excavation exposed elements of the 'hub and spoke' exercise yard. The airing yard was laid out in a 'wheel' plan with spokes running from a central hub. Each spoke of the wheel was a stone wall, with two walls forming a compartment narrowing towards the central hub. A prisoner was contained within the cell to 'exercise' while a prison warder was located in the elevated central tower, allowing clear surveillance of all compartments. This structure was designed to physically contain and visually restrict the prisoners while allowing them to exercise in the open air. Map evidence suggests that HMP Perth originally had three 'hub and spoke' airing yards, built between 1840 and 1851.
A historic building survey was undertaken within the basement of C Hall prior to demolition. Initial inspection of the basement identified seven blocked tunnel structures within the wall of a main tunnel which ran the full length of thehall. Excavations also exposed a tunnel structure running between C and D Halls. The below-ground and above-ground evidence suggest that the Victorian-period prison halls were ventilated by a series of tunnel structures linked to air shafts located within the exercise yards.
Monitoring of groundworks uncovered 20 burials, male and female, stacked in two rows. The burials were clearly part of a single event and lay a short distance outside the boundary of the formal prison burial ground. They are likely to be associated with an outbreak of plague or disease.
Archive and report to be deposited in NMRS. Report lodged with Perth and Kinross SMR.
Sponsor: Scottish Prison Service.
Candy Hatherley, 2006.
