page_title: Architecture of Wales
section_title: Prisons and workhouses
hierarchical_section_title: Architecture of Wales / Georgian architecture / Prisons and workhouses
caption_attribution_description: English: The Roundhouse, Ruabon An early 18th century jail house
context_page_description: Architecture of Wales is an overview of architecture in Wales from the Medieval period to the present day, excluding castles and fortifications, ecclesiastical architecture and industrial architecture. It covers the history of domestic, commercial, and administrative architecture.
context_section_description: In the latter part of the 18th century, as the result of Prison reform new prisons came to be built in most of the Welsh County towns. The reforms were the result of the work of John Howard, who in 1777 published  The State of the Prisons  He proposed that each prisoner should be in a separate cell with separate sections for women felons, men felons, young offenders and debtors. This was followed by the Penitentiary Act which was passed in 1779. This act was in implemented in each Welsh county by the Court of Great Sessions and which led to the building of many new prisons across Wales. These included the gaols built in Carmarthen and Cardigan by John Nash and the gaols at Caernarfon (1793), Ruthin (1785) and Flint(1775) by Joseph Turner. Most of these prisons were closed in the 1870s, but the Ruthin gaol, now used as the Denbighshire County Record Office is remarkably well preserved. The Anglesey Gaol at Beaumaris came later in 1828–1829 by the architects Hansom and Welch. This incorporates many of the innovations of the Milbank Penitentiary in London of 1812–1821 with wings, a massive curtilage wall and a central glass cupola for the oversight of the prison complex. 
  This plan was developed for the Montgomeryshire County gaol at Montgomery by the County Surveyor Thomas Penson, c. 1830–32. Brick faced with stone.  The tall octagonal governor's house with the chapel above, was at the centre of four radiating three- and two-storey wings. One of the yards was fitted with a tread-mill. The gatehouse was built into the wall to face a new approach in 1866 by J.W. Poundley. Powerful ashlar triumphal arch, with four giant semi-rusticated pilasters. The Gaol was closed in 1878 and all that now remains, apart from the gatehouse, is the Governor's House and the high wall of one cell block. 
  Penson was also to use this design for the workhouses at Llanfyllin and Caersws in Montgomeryshire.
caption: The Roundhouse (village lock-up), Ruabon
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