1 00:00:04,040 --> 00:00:05,480 DAN JONES: For me, a great British castle 2 00:00:05,560 --> 00:00:08,120 is a fortress, a palace, a home. 3 00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:13,600 And a symbol of power, majesty, and fear. 4 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:17,360 For nearly a thousand years, 5 00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:20,400 castles have shaped Britain's famous landscape. 6 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:26,360 These magnificent buildings have been home 7 00:00:26,440 --> 00:00:31,120 to some of the greatest heroes and villains in our national history. 8 00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:34,400 And many of them still stand proudly today 9 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:37,160 bursting with incredible stories 10 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:41,720 of warfare, treachery, intrigue, passion and murder. 11 00:00:44,640 --> 00:00:46,320 Join me, Dan Jones, 12 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:51,000 as I uncover the secrets behind six great British castles. 13 00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:57,560 This time I'm in Lancaster Castle, in the heart of Northern England. 14 00:00:58,040 --> 00:01:01,360 A castle which also houses one of the oldest jails 15 00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:03,080 and criminal courts in the land. 16 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:07,000 Hundreds of people have died here at Lancaster, 17 00:01:07,160 --> 00:01:11,280 not in battles and in sieges, but in the name of British justice. 18 00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:33,880 JONES: It's not everyday you find an abandoned 19th century prison, 19 00:01:33,960 --> 00:01:35,840 in the middle of a medieval castle. 20 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:40,040 There's something that feels eerily familiar about it though. 21 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:43,720 It looks almost like a 1970's sitcom. 22 00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:47,240 Feels like I'm Ronnie Barker in Porridge. 23 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:49,720 Norman Stanley Fletcher, 24 00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:53,400 you've pleaded guilty to the charges brought by this court. 25 00:01:54,240 --> 00:01:56,400 It's now my duty to pass sentence. 26 00:01:57,240 --> 00:02:00,960 For most of its history, imprisonment here was very real. 27 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:03,560 And this place was deadly serious. 28 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:09,080 The castle gained Lancaster the nickname of "The Hanging Town." 29 00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:12,840 Although it began life as a bristling medieval fortress, 30 00:02:12,920 --> 00:02:14,400 over the centuries, 31 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:18,440 the castle became one of Britain's busiest and most brutal prisons. 32 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:22,560 As well as a prison, the castle also contained a court 33 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:26,400 where people came to be tried, punished, and to die. 34 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:31,600 Today Lancaster Castle tells us the stories of more than 35 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:34,120 eight hundred years of crime and punishment. 36 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:39,840 And none is more famous than the trial that took place in the 20th century. 37 00:02:39,920 --> 00:02:44,200 Following one of the worst terrorist attacks ever seen on mainland Britain, 38 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:46,760 the bombing of two pubs in Birmingham. 39 00:02:47,560 --> 00:02:49,360 MALE REPORTER: The tavern in the town of Mulberry Bush 40 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:52,560 on the night of November the 21st, 1974. 41 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:55,880 Twenty-one people dead. More than a 160 injured 42 00:02:55,960 --> 00:02:57,160 as the bombs went off. 43 00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:03,760 In June 1975, one of the most notorious trials in British history 44 00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:08,360 began right here at the Crown Port in the heart of Lancaster Castle. 45 00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:10,280 MALE REPORTER: According to the Crown, 46 00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:12,040 the men planted their bombs in the rotunda... 47 00:03:12,120 --> 00:03:14,240 JONES: In the dock were a group of Northern Irishmen, 48 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:16,280 accused of carrying out 49 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:20,800 what was then the worst attack on British soil since the Second World War. 50 00:03:21,480 --> 00:03:26,160 The Birmingham pub bombings which killed 21 and injured 182 51 00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:30,520 were the latest in a string of bombings that had occurred across the country, 52 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:33,400 and they were suspected to be the work of the IRA. 53 00:03:33,800 --> 00:03:37,880 MAN: Six people have been charged as a result of... 54 00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:41,000 Like so many of the trials that took place here, 55 00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:44,200 the case of the Birmingham Six would be controversial. 56 00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:47,640 JONES: While they were on trial, the Birmingham Six 57 00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:50,280 were held in Lancaster Castle cells. 58 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:54,800 The country was living in daily fear of terrorism. 59 00:03:55,400 --> 00:03:57,320 But the Birmingham Six were innocent. 60 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:01,760 For three months they were taken back and forth from these cells 61 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:05,880 to the castle's courtroom, knowing that they had nothing to do 62 00:04:06,360 --> 00:04:09,040 with the murderous attacks that had rocked the UK. 63 00:04:10,520 --> 00:04:13,200 MAN: Within two days, four of the six men had signed confessions. 64 00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:17,040 Confessions which they said were brutally beaten out of them by police. 65 00:04:17,840 --> 00:04:21,000 JONES: These confessions would strongly influence the verdict. 66 00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:25,440 As a result on the 15th of August 1975, 67 00:04:25,840 --> 00:04:28,960 they were found guilty here at Lancaster Castle. 68 00:04:29,480 --> 00:04:33,560 They were given a total of 21 life sentences for murder. 69 00:04:36,960 --> 00:04:38,520 But they were not guilty. 70 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:41,960 They all served 16 years in British prisons 71 00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:45,560 before their convictions were overturned in 1991. 72 00:04:47,400 --> 00:04:50,640 The trial was one of the worst miscarriages of justice 73 00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:52,320 in modern British history, 74 00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:56,120 and it happened right here in Lancaster Castle. 75 00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:07,560 JONES: The story of Lancaster Castle goes back over 2000 years. 76 00:05:08,280 --> 00:05:10,280 The first people to build here were the Romans. 77 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:14,280 In 43 AD the Romans conquered Britain, 78 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:18,520 but in the North they had constant trouble from local tribes. 79 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:23,320 To cement their rule they built a vast network of forts, 80 00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:25,440 including the one here in Lancaster. 81 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:28,320 In fact the name Lancaster, 82 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:32,600 comes from the River Lune and castrum, the Latin word for fort. 83 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:35,960 The remains of that ancient Roman fort, 84 00:05:36,080 --> 00:05:39,120 still lie underneath the castle you see today. 85 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:43,120 This imposing tower with its curved walls, 86 00:05:43,480 --> 00:05:47,320 was built in the 13th Century, from the remains of the Roman fort. 87 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:50,240 That's why it's known as Hadrian's Tower 88 00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:53,120 after one of the most famous of the Roman invaders, 89 00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:54,920 the Emperor Hadrian. 90 00:05:56,400 --> 00:05:58,520 But the stone structure we see today, 91 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:02,840 began it's life nearly a thousand years after the time of Hadrian and the Romans. 92 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:05,760 It goes back to the time of the Normans, 93 00:06:06,040 --> 00:06:09,760 invaders from France, who conquered England in 1066, 94 00:06:10,280 --> 00:06:13,240 took the Crown and covered the kingdom with castles, 95 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:15,720 as symbols of their authority. 96 00:06:17,240 --> 00:06:19,240 Here, on the edge of the River Lune, 97 00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:22,440 Lancaster Castle looked out at the no mans land 98 00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:24,600 that led towards Scotland. 99 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:31,480 This is the oldest part of Lancaster Castle. 100 00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:36,200 It's the Keep, which is the strong central part of any castle, 101 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:39,160 where the Lord lived, or you ran for safety, 102 00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:42,160 if the enemy managed to break into the outer gates. 103 00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:45,240 As you can see, it's big, it's square, 104 00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:47,720 and it's very hard to get into. 105 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:49,680 The original door wouldn't have been here, 106 00:06:50,240 --> 00:06:51,800 it would have been up on the first floor. 107 00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:57,000 And you'd have been able to set fire to a set of wooden stairs leading up to it, 108 00:06:57,280 --> 00:06:58,640 if the worst happened. 109 00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:02,760 And that would leave your enemy, down here, kicking his heels. 110 00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:07,120 No one knows exactly who built The Keep. 111 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:11,200 One theory is that it was built by King David of Scotland, 112 00:07:11,320 --> 00:07:13,320 who for a time in the 1140's 113 00:07:13,400 --> 00:07:15,720 was granted control of the North of England, 114 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:18,120 and kept peace in this area. 115 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:21,760 Building a towering stone keep of this size 116 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:23,840 would have taken at least five years. 117 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:29,600 It's outer walls are almost 10 feet thick. It stands four stories tall. 118 00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:35,360 By the 1150's, the castle was back in the hands of the English Crown 119 00:07:35,680 --> 00:07:37,880 and began to appear in the records of the day. 120 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:41,320 But soon the castle was transformed. 121 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:45,960 This time by one of the worst rulers England ever produced, 122 00:07:46,440 --> 00:07:51,800 the infamous King John, whose suspicion and paranoia often saw his enemies 123 00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:56,240 tortured and starved to death in his castle's dreaded dungeons. 124 00:08:00,920 --> 00:08:04,800 JONES: Lancaster's stone castle was originally built by the Normans 125 00:08:04,880 --> 00:08:07,200 in the 11th century to keep peace in the north, 126 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:12,320 but a hundred years later, it underwent a major transformation. 127 00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:17,400 When the power hungry King John came to the throne in 1199, 128 00:08:17,720 --> 00:08:20,320 he set about enlarging the castle complex. 129 00:08:21,800 --> 00:08:26,800 King John is remembered as one of the most treacherous, untrustworthy, sadistic, 130 00:08:27,080 --> 00:08:31,160 incompetent, downright evil kings in all of British history. 131 00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:34,280 This is the monarch who was forced to grant Magna Carta, 132 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:37,480 the famous bill of rights when his barons rebelled. 133 00:08:37,560 --> 00:08:40,040 He's the bad guy from the Robin Hood stories. 134 00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:45,080 His reputation is quite frankly awful and guess what? 135 00:08:45,720 --> 00:08:46,920 It's all true. 136 00:08:48,520 --> 00:08:52,280 Being a suspicious tyrant, John had a great love for castles 137 00:08:52,880 --> 00:08:56,520 which he quite rightly thought he needed to protect himself 138 00:08:56,840 --> 00:08:58,720 from his subjects and from his enemies. 139 00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:04,280 Lancaster like many other castles in England benefited from his paranoia. 140 00:09:04,840 --> 00:09:10,240 Just two years after visiting here in 1206 John began to spend the equivalent 141 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:13,960 of a million pounds in strengthening the castle's defenses. 142 00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:20,760 John had a deep ditch dug on the south and west sides of the castle. 143 00:09:21,320 --> 00:09:25,000 He replaced the wooden fencing with a huge stone wall. 144 00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:27,840 He ordered the building of new fortifications 145 00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:29,960 and work began on Hadrian's Tower 146 00:09:30,040 --> 00:09:33,240 using some of the stone from the old Roman fort. 147 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:39,960 But even though John's castles were impressive, 148 00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:42,760 they weren't necessarily nice places to end up. 149 00:09:43,480 --> 00:09:46,720 Because as well as being reinforced to keep attackers out, 150 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:50,440 their interiors were used to hold the King's enemies. 151 00:09:50,960 --> 00:09:53,360 During John's rule, Lancaster Castle 152 00:09:53,440 --> 00:09:56,440 began to be associated with crime and punishment 153 00:09:56,560 --> 00:09:58,760 and the emphasis was on the punishment. 154 00:10:02,640 --> 00:10:06,000 John's treatment of his prisoners was notoriously cruel. 155 00:10:06,720 --> 00:10:09,920 In 1203, his teenage nephew Arthur of Brittany 156 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:13,200 disappeared while locked in one of John's castles. 157 00:10:13,800 --> 00:10:16,240 The rumor went around that John had got drunk one Easter, 158 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:21,400 bashed the kid's head in with a stone and thrown his body in a nearby river. 159 00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:28,240 Later John had the wife and son of one of his great barons 160 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:29,920 locked up in another castle. 161 00:10:30,560 --> 00:10:33,080 He ordered they were starved to death, and it was said 162 00:10:33,160 --> 00:10:35,840 they died, insane with hunger. 163 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:39,440 When the cell door was opened, they were huddled together, 164 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:43,200 the mother having tried to eat her son's face. 165 00:10:43,880 --> 00:10:46,480 If you ended up in one of John's dungeons, 166 00:10:46,920 --> 00:10:49,520 the chances were, you weren't coming out. 167 00:10:52,360 --> 00:10:55,040 JONES: The addition of the stone wall in the new tower, 168 00:10:55,160 --> 00:10:58,120 meant that when King John died in 1216 169 00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:03,080 he left behind a greatly extended castle, looked after by a Sheriff. 170 00:11:03,720 --> 00:11:06,280 The Sheriff was an official the Monarch could trust, 171 00:11:06,440 --> 00:11:07,960 and locals could fear, 172 00:11:08,480 --> 00:11:11,280 and with the job of Sheriff came a castle. 173 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:13,320 As the King's deputy, 174 00:11:13,920 --> 00:11:17,640 the Sheriff was responsible for collecting taxes, keeping the peace, 175 00:11:17,960 --> 00:11:19,520 and organizing the assizes. 176 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:23,720 The twice yearly court sessions where visiting Royal Judges, 177 00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:26,960 would come to town to hear serious criminal cases. 178 00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:29,280 These were big public events, 179 00:11:29,680 --> 00:11:31,080 so hosting the Assizes 180 00:11:31,240 --> 00:11:34,000 made Lancaster Castle a very important place, 181 00:11:34,600 --> 00:11:36,880 and it made the Sheriff, a very important man. 182 00:11:39,040 --> 00:11:42,320 JONES: In 1362, England's King Edward III, 183 00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:46,960 gave the position of Sheriff, and the title Duke of Lancaster, 184 00:11:47,040 --> 00:11:50,080 to one of his sons, John of Gaunt. 185 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:52,920 John of Gaunt wasn't directly in line for the throne, 186 00:11:53,400 --> 00:11:55,920 but he was a very rich and powerful man. 187 00:11:57,040 --> 00:12:00,800 Either by birth or by marriage, he inherited vast tracts of land 188 00:12:00,880 --> 00:12:02,680 between the rivers Ribbel and Mersey. 189 00:12:02,960 --> 00:12:04,680 It was called the Duchy of Lancaster, 190 00:12:05,280 --> 00:12:08,160 and it made him the wealthiest Lord in Medieval England. 191 00:12:09,040 --> 00:12:10,440 Now in 1377, 192 00:12:10,760 --> 00:12:13,200 when his nephew Richard II came to the throne, 193 00:12:13,640 --> 00:12:16,560 John of Gaunt persuaded him to turn the Sheriff's job, 194 00:12:16,880 --> 00:12:22,040 here at the castle, into a job for life, and to substantially increase its powers. 195 00:12:24,640 --> 00:12:28,160 JONES: Richard II was aware that John of Gaunt's power 196 00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:32,720 essentially made him king of Lancashire and a very real threat to the Crown. 197 00:12:33,880 --> 00:12:39,920 In 1399, John of Gaunt died leaving everything to his son, Henry Bolingbroke. 198 00:12:41,880 --> 00:12:45,800 Richard made a land grab seizing the estates, the castle, 199 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:47,720 and the Duchy of Lancaster. 200 00:12:48,400 --> 00:12:52,800 In response Bolingbroke raised an army gaining so much support 201 00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:56,560 that Richard was forced to surrender without a fight. 202 00:12:58,680 --> 00:13:02,040 By the end of the year, Richard II was in the Tower of London 203 00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:05,720 and Henry Bolingbroke was King Henry IV of England, 204 00:13:06,120 --> 00:13:10,400 and it was King Henry who built this magnificent gatehouse 205 00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:13,120 in memory of his father John of Gaunt. 206 00:13:13,200 --> 00:13:17,320 It's 66 feet high, about 25 feet deep, 207 00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:20,400 with these soaring semi octagonal towers 208 00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:24,520 and the great iron spiked gate called a portcullis, 209 00:13:24,600 --> 00:13:28,120 which in medieval times would be lowered in the event of an attack. 210 00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:33,320 It's got to be one of the most spectacular gatehouses in England. 211 00:13:33,680 --> 00:13:35,040 Ironically, Henry IV 212 00:13:35,280 --> 00:13:38,880 did exactly the thing he prevented Richard II from doing. 213 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:42,920 He brought the Duchy of Lancaster under the control of the Crown. 214 00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:46,520 That's where it remains, so here's your start of a ten. 215 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:49,560 Who is the current Duke of Lancaster? 216 00:13:50,480 --> 00:13:54,720 MAN: At the massive John of Gaunt's gates are the old Norman Castle which... 217 00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:56,360 JONES: Yes, it's the Queen. 218 00:13:56,440 --> 00:13:59,120 As Duke of Lancaster, Queen Elizabeth II 219 00:13:59,200 --> 00:14:04,160 controls more than 45,000 acres of land and holdings. 220 00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:07,480 The Duchy is worth about half a billion pounds 221 00:14:08,160 --> 00:14:10,640 with yearly revenues of around 60 million 222 00:14:11,200 --> 00:14:13,520 and it all dates back to the middle ages. 223 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:20,600 During the 14th and 15th centuries 224 00:14:20,680 --> 00:14:24,680 as a castle with a sheriff, a prison, and a court, 225 00:14:24,760 --> 00:14:28,480 Lancaster was increasingly used to enforce law and order. 226 00:14:29,480 --> 00:14:31,120 But here's the weird thing, 227 00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:34,400 for most of the Medieval period prison wasn't the punishment. 228 00:14:35,400 --> 00:14:38,080 You're only kept in prison to await your trial. 229 00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:43,320 And the form that trial took could be very unpleasant 230 00:14:43,400 --> 00:14:46,520 because it always wasn't a judge who decided your fate. 231 00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:51,480 It could be your God, through the notorious trial by ordeal. 232 00:14:51,640 --> 00:14:53,760 (DOORS CLOSING) 233 00:14:55,920 --> 00:14:59,200 Barrister and historian Dominic Selwood explains. 234 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:02,400 Trial by ordeal was the ultimate trial because effectively 235 00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:04,960 humans brought the case, but god decided the case. 236 00:15:05,560 --> 00:15:08,960 So, in a trial by ordeal, the accused person would take an oath. 237 00:15:09,160 --> 00:15:11,360 So now it's a very crucial part in the oath was 238 00:15:11,440 --> 00:15:12,480 "I swear I'm innocent." 239 00:15:12,920 --> 00:15:15,120 And it was done on holy books and on holy relics. 240 00:15:15,760 --> 00:15:19,160 So the ordeal itself whether it was carrying a piece of hot iron, 241 00:15:19,640 --> 00:15:21,960 putting a hand into a cauldron of boiling water 242 00:15:22,040 --> 00:15:24,880 to take out a hot iron ball, was God interfering 243 00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:27,880 in the physical world to say, yes, this person is telling the truth 244 00:15:28,280 --> 00:15:29,600 or no that person's perjured themselves. 245 00:15:30,120 --> 00:15:32,840 Tell us a little bit more about how a trial by ordeal would proceed. 246 00:15:34,120 --> 00:15:36,520 So if we take probably the best known which is a trial by iron, 247 00:15:37,040 --> 00:15:39,880 a space of nine of the accused person's feet would be measured out. 248 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:41,720 The iron would be heated up 249 00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:43,760 and depending on the seriousness of the crime, 250 00:15:43,840 --> 00:15:45,320 the iron would weigh different amounts. 251 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:49,120 They have to pick up the iron and run the nine feet 252 00:15:49,320 --> 00:15:52,280 which could be done in about two seconds, holding the iron and then drop it. 253 00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:56,280 His hands would then be bound up and then three days later 254 00:15:56,760 --> 00:15:58,000 the binding would then be taken off. 255 00:15:58,160 --> 00:16:01,440 If the skin was corrupted then he was guilty. 256 00:16:01,520 --> 00:16:02,760 If the skin wasn't, then he was innocent. 257 00:16:03,640 --> 00:16:06,040 JONES: Here in Lancaster during the Middle Ages, 258 00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:08,960 most punishments would have been carried out in public. 259 00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:12,400 From executions up on what was called Gallows Hill, 260 00:16:12,960 --> 00:16:16,400 to being pelted in a stocks with anything from rotten vegetables 261 00:16:16,480 --> 00:16:18,520 to dead cats and excrement. 262 00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:21,960 In an age where there was no such thing as police, 263 00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:25,280 punishment was about making sure that law and order 264 00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:27,200 was seen to be enforced. 265 00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:32,640 So, one of the most gruesome things I found at the castle is this, 266 00:16:32,960 --> 00:16:33,960 the branding iron. 267 00:16:34,480 --> 00:16:38,000 And here is how it works. This was used until the 19th century. 268 00:16:38,080 --> 00:16:43,000 Your hand would be clamped here then this the iron would be heated 269 00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:48,360 until it was red hot, taken out and used to imprint the letter M 270 00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:50,160 into the palm of your hand now. 271 00:16:50,240 --> 00:16:53,080 M stood for malefactor or evil doer. 272 00:16:53,520 --> 00:16:56,000 And as well as this being a very painful punishment, 273 00:16:56,360 --> 00:16:59,480 it was a visible sign that you had a criminal record. 274 00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:04,120 There was no escaping your past when it's burned into the palm of your hand. 275 00:17:06,080 --> 00:17:10,760 Castle historian, Colin Penny, has brought me to the bowels of Hadrian's Tower 276 00:17:10,840 --> 00:17:13,760 to show me some of the nastier tools of punishment 277 00:17:13,840 --> 00:17:15,800 from Lancaster's dark history. 278 00:17:15,880 --> 00:17:18,400 But these handcuffs are tiny like little children's handcuffs. 279 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:21,360 Children were put in prison from the age of nine, 280 00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:25,040 so they had to make handcuffs that would fit them and not fall off. 281 00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:29,320 JONES: This here strikes me as particularly ghastly. 282 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:31,200 Tell us a little bit about what we've got here. 283 00:17:31,720 --> 00:17:35,400 This is a skulls bridle and it was used to punish 284 00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:40,760 women who had been found guilty of crimes such as fighting in the streets, 285 00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:44,080 and this gives a fairly good idea of what it was like with this. 286 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:47,920 So you've got the bar here that went over the tongue. 287 00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:51,440 This closed around the head and there's a loop here 288 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:54,880 through which a chain would be passed and of course every time 289 00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:57,840 they pulled on this, the bar would move. 290 00:17:58,040 --> 00:18:00,760 Solid metal would break their teeth. They would sometimes break their jaw. 291 00:18:01,360 --> 00:18:05,760 Some versions had the spike coming out of the bar and every time that moved, 292 00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:07,160 it would split the tongue. 293 00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:11,040 (MUTTERING) 294 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:17,960 Yes, so now you are silenced. 295 00:18:18,040 --> 00:18:20,880 (MUTTERING) 296 00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:24,080 And if you imagine somebody pulling at the back here, 297 00:18:24,160 --> 00:18:25,400 your whole head would go hack. 298 00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:26,480 Oh! 299 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:30,200 I'm actually going to take it off because all joking aside, 300 00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:32,880 that's absolutely horrendous. 301 00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:36,240 JONES: I mean this is humiliating and painful to wear. 302 00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:40,000 It's designed to silence individuals, but it's also designed 303 00:18:40,080 --> 00:18:42,120 to silence political opinion, isn't it? 304 00:18:42,560 --> 00:18:43,960 Yes, and religious ones. 305 00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:49,280 JONES: Silencing dissent is a very large part of Lancaster Castle's history. 306 00:18:49,960 --> 00:18:53,640 Many of its most infamous inmates were people whose main offense 307 00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:56,360 was simply practicing the wrong religion. 308 00:18:57,040 --> 00:19:01,640 By the 16th and 17th centuries that usually meant being a Catholic. 309 00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:06,880 In 1534, Henry VIII made England a Protestant country 310 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:08,280 by setting up the Church of England. 311 00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:12,840 Those who remained Catholics were seen as enemies of the state. 312 00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:17,240 From the reign of Henry's daughter, Elizabeth I, onwards, 313 00:19:17,320 --> 00:19:19,560 anti Catholic feeling intensified, 314 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:23,840 peaking during the reign of Elizabeth's successor, James I. 315 00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:30,680 Between 1584 and 1646, 15 men were executed in Lancaster 316 00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:33,320 for refusing to renounce their Catholic faith. 317 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:38,680 England was a Protestant nation surrounded by powerful Catholic enemies, 318 00:19:39,120 --> 00:19:40,880 including France and Spain. 319 00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:44,560 The Gunpowder Plot had been carried out by Catholics, 320 00:19:44,840 --> 00:19:46,080 including Guy Fawkes, 321 00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:50,080 who planned to blow up King James I in the Houses of Parliament. 322 00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:55,000 So, England's Catholic population were regarded with great suspicion, 323 00:19:55,160 --> 00:19:58,480 potential allies of enemies trying to invade us. 324 00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:00,720 In this climate of fear, 325 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:03,760 being a Catholic priest was an act of treason, 326 00:20:04,120 --> 00:20:07,240 punishable by the worst death imaginable. 327 00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:14,680 One of the most tragic victims of England's growing anti-Catholic hysteria, 328 00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:18,080 was a priest called Edmund Arrowsmith. 329 00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:24,440 He was tried at Lancaster Castle in the summer of 1628. 330 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:31,240 Unfortunately for Arrowsmith, 331 00:20:31,680 --> 00:20:36,160 he was tried by the famously anti-Catholic judge, Sir Henry Yelverton. 332 00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:38,560 He didn't stand a chance. 333 00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:41,160 Yelverton found him guilty of high treason 334 00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:46,080 and sentenced him not only to death but to hanging, drawing and quartering, 335 00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:48,440 using the dreadful words. 336 00:20:49,320 --> 00:20:51,160 JONES: You shall there be hanged by the neck, 337 00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:52,600 till you be half dead, 338 00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:55,760 your members shall be cut off before your face, 339 00:20:56,200 --> 00:20:57,920 and thrown into the fire. 340 00:20:58,320 --> 00:21:00,920 Where likewise, your bowels shall be burned. 341 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:03,320 Your head shall be cut off, 342 00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:06,000 and set upon a stake or pole. 343 00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:10,160 And your quarters shall be set upon the four corners of the castle. 344 00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:13,560 And so the Lord have mercy upon you. 345 00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:18,560 Judge Yelverton then ordered that Arrowsmith was to be 346 00:21:18,640 --> 00:21:23,080 chained up in the castle's worst cell, to await his horrible death. 347 00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:30,240 But because many people in this area were still secretly Catholic, 348 00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:34,320 the authorities couldn't find anyone to carry out the execution, 349 00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:38,240 until eventually, another prisoner on a death sentence, 350 00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:40,760 agreed to do the ghastly deed, 351 00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:44,120 in return for his freedom and 40 shillings. 352 00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:47,600 Everyone has a price. 353 00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:51,680 Lancaster Castle was gaining a reputation for tough justice, 354 00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:53,720 and dreadful punishments. 355 00:21:54,080 --> 00:21:57,000 And enemies of the state could be lurking anywhere. 356 00:21:57,680 --> 00:21:59,800 But soon, Lancaster's greatest fear 357 00:21:59,880 --> 00:22:02,840 wouldn't be religious insurrection, or even rebellion. 358 00:22:03,280 --> 00:22:05,480 It would be something very different indeed. 359 00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:09,000 Witchcraft. 360 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:16,240 JONES: As a great British castle, Lancaster was designed for many things. 361 00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:18,440 Originally built for keeping people out, 362 00:22:19,280 --> 00:22:22,280 over time it came to specialize in locking people in. 363 00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:26,560 Lancaster Castle became the most notorious prison in Britain. 364 00:22:27,320 --> 00:22:29,520 Best known for the crimes heard in its courtrooms, 365 00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:33,000 and the grisly punishments handed down within its walls. 366 00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:34,480 (WHIP SNAPS, MAN SCREAMING) 367 00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:38,720 Being tried at Lancaster was never pleasant, 368 00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:40,680 and very often it was fatal. 369 00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:43,760 Over the years, hundreds of men and women 370 00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:46,040 left the castle to face the ultimate penalty, 371 00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:49,160 death. 372 00:22:49,600 --> 00:22:51,600 Until about 1800, 373 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:54,000 hangings happened on the other side of town, 374 00:22:54,120 --> 00:22:55,640 on what was called Gallows Hill. 375 00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:02,560 The condemned would leave the castle escorted by the Sheriff and his troops. 376 00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:08,040 A crowd would gather to watch the spectacle as they marched through town. 377 00:23:08,360 --> 00:23:09,960 And a tradition eventually developed, 378 00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:14,000 whereby he or she was allowed to stop in the Golden Lion Pub 379 00:23:15,120 --> 00:23:18,360 for a final drink before continuing on to their fate on the hill. 380 00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:32,520 They'd be wheeled up here from the castle on the back of a horse and cart 381 00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:34,320 as many as eight at a time, 382 00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:38,280 while thousands of excited spectators gathered to watch. 383 00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:43,240 When they got here, they'd see a permanent wooden structure known as a gibbet. 384 00:23:44,080 --> 00:23:46,760 A noose around their neck would be attached to the gibbet. 385 00:23:46,840 --> 00:23:48,920 Then the horse and cart would be driven away 386 00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:51,920 and they'd be left to slowly choke to death. 387 00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:57,200 There were more than 200 crimes which carried the death penalty 388 00:23:57,280 --> 00:23:58,720 until the 19th century. 389 00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:01,720 You could be hanged for stealing rabbits, 390 00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:04,440 being in the company of gypsies for one month, 391 00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:08,680 damaging Westminster Bridge, or impersonating a Chelsea pensioner. 392 00:24:09,160 --> 00:24:11,960 Which to be fair, probably didn't happen that much here in Lancashire. 393 00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:21,600 But there was one crime this area became really famous for, 394 00:24:22,120 --> 00:24:23,120 witchcraft. 395 00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:28,760 In the 17th century, Britain was gripped by a national terror of witches. 396 00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:32,840 Lancaster Castle was at the center of the biggest 397 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:36,640 and most notorious series of witch trials in British history. 398 00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:40,240 This is Pendle Hill. 399 00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:45,720 In the 17th century, it was a forested area with poor roads and remote villages. 400 00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:48,880 A place full of superstition and mistrust. 401 00:24:49,120 --> 00:24:52,160 Home to people who scraped out a measly living 402 00:24:52,280 --> 00:24:54,000 on the fringes of society. 403 00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:59,240 And a chance encounter on a road here in March 1612 404 00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:02,560 led to the biggest witch trial in English history 405 00:25:02,840 --> 00:25:04,640 and the hanging of 10 people. 406 00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:08,760 So here's the story. 407 00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:11,440 There's this young girl called Alison Device 408 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:15,760 and her granny is known locally as a healer, or a cunning woman. 409 00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:19,560 Now one day, young Alison is out begging by the side of the road 410 00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:23,440 and she meets a traveling salesman but he won't give her the time of day. 411 00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:28,360 So Alison curses him under her breath. 412 00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:30,640 Later on the salesman collapses. 413 00:25:31,120 --> 00:25:32,640 It was probably some kind of a stroke 414 00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:35,520 but he blames Alison, and he calls her a witch. 415 00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:42,640 Later, the salesman's son marches Alison, the so called witch, 416 00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:45,720 straight to an ambitious, and very eager local magistrate. 417 00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:52,440 But as soon as Alison is accused of being a witch, what does she do? 418 00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:57,800 She rats on her grandmother and her mother and her brother and her sister 419 00:25:58,360 --> 00:26:00,080 and her neighbors, the Chattox family. 420 00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:02,880 If she's going down as a witch, then so are they. 421 00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:05,440 This starts escalating. 422 00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:09,760 Pretty soon any death or unexplained occurrence in the area 423 00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:11,880 is being linked to these two families. 424 00:26:12,560 --> 00:26:15,520 This is turning quite literally into a witch hunt. 425 00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:22,520 This was the start of what became known as the Pendle or Lancashire Witch Trials, 426 00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:24,760 that were held in the castle in 1612. 427 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:28,400 Although the belief in witches was ancient, 428 00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:31,920 in England the fear of witchcraft was nearing its peak 429 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:34,040 in the first half of the 17th century. 430 00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:39,280 Henry VIII had passed the first law that made witchcraft a specific crime. 431 00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:45,320 But when James I became King of England in 1603, he really upped the ante. 432 00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:50,120 James believed his enemies were using witchcraft to plot against him. 433 00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:55,560 And he became so obsessed that he authored a book on the subject called Daemonologie 434 00:26:56,120 --> 00:27:00,200 and created a new law which made witchcraft punishable by death. 435 00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:07,240 Crimes included making a covenant with an evil spirit, using a corpse for magic, 436 00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:13,440 hurting life or limb, procuring love or injuring cattle by means of charms. 437 00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:20,240 Ronald Hutton is one of Britain's foremost experts in witchcraft 438 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:21,760 and its folklore. 439 00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:25,760 JONES: Right, what is it about Pendle that produced witches. 440 00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:29,360 Pendle around 1600 is a forest area 441 00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:32,040 which means that people can squat here without being evicted. 442 00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:37,040 It's rough, the people who live here are often semi-criminal. 443 00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:42,680 They make a living by thieving, by offering magic as cunning craft. 444 00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:45,840 When we talk about witches, what do we really mean? 445 00:27:46,720 --> 00:27:49,640 A witch in this period is somebody who uses magic 446 00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:51,400 to try and hurt somebody else. 447 00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:55,320 Now what am I gonna do if a witch has put a spell on me? 448 00:27:55,680 --> 00:27:59,400 I have the hot new state of the art response from the early 17th century. 449 00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:04,800 Really easy. We need from you some of your urine about half way up, 450 00:28:05,360 --> 00:28:08,880 some of your nail clippings, clippings of your hair. 451 00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:12,600 And what we then do if we're in a hurry, we roast it over a fire. 452 00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:17,200 And as your water boils, the curse is turned back on the witch. 453 00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:22,480 JONES: The trial of the Pendle witches was to take place of course 454 00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:24,200 in Lancaster Castle. 455 00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:28,680 One of the reasons the trial became so notorious is that the clerk 456 00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:32,280 of the court, Thomas Potts, published an account, 457 00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:36,120 The Wonderful Discovery of Witches in the County of Lancaster. 458 00:28:36,560 --> 00:28:37,640 Now among the defendants, 459 00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:41,400 you have three generations of witches on trial. 460 00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:43,400 You've got Alison, the original young girl 461 00:28:43,560 --> 00:28:45,760 who is supposedly cursed, the traveling salesman, 462 00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:48,680 and her brother, James, you have their mother, Elizabeth, 463 00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:50,640 and the grandmother, Demdike. 464 00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:53,040 Now, the real star of the Pendle Witch Trials 465 00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:57,440 was another sibling, Alison's nine year old sister, Jennet. 466 00:28:57,520 --> 00:29:01,000 And this book describes her as "This young wench." 467 00:29:01,320 --> 00:29:02,720 Can you tell me a little bit about Jennet? 468 00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:07,800 Jennet is clearly a badly disturbed child from a severely dysfunctional family. 469 00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:11,680 And what happened in this court was her star moments. 470 00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:14,800 She agrees to accuse her entire family of witchcraft. 471 00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:18,120 She's so little she has to be put on a table in the courtroom 472 00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:19,680 for people to see and hear her. 473 00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:23,960 Once she starts her mother realizes that her daughter is sentencing 474 00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:26,600 herself, the mother, to death and begins screaming. 475 00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:32,000 Jennet proceeds to accuse the whole family of dealing with demons 476 00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:35,800 and then implicates their friends in the same practices. 477 00:29:36,520 --> 00:29:40,040 James, the King, had already written in his book on witchcraft 478 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:43,600 that the testimony of children should be accepted 479 00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:46,720 because witchcraft is such a difficult crime to prove. 480 00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:51,920 So this nine year old girl is the deciding bit of evidence 481 00:29:52,120 --> 00:29:56,440 that sentences not just her family, but their friends to death. 482 00:29:57,360 --> 00:30:00,080 JONES: One of the accused witches was found not guilty. 483 00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:02,360 Another died while awaiting trial. 484 00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:05,960 The remaining 10, including Alison Device, 485 00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:09,320 were found guilty and sentenced to be executed by hanging. 486 00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:12,760 This is the dungeon in the basement of the Well Tower 487 00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:15,360 where the witches were kept waiting for their trial, 488 00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:18,920 and eventual execution. It must have been horrendous. 489 00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:23,480 Damp, it's dank, there's no natural light down here at all. 490 00:30:24,040 --> 00:30:28,400 In fact, conditions were so brutal that Alison Device's granny, 491 00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:32,880 the witch known as old Demdike, died down here waiting for her trial. 492 00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:36,640 (CHURCH BELLS CHIMING) 493 00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:41,480 JONES: On the 20th of August 1612, 494 00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:45,240 the witches were brought along the time honored route across town. 495 00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:48,440 It is said they stopped for their final drink 496 00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:50,000 in the Golden Lion Pub 497 00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:55,080 before being hanged in front of a large jeering crowd on Gallows Hill. 498 00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:07,160 You can understand why Lancaster was starting to earn its nickname 499 00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:08,520 of "The Hanging Town." 500 00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:11,960 But it wasn't because the Sheriff was particularly cruel 501 00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:15,760 or because the town's people were especially fond of killing each other 502 00:31:15,840 --> 00:31:17,240 or casting magic spells. 503 00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:22,000 It was because Lancaster Castle was the only place in Lancashire 504 00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:26,880 to host the assizes, the twice yearly court session when judges arrived 505 00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:30,160 to hold trials for everything from murder through to sheep stealing. 506 00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:35,440 And when they arrived, Lancaster wasn't just the hanging town, 507 00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:37,120 it was a boom town. 508 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:43,200 JONES: The court at the castle was of huge importance to the town 509 00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:46,160 as the influx of judges, lawyers and clerks 510 00:31:46,400 --> 00:31:49,880 brought in lots of money to the local inn keepers and merchants. 511 00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:55,280 At 17th century Lancaster, crime really did pay. 512 00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:00,680 The judges and the lawyers lived the high life. 513 00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:05,640 Lancaster's privileged legal physician encouraged the building of some 514 00:32:05,720 --> 00:32:10,360 magnificent Georgian properties, which still stand here on Castle Hill. 515 00:32:11,280 --> 00:32:13,880 This house was the residence of Thomas Covell, 516 00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:18,760 the keeper of Lancaster Castle during the 17th century witch trial. 517 00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:23,720 Later, in the 18th Century, it became an impressive residence, 518 00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:27,760 for judges visiting Lancaster Castle, to sit at the Assize Courts. 519 00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:31,680 And by the 18th Century something else was starting up, 520 00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:33,800 that would further increase the town's fortunes. 521 00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:36,560 The Industrial Revolution. 522 00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:42,600 Lancaster was at the epicenter of this major economic and social upheaval. 523 00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:45,840 And what was good for Lancaster would be good for its castle. 524 00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:51,200 Lancashire was really the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. 525 00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:53,640 Over the course of 100 years, 526 00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:57,160 the growth of cotton mills and heavy manufacturing 527 00:32:57,240 --> 00:32:59,560 led to an explosion in population, 528 00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:04,160 particularly in newly thriving cities like Liverpool and Manchester. 529 00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:07,920 Across Britain and Ireland, tens of thousands of people 530 00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:11,800 were leaving the land, and flocking to the Industrial North. 531 00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:15,640 And more people meant more crime. 532 00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:17,880 More theft, more violence. 533 00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:21,120 A new generation of dissenters and non-conformists. 534 00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:25,040 Luddites, chartists, early trades union agitators. 535 00:33:25,840 --> 00:33:28,000 And wherever these people were apprehended, 536 00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:30,640 even as far away as Liverpool and Manchester, 537 00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:33,400 where were they brought to be tried and imprisoned? 538 00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:39,280 Lancaster Castle. 539 00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:43,200 For the castle, the Industrial Revolution was good for business. 540 00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:46,560 With its cells filled to bursting, 541 00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:50,440 the coming century would see the castle extensively rebuilt. 542 00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:53,720 And a new form of punishment was about to be dispensed. 543 00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:55,400 Transportation. 544 00:33:57,480 --> 00:34:01,440 Lancaster Castle has a grisly history of crime and punishment 545 00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:03,200 going back over 800 years. 546 00:34:04,600 --> 00:34:08,800 By the 18th Century it was doing more business than ever before, 547 00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:12,320 as the growing population was accompanied by surging crime rates. 548 00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:17,120 For those awaiting their fate inside the castle 549 00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:20,120 the conditions were unimaginably squalid, 550 00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:22,920 and had changed little from Medieval times. 551 00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:25,520 There was little or no sanitation, 552 00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:29,520 and men, women and even children were crammed in together, 553 00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:31,400 along with the mentally ill. 554 00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:34,960 The overcrowding and the filth were so bad, 555 00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:37,360 they led to several outbreaks of disease, 556 00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:40,960 probably typhus, which was known as jail fever. 557 00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:44,840 One outbreak in 1783 was so bad, 558 00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:47,040 that as well as prisoners falling sick, 559 00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:50,640 the Governor himself, and several of his staff died. 560 00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:53,880 But pressure for change was slowly growing. 561 00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:58,240 In 1777, a prison reformer called John Howard 562 00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:01,440 had published a book called The State of the Prison. 563 00:35:02,160 --> 00:35:05,920 Howard had visited hundreds of prisons, including Lancaster, 564 00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:10,680 and his damning report led to new laws about how prisons should be run. 565 00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:15,120 Soon prisons had to provide male and female segregation, 566 00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:17,880 better sanitation and ventilation, 567 00:35:18,720 --> 00:35:21,080 and more communal spaces for exercise. 568 00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:24,600 Much of Lancaster Castle had to be redesigned 569 00:35:25,040 --> 00:35:26,520 to meet the new requirements. 570 00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:31,080 In 1796, the old Medieval Hall of the Castle was demolished, 571 00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:34,600 to make way for a new Crown Court and this Shire Hall. 572 00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:37,200 They were both the work of the architect Thomas Harrison. 573 00:35:38,720 --> 00:35:42,440 This fabulous 10 sided room with its vaulted ceiling, 574 00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:43,720 gothic columns and arches, 575 00:35:44,440 --> 00:35:47,320 became the venue for civil, non-criminal cases, 576 00:35:47,400 --> 00:35:49,160 like bankruptcy and divorce. 577 00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:53,720 But not all the money was spent on comforts for the judges and barristers. 578 00:35:57,040 --> 00:36:00,960 This women's prison was built inside the castle in 1821, 579 00:36:01,280 --> 00:36:05,920 and in its own austere way, I think it's grimly spectacular. 580 00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:11,040 This new female penitentiary was built according to the latest, 581 00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:14,240 labor saving design, the panopticon principle. 582 00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:17,600 With cells radiating out from a central hub, 583 00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:21,400 so the guards could watch all the inmates at the same time 584 00:36:21,840 --> 00:36:25,360 without necessarily knowing that they were being watched. 585 00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:29,880 This was also fairly luxurious. 586 00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:33,000 For the first time prisoners had their own cells, 587 00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:36,440 which is something that many in Britain's overcrowded jails 588 00:36:36,920 --> 00:36:38,120 don't even have today. 589 00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:42,720 In a Victorian age of innovation and invention 590 00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:45,800 even the ancient practice of hanging was made more efficient. 591 00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:50,640 And this resulted in a new venue for the executions at Lancaster Castle. 592 00:36:51,160 --> 00:36:54,880 After 1800, hangings were moved from Gallows Hill 593 00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:57,240 to this spot around the back of the castle. 594 00:36:57,960 --> 00:37:02,480 Although still in front of jeering crowds who would gather to watch the awful show. 595 00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:08,840 Soon, more Britons were being executed here in the renowned hanging town, 596 00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:10,880 than anywhere else outside London. 597 00:37:12,680 --> 00:37:16,960 This is now the Crown's Court jury room, but it was the drop room, 598 00:37:17,360 --> 00:37:20,280 where the condemned waited before they were taken out to die. 599 00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:23,400 The doors opened out onto the gallows, 600 00:37:24,240 --> 00:37:26,800 the condemned walked out, and dropped. 601 00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:32,440 Literally thousands of people would have gathered here, 602 00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:34,000 in the grounds of the priory, 603 00:37:34,400 --> 00:37:36,800 to witness this most public of ends. 604 00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:42,160 Until 1853, the method of hanging used, was called the short drop, 605 00:37:42,360 --> 00:37:45,320 a horrible way to die of slow strangulation. 606 00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:50,520 This was later replaced by the relatively more humane long drop, 607 00:37:50,920 --> 00:37:53,400 in which the victim fell much further, 608 00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:57,000 the neck was snapped and death was instantaneous. 609 00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:00,440 But radical change was in the air. 610 00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:03,200 In the 18th and 19th centuries, 611 00:38:03,840 --> 00:38:06,520 courts across England, including Lancaster, 612 00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:10,400 began offering an alternative punishment for some hanging offenses. 613 00:38:11,240 --> 00:38:13,320 Transportation, as it was called, 614 00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:17,240 was forced banishment to an overseas penal colony, 615 00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:19,560 by far the largest of which was Australia. 616 00:38:21,240 --> 00:38:23,280 Sentences ranged from seven years to life. 617 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:27,960 Between 1788 and 1868, 618 00:38:28,240 --> 00:38:31,960 160,000 people were transported to Australia. 619 00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:36,040 Men, women and children, sometimes as young as nine, 620 00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:42,320 Lancaster Castle still has records for many of those it dispatched, 621 00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:44,120 halfway around the globe. 622 00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:48,080 But I'm particularly fascinated by the story of two young brothers. 623 00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:51,080 James and Leonard Cheatham, 624 00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:54,840 sentenced to death in 1817, for stealing sheep. 625 00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:58,680 Now, stealing sheep might not sound like a serious offense, 626 00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:01,600 but these sheep were worth more than 40 shillings, 627 00:39:02,120 --> 00:39:05,080 which made it grand larceny, a hanging offense. 628 00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:08,800 However, the judge sitting here, in the castle, 629 00:39:09,320 --> 00:39:11,280 commuted their sentence to transportation. 630 00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:18,040 The brothers were sent to Sydney to become convict servants, 631 00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:20,800 but they served their time, were given their freedom, 632 00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:24,920 both married convict women, who'd also been transported. 633 00:39:26,480 --> 00:39:27,640 How do I know all this? 634 00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:31,480 Because their Australian descendant, Wendy Robinson, told me so. 635 00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:35,400 Or to be more precise, Crown Prosecutor Wendy Robinson. 636 00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:41,000 Incredibly, one of Australia's most successful criminal lawyers, 637 00:39:41,240 --> 00:39:43,360 is descended from two sheep stealers, 638 00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:47,160 sentenced in this castle, and in this very courtroom. 639 00:39:48,200 --> 00:39:49,880 JONES: Tell me what this document is, Wendy? 640 00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:52,400 ROBINSON: It's the indictment, upon which they were tried, 641 00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:54,280 or the original would have been handed up, 642 00:39:54,720 --> 00:39:57,840 and read out in this court at the commencement of their trial. 643 00:39:58,560 --> 00:40:01,040 Down at the bottom here it says, "Leonard Cheatham, James Cheatham, 644 00:40:01,480 --> 00:40:03,880 "they are to be severally hanged, by the neck, 645 00:40:04,200 --> 00:40:05,520 "until they be dead." 646 00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:09,760 Well, on the following Wednesday, the judge wrote a recommendation 647 00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:12,800 to the region in counsel, for their death sentences to be commuted, 648 00:40:13,400 --> 00:40:15,600 they were separately loaded onto different boats, 649 00:40:16,120 --> 00:40:20,680 and sent to the colony of New South Wales, both of them arriving there in 1818. 650 00:40:21,680 --> 00:40:25,240 How long were they sentenced to be in Australia for? 651 00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:27,080 -Life. -For life. 652 00:40:27,200 --> 00:40:28,680 -So they never came back to England? -No. 653 00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:30,880 What did they do? 654 00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:34,640 They worked as convict servants, eventually getting their ticket of leave. 655 00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:37,160 And then, some years later, 656 00:40:37,520 --> 00:40:39,840 they moved right out further, 657 00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:43,440 as the colony had expanded, they gained on to the front phase and beyond 658 00:40:44,080 --> 00:40:48,320 the known boundaries of the colony and there they raised sheep 659 00:40:48,880 --> 00:40:53,800 and they raised lots and lots of sheep and they became famous for their wool. 660 00:40:57,280 --> 00:41:03,640 What do you think about this courtroom and its importance in Australian history? 661 00:41:03,720 --> 00:41:09,760 This is probably the most important courtroom in Australian history 662 00:41:09,840 --> 00:41:13,960 so far as the numbers of people who were processed 663 00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:16,200 through this assize, from that dock. 664 00:41:17,600 --> 00:41:21,200 And a very large proportion of the New South Wales population 665 00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:25,080 to this day are descendants from convicts who came through this room. 666 00:41:25,880 --> 00:41:27,480 JONES: Through this very room, in this very castle. 667 00:41:29,720 --> 00:41:31,240 What are you thinking when you look out at this court? 668 00:41:31,480 --> 00:41:34,640 I think it's truly remarkable that it's still here and I can be here. 669 00:41:39,720 --> 00:41:42,680 JONES: Many lives were destroyed here at Lancaster Castle. 670 00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:46,360 But it seems to me it's also being the starting point 671 00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:48,240 for countless new stories. 672 00:41:48,960 --> 00:41:52,080 The last execution took place in 1910, 673 00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:55,440 not in public, but in a purpose built private shed. 674 00:41:56,400 --> 00:42:01,600 The prison closed six years later but was then reopened for category C offenders, 675 00:42:02,040 --> 00:42:03,400 low security risk. 676 00:42:06,240 --> 00:42:09,880 And in 2011, after eight centuries of locking people up, 677 00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:13,800 Lancaster Prison finally closed its doors for good. 678 00:42:14,560 --> 00:42:16,960 And then opened them, to the public. 679 00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:21,560 But the Crown Court still operates here, 680 00:42:21,800 --> 00:42:25,800 so the castle is still fulfilling one of its original purposes, 681 00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:30,360 maintaining the rule of law in the mighty Duchy of Lancaster. 682 00:42:32,400 --> 00:42:36,920 And thats why there has been a prison here for the best part of 850 years, 683 00:42:37,440 --> 00:42:40,280 because as long as you've got crime, you need punishment. 684 00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:43,880 And Lancaster Castle is very good at punishment. 685 00:42:46,240 --> 00:42:48,680 Okay, guys, you can let me out now. 686 00:42:49,520 --> 00:42:50,880 JONES: Guys?