THE PRISON AND ITS ESTABLISHMENT
It is no flattery to a prisoner to gild his dungeon.
CALDERON, _Fortunas de Andromed et Persus_.
THE following description of the Depot is founded on personal
observations of the site, on contemporary plans and records, of greater
or less accuracy, on the meagre information which could be obtained from
the few old people who had in their early days seen and known the place,
and who were still alive in 1894, when the materials for the lecture on
which this narrative is based were collected, and on facts recorded by
recent writers the accuracy of which can be verified.
The site of the Depot was a space of forty-two acres, situated in the
angle formed where, seventy-six miles from London, “the Great North Road”
is joined, five miles from Peterborough by the old Coach Road from Boston
and East Lincolnshire.
The ground rises here, by a rapid slope from the south and east, to a
height of 120 feet above the level of the adjoining Fens, and it was in
this elevated and healthy spot that the prison and barracks were built.
It had been ascertained that by sinking deep wells an abundant supply of
good water could be obtained, and it is said that there were about thirty
such wells, although in the best extant plan of the Depot nineteen only
are shown. Some of these are still in use at the present day, and each
well is nearly 100 feet deep. Great attention was paid to the sanitary
arrangements, a very necessary matter, when one considers that it was
resolved suddenly to concentrate in one spot a population (including
prisoners and garrison) of nearly 8,000 adult males, who were to live for
several years on about forty acres of ground. There is a legend that the
site is even now honeycombed with sewers, and that within recent years a
ferret turned into one of them, which had been accidentally opened, at
once took out 150 yards of line. This, like many other traditions, is
not, I believe, founded on fact. The main feature of the sanitary
arrangements was that all refuse should be removed in soil carts, without
the intervention of drains, cess-pools, or middens. For further
information on this and many other matters connected with the structure
of the Depot, the reader may study the _Report of a Survey_ by Mr.
Fearnall in 1813. It is evident from this report that the maintenance
and repair of the buildings had been greatly neglected during the
seventeen years which had elapsed between their erection and the date of
the report. {18}
The Peterborough Natural History Society, which has in its museum the
finest collection in Great Britain, if not in the world, of straw
marquetry work, bone carving, and other artistic manufactures executed by
the French prisoners, possesses three plans of the prison. The earliest
of these is a pictorial plan (Plate II., Fig. 1, Plan A), which was
bought at a sale at Washingley Hall, and which I therefore call the
Washingley Plan. It was presented in 1906 by the Mayor, T. Lamplugh,
Esq.; it is an east elevation. Another (Plate II., Fig. 2, Plan B) of
about the same date is a ground plan, and was presented by Miss Hill, the
daughter of the late Mr. John Hill. This is taken from the west. Mr.
Hill, who was born in 1803, and was thus only thirteen when the prison
was demolished, was said to have drawn the plan himself; if he did so, it
must have been copied from one made a few years before he was born, as
the plan is that of the Depot in the first period of the war, which came
to a close in March 1802.
[Picture: Plan A.—The Washingley Plan of the Depot, 1797 to 1803. East
Elevation]
* * * * *
[Picture: Plan B.—Mr. Hill’s Plan of the Depot, 1797 to 1803. West
Elevation]
* * * * *
[Picture: Plan C.—Major Kelly’s Plan of the Depot, 1800 to 1805. (a)
North Elevation. (b) Ground Plan. (c) Pictorial Plan from the East]
* * * * *
[Picture: Plan D.—Bird’s-eye View of Norman Cross Barracks and Prison,
East Elevation. Executed by Lieutenant E. Macgregor, 1813]
* * * * *
Both these plans are of a very early date in the history of the prison.
A third (Plate II., Fig. 3, Plan C) is that which belonged to Major
Kelly, who, as Captain Kelly, was Brigade-Major at the time when the
prison was closed; this includes a pictorial plan, or bird’s-eye view,
with the Peterborough Road on the south to the left hand and the North
Road above, a ground plan, and above this the north elevation of the
whole group of buildings. It is of later date, probably about 1803–4,
the commencement of the second period of the war. A fourth plan (Plate
II., Fig. 4, Plan D) was made by Lieut. Macgregor of the West Kent
Militia, and dedicated to the officers of his regiment which was
quartered at Norman Cross in 1813. This was engraved and published by
Sylvester of the Strand. An almost perfect copy of the print is in the
possession of the Reverend Father Robert A. Davis; it shows the Depot in
its final state two years before Waterloo and three years before it was
demolished.
In the Musée de l’Armée at the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris, is a model
of the Depot, the work of a French prisoner named Foulley, who was
confined at Norman Cross five years and three months. M. Foulley
constructed the model after his return to France. It represents the
prison as it appeared on the occasion of the rejoicings at the departure
of the first detachment of prisoners to France after the entry of the
allied armies into Paris, and the abdication of Buonaparte in 1814. By
the courtesy of General Niox, the Director of the Museum, and of his
Adjutant, Lieut. Sculfort, a photograph of the model has been taken for
me; this is reproduced at page 251, chapter xii., where the final
clearing of the prison is described. The model corresponds in its main
features with the plans which I have enumerated. It is on a large scale,
beautifully executed, and its production must have required months of
hard work. It is the only plan, or model, which shows a prisoners’
theatre in the centre of the south-east quadrangle.
M. Foulley’s model is incorrect in certain details. It represents the
prison wall as quadrilateral inclosing a square, instead of an octagonal
space. It omits the large and deep embrasures, in the recesses of which
each of the four gates of the prison stood. The wide fosse which
encircled the prison at the foot of and within the wall is omitted, nor
is there a sufficient space left between the wall and the prison
buildings to admit of such a fosse being shown in the model.
Outside the wall of the prison M. Foulley had to rely probably on the
description of others, as from within the wall the prisoners could only
gaze at its dismal brick surface. Of what was beyond he could have no
personal knowledge during the long years of his captivity, unless he was
fortunate enough on occasions to be a delegate to the market without the
Eastern Gate. Hence probably it arises that the buildings representing
the quarters of the military guarding the prison are huddled together, in
confused order, which bears no relation to that which was their actual
position.
Although the model is not, as a whole, made accurately to scale, the
reader will appreciate its size from the fact that the caserns are
modelled on a scale of about 1 to 171—the actual length of each casern
was 100 feet, the length in the model is nearly 7 inches. A key plan of
the model and M. Foulley’s description are given with the photograph in
chapter xii., p. 251.
To avoid confusion in following the description, the reader must bear in
mind that the Washingley Pictorial Plan, Major Kelly’s plans, and Lieut.
Macgregor’s plan are all east elevations—that is, the observer is
supposed to face the west, with the Peterborough Road to his left
hand—whereas in the plan copied by Mr. Hill the figures and their
references are all placed to be read as the observer looks east, with the
Peterborough Road on his right hand; therefore the left-hand bottom
corner (where the military hospital was situated) in Mr. Hill’s Plan is
the right-hand upper corner in the three other plans.
The site was a right-angled oblong, with a small space sliced off at the
north-west angle. It measured in its long diameter from east to west 500
yards (1,500 feet)—that is, 60 yards more than a quarter of a mile—while
across from north to south it was 412 yards (1,236 feet), or 28 yards
short of a quarter of a mile. The space enclosed was 42 acres, 7 poles,
which is about six times the area of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, and
about four times that of Trafalgar Square. To the south it was bounded
in its whole length by the Peterborough Road, on its other three sides it
was surrounded with fields. A strip of land (B B in Mr. Hill’s plan),
crossed by a wide roadway leading to the West Barracks, and varying in
depth from 125 yards at the Norman Cross corner to 40 yards at the
north-west corner, intervened between the western boundary of the site
and the North Road. The prison itself occupied 22 acres in the centre of
the space. It was enclosed by an octagonal brick wall. Originally the
structure was a strong stockade fence, but about the year 1805 the fence
was replaced by the brick wall, of which 30 yards are still standing.
The two east and two west sides of the octagonal space, which was the
prison proper, were longer than the two north and two south sides; the
long diameter of the octagon therefore ran across that of the site,
extending almost to its north and south limits, while the short diameter
stopping short of the boundary by 300 feet, left, east and west, ample
room for the barracks of the military garrison and for other buildings.
In the very centre of the site, which is also the centre of the prison,
was an octagonal block house, mounted with cannon. This is represented
in the illustration, a photograph of one of several models made by the
prisoners. This model is in the possession of Colonel Strong of Thorpe
Hall, by whose grandfather Archdeacon Strong it was bought from its maker
at the prison.
[Picture: Plate III.—The Block House which stood in the Centre of the
Prison]
The frontispiece is from a sketch of the centre of the prison, by Captain
George Lloyd of the Second West York Militia, taken in 1809. The
original is in the collection of the United Service Institution,
Whitehall; it shows the accuracy of the model of the block house. In
describing the various courts and buildings, it is best to start from the
centre, and to trace the arrangement of the parts of the Depot round this
point. Symmetrically arranged round this block house, and commanded by
its guns, were four quadrangular courts, each strongly fenced by a high
stockade fence. The area of each of these courts was about 3½ acres;
they were separated from one another by four cross roads, each about
twenty feet wide. These roads met in the centre, where the corners of
the quadrangular courts were cut off to form the octagonal open space in
which stood the block house.
Each quadrangle contained four wooden two-storied barracks, or caserns,
100 feet long and 22 feet wide, roofed with red tiles, the shallowness of
their depth from back to front adding to their apparent height. The
sixteen buildings faced the east, eight with their outer ends to the
south fence, and eight with their outer end to the north fence. The four
caserns in each square were placed one behind the other, leaving between
each block and the next in front a space which was strongly fenced off at
either end, forming an enclosure about 100 by 70 feet, in which the
prisoners of each casern were confined when the gates opening into the
quadrangle, or airing-ground, were locked at sunset. Each casern was
constructed to form the dwelling-place of about 500 prisoners, who slept
in rows of hammocks, closely packed in tiers one above the other. It is
almost certain that each of the two floors in these caserns was divided
by partitions into three chambers, as at the sale each of the sixteen was
sold in three lots—the north end, the centre, and the south end. The
north end of the hinder block in the north-east quadrangle was bought on
the 25th September 1816 by Mr. Dan Ruddle for £32. {23a} He re-erected
it for workshops in his building-yard, where it still stands, and it is
thus possible to-day, to look upon the north end of the casern (No. 13,
or letter M), which stood behind the three blocks adapted for the
prisoners’ hospital, and which in the second period of the war {23b} was
occupied by the French petty officers and by civilians who were captured,
and whose position did not entitle them to parole.
In the south-east quadrangle, which was on the right of the central south
entrance to the prison from the Peterborough Road, there were, in
addition to these four caserns and their necessary offices, the
superintendent’s, or agent’s offices, a storehouse, a room set apart for
the clerks and other officials, a cooking-house, and, as in each of the
other quadrangles, two turnkeys’ lodges.
These smaller buildings in each quadrangle were in a court, cut off from
the large space which formed the prisoners’ airing-ground by stockade
fencing similar to that surrounding the whole quadrangle, the turnkeys’
lodges being immediately behind this fence. The only exit from the part
of the quadrangle occupied by the prisoners was through this court, the
gate situated in the inner stockade fence being between the two turnkeys’
lodges, facing another in the main fence of the square, which opened into
the road between the quadrangles. There were in each quadrangle three
wells, two in the airing-courts near the caserns, and one in the enclosed
space in which were the accessory buildings.
In the south-western quadrangle, in addition to the caserns, the
storehouse, and the cooking-house, there was a straw barn, from which,
whenever necessary, fresh straw was served out for the prisoners’
palliasses. In the enclosed court near the turnkeys’ lodges was the
black hole, where prisoners were confined for gross offences. This den
of misery contained twelve cells, each secured by bars and padlocks, and
had a cramped strongly fenced airing-court in front of it.
[Picture: Plate IV.—The Outer Side of the Wall]
The north-eastern quadrangle was mainly given up to the hospital. Of the
four caserns in the early years of the Depot, two, but later three, were
fitted up for the reception of the sick and wounded and for the
accommodation of the surgeon and assistant surgeons, the matron
sempstress and the hospital attendants. Of the hospital blocks, one was
set apart for the officers and other prisoners of similar social status.
In the enclosed court behind the turnkeys’ lodges were the special
accessory buildings of the hospital, and in the corner behind the caserns
was the mortuary, where, between their death and their burial, were laid
the bodies of 1,770 unhappy men whose fate it was to end their captivity
in a foreign grave.
In this quadrangle, as shown in Lieut. Macgregor’s plan, was, in the year
1805, erected the surgeon’s house, which was a substantial brick
building, with an enclosed garden; this was built in the second period of
the war after the Peace of Amiens, about eleven years before the
demolition of the barracks. After the closing of the Depot, when peace
was declared in 1814, we find Mr. George Walker the surgeon, on vacating
his post, making application for permission to remove the young fruit
trees which he had planted in the apparently newly laid-out garden. {24}
In each quadrangle a space of about two acres was unoccupied by
buildings, and constituted the airing-ground, in which the prisoners
spent the greater part of their waking lives. This outdoor life, from
sunrise to sunset, except in bad weather, was enforced by the Prison
Regulations.
These airing-courts were bordered by a flag pavement, which enabled the
prisoners to use them in any but the worst weather.
Completely surrounding the four quadrangles, and enclosing around them a
vacant space, varying in width from 25 to 30 yards opposite the cross
roads, to as many feet at the abutting angles of each quadrangle, was the
prison wall. This in the earlier years was a strong stockade fence, and
is so represented in the three earlier plans reproduced in the plates;
but at a later date it was replaced by the brick wall shown in
Macgregor’s plan, and it is described in the auctioneer’s catalogue of
the sale, when the prison and its contents were disposed of in September
1816, as “a substantial brick wall measuring 3,740 feet round, and
containing 282 rods of brickwork more or less.” Of this wall, 30 yards
are still standing, forming a portion of the garden wall of the house
originally occupied by the superintendent. The auctioneer’s description
does not altogether agree with that of the surveyor Mr. Fearnall, who in
1813 reported that it was “very indifferently built, and not of the best
materials,” and that much of it was in danger of falling, owing to the
excavation at its foot within the enclosure of a ditch. This ditch, for
its full length of nearly three-quarters of a mile, can be traced at the
present day, with the deep embrasures shown in the plans, at each of the
four prison gates. It was, at the time the buildings were demolished,
about 9 yards wide and 5 feet deep, and it was paved with stone flags;
this is supposed to be the “silent walk” of the sentries, excavated in
1809. An item in the barrack master’s accounts for July in that year is
£420 19_s._ 6_d._, for the making a walk for the “silent sentries.” The
area of the actual prison enclosed within the wall was in 1816 sold in
one lot, and is described in the catalogue as “containing by
admeasurement 22 acres, 2 roods, and 14 perches more or less.”
[Picture: Plate V.—The Inner Side of the Prison Wall as it now Stands]
In the boundary wall were four gates, opening on to the ends of the cross
streets, which separated the four quadrangles. The north gate opened
into a space at the back of the prison occupied by sheds and other
accessories; the east and west gates on roadways which ran between the
military barracks and the prison from the Peterborough Road; the south
gate was opposite the central main entrance from that road into the
Depot. Later, as shown in Macgregor’s plan, there were, in addition to
these four large gates, a door in the south wall adjoining the house of
the agent, or superintendent, and another in the north wall, giving
admission to a court outside the wall, in which had been erected a
separate prison for the boys.
At each gate outside the prison wall was a guard house, a one-storied
building fitted with separate rooms for the officers and men of the
guard, with cells for prisoners, and with a wide-open shelter, or
verandah, in front.
The ground between the boundary wall and the quadrangles was not built
upon, but was studded over with the boxes of the sentries, who, with
muskets loaded with ball cartridge, day and night patrolled the vacant
area, ready to fire on any prisoner attempting to escape across it who
did not obey the order to halt.
Beyond the boundary wall of the prison were situated east and west the
military barracks. These comprised at each end three large caserns,
similar to those in the prison, built to enclose, with the guard house,
the barrack square. The casern facing the guard house was the officers’
quarters, and was partitioned off into twenty-three separate officers’
rooms, a mess-room, kitchen, and other offices. Those at either side
accommodated the private soldiers; they were divided into ten separate
rooms, each with sleeping-berths for sixty men. There were two smaller
buildings for the non-commissioned officers, a large canteen,
sutling-house, and various offices. The whole of these buildings, with
the barrack yards, were enclosed by strong stockade fencing. Outside
this fence there was, in the space allotted to the accommodation of the
troops, east and west of the prison, a detached house for the field
officers, two smaller houses for the staff sergeants, the powder
magazine, a fire-engine house, a range of stabling, with stalls for
thirty-five horses, {28a} rooms for the batmen, a schoolroom, and various
other necessary offices and sheds.
The Military Hospital occupied the north-west corner of the forty-two
acres; it served for the whole of the troops in both barracks, and was
complete in itself. It was enclosed within a separate stockade fence.
On the south side of the area, between the boundary wall and the
Peterborough Road, were the houses of the barrack master, and of the
agent (or superintendent). These are still standing, the former having
been purchased, when the prison and barracks were demolished and the site
and materials sold, by Captain Kelly (Brevet Major, 1854), the last
Brigade-Major. This officer had, in 1814, married the daughter of Mr.
Vise, a surgeon practising in Stilton, {28b} and, wishing to settle in
the neighbourhood, he purchased the first of the lots into which the
freehold was divided, and in which was situated the barrack master’s
house, described in the catalogue as “a comfortable house in the cottage
stile,” “built of substantial fir carcase-framing and rough
weather-boarding on brick footings, and covered with pantiles.”
To this house Major Kelly made considerable additions. It was occupied
by him for forty years. He died, aged seventy-eight, in 1858. {29} His
son Captain J. Kelly succeeded him, and the property has now passed into
the hands of Mr. J. A. Herbert, J.P., the present occupant of the house.
It is a useful landmark to those who visit the locality, as with its
grounds it occupies the south-east corner of the forty-two acres, which
were covered by the prison and barracks, and it forms a useful point from
which to start in an attempt to conjure up the Depot as it was at the
beginning of the last century. The first effort of the imagination must
be to blot out the charming residence with its well-wooded grounds, and
to substitute the bare, treeless (except for one old ash) spot on which
stood the “comfortable house in the cottage stile, consisting of one room
20 ft. by 12 ft. 2 in., one ditto 14 ft. 8 in. by 12 ft. 3 in. . . .
built of substantial fir carcase-framing and rough weather-boarding on
brick footings, and covered with pantiles”—which was what Captain Kelly
bought in 1816. {30}
Immediately to the west of the barrack master’s house was the straw barn
and yard, in which was stored the straw for the beds of the soldiers.
Beyond the barn was a gate, from which a road or street ran across
between the prison proper and the east barracks. Through this gate
passed all those who came to attend the market at the east gate of the
prison, or on other business. Beyond this gate was the house of the
superintendent, or agent, who was practically the governor of the prison.
The block contained two houses, the second being occupied by other
officials. These houses, like the barrack master’s, remain at the
present time where they stood in the twenty years of the prison’s
existence, but they have been much altered, and are now surrounded by
trees and shrubs, of which the ground was absolutely bare in the days of
the prison.
[Picture: Plate VI.—The House of the Barrack Master, Enlarged in 1816,
now the Residence of J. A. Herbert, Esq., J.P.]
The superintendent’s and the adjoining house were cased with brick in
1816 by the purchaser, Captain Handslip, and were thrown into one house,
which is now occupied by Mr. Franey. In the catalogue of the sale they
are described as “two excellent contiguous dwelling-houses, built of
substantial fir carcase-framing, and stuccoed, with lead flat top.”
Another range of buildings, 100 feet long, “comprising a large storeroom,
coach-house, stable, etc.,” also stood on this south side between the
prison wall and the road, while in the centre was the main entrance,
with, beyond and to the west of the gate, the south guard house.
On the ground plan are shown four entrances to the depot—three from the
Peterborough Road, the centre entrance just mentioned, and two others,
one at either end, the roads from which ran between the barracks and the
prison. The fourth entrance was approached from the North Road by a
broad drive, crossing the narrow field lying between the prison and the
Great North Road, from which it is now, as then, fenced off on either
side. This entrance was exactly opposite the centre of the Western
Military Barracks, the main guard facing it. It was by this western
entrance that the stores and provisions were daily brought into the
prison, {31} and through it the bodies of those who died were carried to
the prison cemetery on the opposite side of the North Road.
Macgregor’s plan shows a paled fence surrounding the forty-two acres and
forming the outer boundary of the whole site, but this may have been a
mere artistic finish to the plan.
The prison and barracks were excellently planned, although, as a place of
safe custody, the former would have been practically useless without the
latter.
The guns of the block house commanding the whole prison, the cordon of
sentries frequently changed, always alert, ceaselessly pacing their beats
within and without the wall, day and night; the strong guard mounted at
each gate of the prison, and the large force of military in the two
barracks, ready to act on the slightest alarm, constituted a more
efficient safeguard against mutiny or escape than would have been
afforded had trust been placed in strong stone structures instead of in
the wooden walls and buildings which had been so rapidly run up.
In the summer of 1911, when the heat and drought were exceptional, the
stone and rubble footings upon which the wooden buildings were erected
were, after the first few showers of rain, in many parts of the site,
mapped out clearly in brown on a field of green, the grass upon them
having withered, so that it could not spring up fresh as it did in the
surrounding pastures. This enabled the author to demonstrate the actual
size of the buildings, and to correct many measurements which had been
taken from the plans. It also proved that none of the extant plans were
drawn to scale.
These are the dry details taken from actual measurements on the ground,
from surveyors’ plans, and similar documents, but we have a word-picture
of the effect produced by these wooden buildings and their inhabitants on
the mind of an imaginative and emotional boy, who afterwards became one
of the most picturesque writers of the middle part of the nineteenth
century. George Borrow’s father was quartered at Norman Cross in
1812–13, and his little boy, not yet in his teens, was moved from Norwich
to this place. Forty years later, in the pages of _Lavengro_, he thus
describes in eloquent language the vivid, if not absolutely accurate
picture which the prison had impressed upon his receptive and observant
brain.
“And a strange place it was, this Norman Cross, and, at the time of
which I am speaking, a sad cross to many a Norman, being what was
then styled a French prison, that is, a receptacle for captives made
in the French war. It consisted, if I remember right, of some five
or six casernes, very long, and immensely high; each standing
isolated from the rest, upon a spot of ground which might average ten
acres, and which was fenced round with lofty palisades, the whole
being compassed about by a towering wall, beneath which, at
intervals, on both sides sentinels were stationed, whilst, outside,
upon the field, stood commodious wooden barracks, capable of
containing two regiments of infantry, intended to serve as guards
upon the captives. Such was the station or prison at Norman Cross,
where some six thousand French and other foreigners, followers of the
grand Corsican, were now immured.
“What a strange appearance had those mighty casernes, with their
blank blind walls, without windows or grating, and their slanting
roofs, out of which, through orifices where the tiles had been
removed, would be protruded dozens of grim heads, feasting their
prison-sick eyes on the wide expanse of country unfolded from that
airy height. Ah! there was much misery in those casernes; and from
those roofs, doubtless, many a wistful look was turned in the
direction of lovely France. Much had the poor inmates to endure, and
much to complain of, to the disgrace of England be it said—of
England, in general so kind and bountiful. Rations of carrion meat,
and bread from which I have seen the very hounds occasionally turn
away, were unworthy entertainment even for the most ruffian enemy,
when helpless and a captive; and such, alas! was the fare in these
casernes. And then, those visits, or rather ruthless inroads, called
in the slang of the place ‘straw-plait hunts,’ when, in pursuit of a
contraband article, which the prisoners, in order to procure
themselves a few of the necessaries and comforts of existence, were
in the habit of making, red-coated battalions were marched into the
prisons, who, with the bayonet’s point, carried havoc and ruin into
every poor convenience which ingenious wretchedness had been
endeavouring to raise around it; and then the triumphant exit with
the miserable booty; and, worst of all, the accursed bonfire, on the
barrack parade, of the plait contraband, beneath the view of the
glaring eyeballs from those lofty roofs, amidst the hurrahs of the
troops, frequently drowned in the curses poured down from above like
a tempest-shower, or in the terrific war-whoop of ‘Vive l’Empereur!’”
Another writer records his impression of the Depot, which he visited in
1807. The quotation is from an article in _Notes and Queries_, 8th
series, vol. x., p. 197, which gives an account of a trip to Peterborough
made by the Rev. Robert Forby, vicar of Fincham, and a Mr. G. Miller of
the same place. They started on their tour on the 25th June 1807, and
the vicar chronicles his visit to Norman Cross in the following words:
“Pursuing our journey through suffocating clouds of dust, in the
evening we reached Stilton, a miserable shabby town, where all we
found to admire was some excellent cheese for our supper. {34}
Having disposed of our horses at the inn and secured our own
lodgings, we walked back a mile or so to Norman Cross to see the
barracks for French prisoners, no less than 6,000 of whom are
confined here. It is a fine healthy spot. Among them there is very
little disease; their good looks in general prove the excellent care
taken of them. In particular the boys are kept apart and taught, so
that in all probability their captivity is a benefit to them. Their
dexterity in little handicraft, nick-nacks, particularly in making
toys of the bones of their meals, will put many pounds into the
pockets of several of them. We were very credibly assured that there
are some who will carry away with them £200 or £300. Their behaviour
was not at all impudent or disrespectful as we passed the pallisades
within which they are cooped. Most of them have acquired English
enough to chatter very volubly and to cheat adroitly. They are
guarded by two regiments of Militia, one of them the Cambridge; we
had the advantage of knowing Captain Pemberton of that regiment, who
gave us tea in his luggage-lumbered hut. The country is under very
great obligations to gentlemen of family and fortune who will forego
the comforts of home for the miserable inconveniences of barrack
service. We had never seen it before, and have not the least wish to
see it again. It is horrible. The only privacy of an officer by day
or night is in these wretched hovels, in which they must alternately
sweat and shiver. The mess-room is open indeed at all hours. It is
a coffee-room, news room, lounging-room, at all times, as well as
that of dinner, to the officers of a regiment. Between eight and
nine o’clock we found two who had outstayed the others; they were
boozy and still at their wine, merely perhaps from having nothing to
do. Our friend, who is a man of great good sense and exemplary
manners, must be strangely out of his element here.”
The wretched hovels of which Mr. Forby speaks were the rooms in the
officers’ barracks, the walls of which were only one thickness of boards.
There were sixty such little rooms, not luxuriously furnished, for at the
first day’s sale of the contents of the barracks, on the 18th September
1816, twenty-seven lots of the officers’ furniture, consisting of six
Windsor chairs and one deal table, realised for each lot from 9_s._ to
32_s._; for twenty-six lots, each comprising one table and two chairs,
the price varied from 2_s._ to 17_s._ 6_d._; while for sixty lots,
consisting of one officer’s shovel, poker, tongs, fender and bellows, the
price per lot varied from 1_s._ to 2_s._ 6_d._ The bellows in each room
suggest that the fuel supplied was the peat from the adjoining fens,
which was usually burned in the district, and which, although it warmed
the thatched cottage with thick walls, would give poor comfort to the
shivering officer with only a board between him and the outer air.
The account of the Depot is incomplete without the mention of a detached
field, situated a few hundred yards north of the site of the prison, on
the opposite, that is the west, side of the Great North Road. Shortly
after the prison was occupied, the lower part of this field was purchased
by the Government for a burial place for the prisoners, and was resold in
1816. To it, during the occupation of the Depot, were carried across the
bodies of some 1,750 prisoners, whose fate it was to die within the
prison walls. There is nothing now to distinguish this prison cemetery,
except the mounds, called by the inhabitants of the district “The Lows”;
it will be dealt with in a further chapter.
It must be borne in mind that the buildings which have been described
were originally only intended to be of a temporary character, and that
from various causes detailed in the report given in the Appendix, certain
portions of the woodwork had perished during the seventeen years of the
Depot’s existence before the date of that report. That document also
shows that there was occasional “scamping” by those employed in the work
required to maintain the fabrics. The general excellence and durability
of the materials are however proved by the fact that even now, at the end
of a century, portions of them are still serving the purposes of
cottages, workshops, or farm buildings in the neighbouring towns and
villages to which they were transported at the sale in 1816.
[Picture: Plate VII.—Lodge removed from the Prison in April, 1816, and
re-erected as Cottages in St. Leonard Street, Peterborough]
Examples in Peterborough include the portion of a casern, already alluded
to as purchased by Mr. Ruddle and re-erected at his works—it still forms
part of a carpenters’ shop in the extensive works of the firm of John
Thompson, contractors, so famous as cathedral restorers; a group of
tenements known as Barrack Yard; and two cottages, the latter being one
of the turnkeys’ lodges reconstructed. These cottages are still
inhabited, but are clearly destined to be very shortly improved off the
face of the earth. That they were in old days vulgarly called “Bug Hall”
gives a hint as to one minor discomfort which the densely packed French
prisoners endured in these wooden buildings. Such was the Depot, which
term included the prison, with its various necessary adjuncts, official
residences, offices, etc., and the military barracks, complete for a
force of two infantry regiments, with hospital, a sutling-house and
canteens, the two latter let to contractors at rents respectively of £12
and £10 16_s._ a month, bringing into the Government the sum of £270
6_s._ a year. The Depot was unfortunately under a divided control, the
barrack master-general was responsible for the buildings and a barrack
master appointed by him resided in a detached house at the Depot. The
“Transport Office” was responsible for the management of the prisoners of
war at home and abroad. The responsibility of the Transport
Commissioners included the arrangements for the feeding and the
discipline of the prisoners. The details were left to their
representative agent, who also resided in the Depot. {38a}
The military commander, the brigade-major, of course had control of the
troops (usually two Militia regiments) quartered in the barracks, east
and west of the prison. {38b}
As the first portion of the buildings approached completion, it became
necessary to make provision beforehand for the reception and maintenance
of the prisoners waiting to occupy it, and from the buildings attention
must now be directed to the officials and the organisation of the Depot.
To each Depot in the country an agent was appointed, who was at every
other prison a post captain in the Royal Navy on full pay; but at Norman
Cross in the first instance a departure from this rule was made. The
following extracts from a letter written by the Transport Board to Mr.
Delafons on his appointment to the office are of interest as throwing
light on the nature of his duties.
“TRANSPORT OFFICE,
“18th March 1797.
“_To_ John Delafons, Esq.
“SIR,
“We direct you to proceed without delay to the prison at Norman
Cross, to which you are appointed Agent, and report to us the present
state thereof, as well as the time when in your judgement it will be
ready for the reception of prisoners of War.
“We have ordered bedding for six thousand prisoners to be sent to
Norman Cross as soon as possible, and we expect it will arrive there
before the end of this month.
“As you are provided with a list of such articles and utensils as
will be necessary for carrying on the service, we direct you to make
enquiry at Peterborough respecting the terms on which those articles
may be procured at that place; and you are to transmit to us a list
of such of them as you may think are to be obtained at more
reasonable rates, or of a better quality in London. We have
appointed Mr. Dent, now one of the clerks at Porchester Castle, to be
your first Clerk and Interpreter, with a salary of £80 per annum, and
have directed him to proceed forthwith to Norman Cross. We have
appointed Michael Brien as one of the Stewards in consequence of your
recommendation. A supply of printed Forms will be sent to you from
this Office, and you are to be allowed ten guineas per annum for the
stationery.”
This letter went on to authorise the agent to procure tin mess-cans,
wooden bowls, platters, and spoons for 3,000 prisoners at Wisbeck [_sic_]
and Lynn, and to inform him that 1,000 hammocks, 1,000 palliasses, 1,000
bolster-cases, also 5,000 sets of bedding, were on their way from London,
and that the prisoners from Falmouth would bring their own hammocks with
them. {40} At the end of the letter is a note as to stores as follows:
Heath brooms 40 dozen
Large twine 6 ,,
Small twine 4 ,,
Tow 50 lb.
Black Paint 4 ,,
Turpentine 1 gall.
Boiled oil 1 ,,
Scrapers 3 dozen
Charcoal 50 bushel
Straw 10 ton
Brimstone 1 cwt.
Dirt Baskets 2 dozen
Cartridge paper 6 quire
White brown thread 8 lb.
Also 2 Chauldrons of coal for the
dozen offices and Guard Room.
These stores, it must be borne in mind, were only for the use of the
occupants of that portion of the prison which was complete, about one
fourth of the whole.
Mr. Delafons does not appear to have taken up the duties assigned to him,
for on the 26th March, only eight days after the date of the letter
appointing him agent, he sent in his formal resignation. Mr. Dent, the
storekeeper, in conjunction with Captain Woodriff, the transport officer,
acted till the appointment of James Perrot on 7th April 1797, at a salary
of £400 a year and £30 for house rent, until quarters could be built for
him in the prison. This amount was double that of any other agent, but
it must be remembered that Mr. Perrot was not a naval officer in receipt
of full pay. There was a difficulty in finding lodgings in the vicinity,
and the clerks were allowed 1_s._ a day extra till accommodation could be
found for them also at the prison.
To assist the agent, Mr. Challoner Dent was appointed storekeeper from
1st April 1797 on getting two gentlemen as security for £1,000. There
were clerks and ten turnkeys, twelve labourers at 12_s._ a week, and a
lamplighter at 13_s._ a week. The chief clerk and Dutch interpreter was
Mr. James Richards.
The transport officer in charge, Captain Woodriff, had to make
arrangements for the conveyance of the expected prisoners to Norman
Cross, and for the victualling. As to the former, he was on the 23rd
March directed without loss of time to proceed to Norman Cross near
Stilton, and thence to Lynn to report as to the best anchorage there, and
the best mode of transporting the prisoners of war expected. He was to
consult a Mr. Hadley, who proposed 1_s._ a head for removing the
prisoners, which was considered exorbitant and quite out of the question.
On 29th March, however, he was directed to enter into an agreement with
Mr. Kempt, to convey the prisoners from Lynn to Yaxley at 1_s._ 6_d._ per
head, and Kempt’s partner was to victual them on the following daily
ration: 1 lb. of bread or biscuit, ¾ lb. of good fresh or salt beef.
The time occupied by the barges in which the men were to be conveyed
would probably be about three days, and the dietary could not be much
varied. At the date when this contract was made, nearly fifty years
before the first railway in this district was opened, the waterways
offered the easiest and cheapest channel for the transport of heavy goods
across the great Fen district. The rivers, natural and artificial, and
the navigable drains and cuts, fulfilled a double purpose, and were
maintained by taxes and tolls not only for the drainage of the Fens, but
as waterways for the lucrative traffic which was constant along their
surface.
It was by water that George Borrow and his mother travelled to join his
father in his quarters at Norman Cross, and we have again a graphic
account of the impressions left on the child’s mind by the journey from
Lynn to Peterborough when the washes and Fenlands were flooded—an account
written long after the child had come to man’s estate, when distance had
lent enchantment to the view and certainly depth to the pools on the
towing paths.
“At length my father was recalled to his regiment, which at that time
was stationed at a place called Norman Cross, in Lincolnshire, or
rather Huntingdonshire, at some distance from the old town of
Peterborough. For this place he departed, leaving my mother and
myself to follow in a few days. Our journey was a singular one. On
the second day we reached a marshy and fenny country, which owing to
immense quantities of rain which had lately fallen, was completely
submerged. At a large town we got on board a kind of passage-boat,
crowded with people; it had neither sails nor oars, and these were
not the days of steam-vessels; it was a treck-schuyt, and was drawn
by horses.
“Young as I was, there was much connected with this journey which
highly surprised me, and which brought to my remembrance particular
scenes described in the book which I now generally carried in my
bosom. The country was, as I have already said, submerged—entirely
drowned—no land was visible; the trees were growing bolt upright in
the flood, whilst farmhouses and cottages were standing insulated;
the horses which drew us were up to the knees in water, and, on
coming to blind pools and ‘greedy depths,’ were not unfrequently
swimming, in which case the boys or urchins who mounted them
sometimes stood, sometimes knelt, upon the saddle and pillions. No
accident, however, occurred either to the quadrupeds or bipeds, who
appeared respectively to be quite _au fait_ in their business, and
extricated themselves with the greatest ease from places in which
Pharaoh and all his host would have gone to the bottom. Nightfall
brought us to Peterborough, and from thence we were not slow in
reaching the place of our destination.” {42}
A Mr. James Hay of Liverpool was the first contractor for victualling the
prisoners at Norman Cross, the specification for the quality of the food
supplied being as follows:
Beer, to be equal quality to that supplied to H.M. ships.
Bread, to be made of wheaten flour, equal to what is known by bakers
as thirds, to be baked into loaves of 4½ lb., each to be weighed 6
hours after baking.
Beef, to be good and wholesome and fresh and delivered in clean
quarters.
Butter, to be good salt.
Cheese, to be good Gloucester, or Wiltshire, or of equal goodness.
Peas, to be of the white sort, and good boilers.
Greens, to be stripped of their outside leaves and fit for the copper.
The reader must bear these conditions in mind if he would be in a
position to discount George Borrow’s description (in the passage quoted a
few pages back) of the food supplied to those prisoners whom he
remembered with such sympathy in his later life; and he must, in forming
his judgment of the treatment accorded to the prisoners, remember that,
as evidence, the stern facts of a contract, with penalties of fine and
imprisonment for its breach, are of more value than the recollections of
a child, given in the rhetorical language of a romantic enthusiast.
The victualling under the terms of the contract commenced on the 12th
April 1797. The contractor was called upon to supply per head daily, 1
lb. of beef, 1 lb. of biscuit, 2 quarts of beer, and to find casks and
water at 11_d._ per day, being the same terms as those on which the goods
were supplied at Plymouth and Falmouth. Mr. Hay wrote that no butcher
within fifty miles of Norman Cross would supply cow, heifer, or ox beef
for less than 44_s._ per cwt., but he offered to supply it at 43_s._, and
this was agreed to. {44}
No tables or benches were to be provided. Hammocks were supplied, but no
clews nor lanyards (the cords to suspend them by); these the prisoners
had to make for themselves, jute being supplied to them for that purpose,
one ton to every 400 men.
The new agent, Mr. Perrot, who came from the prison at Porchester Castle,
appears to have applied for other comforts, as we infer from the
following communication addressed to him from the Transport Office:
“We cannot allow any razors or strops for the use of the prisoners at
Norman Cross. We see no reason for your appointing barbers, to shave
the prisoners, the razors sent to Porchester having been intended
more for shaving the Negro prisoners from the West Indies.”
Does the fact that the names of the two first agents appointed, Delafons
and Perrot, were French, and that they were not naval officers as at
other prisons, justify the supposition that our Government in their
anxiety to study the interests of the prisoners and to satisfy the
French, were trying the experiment of appointing a British subject of
French birth or of French origin as agent to this Depot? Such a
supposition might account for the fact of Mr. Delafons’ resignation a few
days after his appointment. A man in sympathy with the French might well
find, on entering into the particulars of his duties, that he could not
conform to the regulations regarded by the Government as necessary for
the discipline of prisons—regulations, for breaking which, many prisoners
lost their lives. Does not this letter to Mr. Perrot also read as though
he were making a frivolous application to the Government?
Whatever the worth of this supposition may be, we find that on the 2nd
January 1799, less than two years after his appointment, Mr. Perrot’s
name disappears from the books, and that Captain Woodriff, R.N., the
transport officer who had been acting for the transport office in the
district, was asked to take over the duties of the agent, receiving a
small addition to his previous salary.
The duties of the Depot agent and the district agent must have previously
overlapped, for it was Captain Woodriff, the Transport officer, who two
years before was making all the arrangements for the reception and
maintenance of the prisoners, and who shortly after their arrival, having
employed some of them to spread the gravel in the exercise yards, paying
them 3_d._ a day for doing it, was called upon by the Government to
furnish the information as to the wages and the prices of provisions in
the neighbourhood, given in the extract from his report printed in the
footnote on p. 16.
Captain Woodriff held the post of agent at Norman Cross from his
appointment in 1799 to the Peace of Amiens in 1802, having previously
from 2nd September 1796, when he was appointed agent of the Transport
Office at Southampton, been engaged in duties associated with the care of
prisoners of war. In July 1808 he was appointed agent for prisoners of
war at Forton, holding office until 1813. He thus spent, in all, eleven
years of his long services as a naval officer, assisting the Transport
Board in their important work as the custodian of the prisoners. In the
Appendix will he found a short biography of Captain Woodriff, collated by
Mr. Rhodes. It gives an insight into the adventurous and uncertain
career which, during the epoch with which this history has to do, might
be that of a naval officer of distinction, and shows that the custodian
of the prisoners at Norman Cross and Forton was himself at one time an
English prisoner at Verdun. {46}
On the 24th March the troops who were to form the garrison had marched
into their quarters, this event being noted in his diary by John Lamb, a
farmer and miller living at Whittlesey, about seven miles from Norman
Cross—“24th March 1797 the soldiers came to guard the Barracks. The
Volunteers did not much like it; they liked drinking better.” All
arrangements being sufficiently advanced, the prisoners sent from
Falmouth, who for several days had been waiting, cooped up in the
Transports at Lynn, were disembarked and put into lighters, to be brought
by water to Yaxley and Peterborough, and the first prisoners passed
through the prison gates on 7th April 1797, just four months from the
commencement of the building.
[Picture: Plate VIII, Fig. 1.—Wooden Tea-caddy richly decorated with
“Paper Mosaic,” the Work of the Prisoners of War at the Falmouth Depot.
The Specimen is in the Collection of Miss Lilley Paull, of Truro. Fig.
2. Tea-caddy similarly decorated in the possession of the Countess of
Lindsey, Uffington Park (v. p. 133)]