Description

Summary: Devizes Prison Cell Door. The prison was built in 1810 in a circular Panopticon design, as the County House of Corrections. The Panopticon is a type of institutional building designed by the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century. The concept of the design is to allow all (pan-) inmates of an institution to be observed (-opticon) by a single watchman, without the inmates being able to tell whether or not they are being watched. Although it is physically impossible for the single watchman to observe all cells at once, the fact that the inmates cannot know when they are being watched means that they tend to act as though they are watched at all times, effectively controlling their behaviour. The door is made of larch with a metal plate laminated between the wood. It has a hinged feeding hatch and a metal framed squint slot window with half-inch thick glass. A casement lock has been replaced with a one-inch diameter bolt and hasp. The door was rescued from the abandoned building after the prison closed in 1921, and in 1973 it was found in Keevil, set into a garden wall. Later the door was returned to Devizes and fitted into Canal Forge at Lower Canal Wharf, where it remained until 2016, when it was donated to the Museum. On the inside of the door two prison inmates have graffitied their names, G WHITE and PETER WILLIS.\n