DId English prisoners break rocks in 1900?

[HelenaWojtczak]

To settle an argument, does anyone know whether English prisoners in English jails around 1900 broke rocks? I have been all over the net and can find no reference to this.

It's a long shot, but as casebook members are interested in crime in general of that period, I thought someone might know.

Cheers

Helena

[sdreid]

To settle an argument, does anyone know whether English prisoners in English jails around 1900 broke rocks? I have been all over the net and can find no reference to this.

It's a long shot, but as casebook members are interested in crime in general of that period, I thought someone might know.

Cheers

Helena

Did English prisoners ever break rocks? I know they had the crank and, I think, the treadmill but I don't know if those were even in use in 1900. Sorry I don't have an answer - just another question.

[HelenaWojtczak]

They also used to pick oakum.

I really hope someone can throw light on this.

Helena

[Archaic]

Stone-Breaking

Yes, British prisoners were still employed at stone-breaking in 1901. The tread-mill (aka "tread-wheel") was being phased out around that time.

(I suggest you try searching for the terms "stone-breaking" and "prison stone-yard" rather than searching for the term "rock-breaking".)

I think it's interesting that stone-breaking and oakum-picking were both considered forms of hard labor in British prisons, considering that 19th C. workhouses expected half-starved women, children, and the elderly to pick oakum in exchange for having the workhouse roof over their heads!

Best regards,
Archaic

[mariab]

Stone breaking was still ongoing recently in South Africa, for the inmates on Robben Island, including Nelson Mandela. I was told so by a former inmate/guide when I visited 2 summers ago. The stone breaking on Robben Island was related to building a road.

[Errata]

Where did prisoners break rocks in London? Were they transported to a quarry somewhere? And what did they do in areas where there weren't rocks to break?

[ChrisGeorge]

To settle an argument, does anyone know whether English prisoners in English jails around 1900 broke rocks? I have been all over the net and can find no reference to this.

It's a long shot, but as casebook members are interested in crime in general of that period, I thought someone might know.

Cheers

Helena

Hi Helena

This Parliamentary report from 1906 on Google Books would seem to show that the prison activity of breaking stones was alive and well--

Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Papers by Command, Volume 103. London: HMSO, 1906.

Best regards

Chris

[HelenaWojtczak]

Hi Helena

This Parliamentary report from 1906 on Google Books would seem to show that the prison activity of breaking stones was alive and well--

Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Papers by Command, Volume 103. London: HMSO, 1906.

Best regards

Chris

Hi Chris that link takes me to a page with the front of a book and no way to look inside it :-(


Found this though. Not official. "No trades were taught at Portland, neither was there a schoolroom, but there was work; Portland stone was quarried by the prisoners around a mile from the prison. They used hammers, picks and cranes to break the stone away from the ground, and then took it back to the prison to be broken by hammers in the yard if required for things such as railway tracks, or the stone was shipped away as large blocks used for building."

Thanks

Helena