Tuesday, July 15, 2025

A happy sight and a grim experience


First things first. After my pervious lament about the dried up stream alongside our holiday cottage, I'm pleased to report that we walked up the valley (Ashes Hollow) yesterday and found running water. (BTW we are getting more and more messages every day of canal closures through lack of water.)

Ashes Water is fed by a spring called Boiling Well near the top of the Long Mynd.  I always find it strange that a spring should be found so high up, but there it is.  Anyway the gin clear water was gurgling over the rock bed of the stream. I'm always tempted to drink from it when I'm up there but I'm well aware that there might be a dead sheep in the water round the next bend.  I have encountered such a sad sight up there in years gone by.


The mystery is, of course, why is the stream dry further down?  I think it's because it runs through a patch where there is turf and mud, so it either gets absorbed  or goes underground somewhere.

Anyway, today it rained a bit. Not nearly enough to do any good fo course, but enough to encourage us to seek indoor entertainment so we went to prison.  I'm no stranger to prison of course because I have been inside on numerous occasions, but only in a professional capacity.  I've even been inside Dartmoor, although as most people know that's a hospital not a prison, even if the man ( nurse) who showed me round did look and dress like Mr  Mackay from Porridge.

So today it was Shrewsbury Prison, no longer in active service but open for guided tours. 




It is truly a grim place and far more oppressive than others I have seen.  It was only closed in 2013, not that long ago at all.  The  tour you get is very thorough (ours took two hours) and you get lots of stories of Victorian era cruelty by the staff and more modern day brutality among the inmates.  They do lots of tours for school parties and believe you me, the sights and stories you experience are enough to scare any youngster away from crime.  Worst of all is the visit to the execution room where a number of people have been hanged. The rope is still there and you can peer down into the 'drop room'.  Strangely I was more deeply affected by a visit to the little room where the hangman would sleep on the night before an execution.  

So there it folks, a pretty dark experience, but a real education and a total rebuttal of the notion that prison is 'soft' in the 21st century. The prison officers may be interested in reform but the prisoners are very often brutal to each other.

I think the sun is due to shine tomorrow.


 

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