Old Gaol Museum Buckingham - The History of the Building : The old Old Gaol
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The original prison was built in 1748, like a square shaped castle. Why was it built?Please wait - image loading Buckingham was the original county town. It first had a gaol in the castle and then, when that fell down, in a building near the market-place. But Buckingham is a long way from the south of the county and Aylesbury slowly took its place as a centre of administration. The Summer Assizes, the law courts, were moved there in 1707 and this took much trade away from the town. A second blow for Buckingham was the terrible fire of 1725, which made more than 500 people homeless
Picture by the Rev Silvester

The Member of Parliament for Buckingham 1705-8 was Browne Willis, a local landowner, and historian. He wrote the first history of the town and supported it all his life. He and Lord Cobham of Stowe Please wait - image loadinggot the Assizes returned in 1747 and organised the building of the Gaol, to make sure that criminals destined for trial did not escape. As a tribute to Browne Willis the Museum today shows a model of him, with his long brown curly wig, standing next to a prisoner and his Gaoler.


So the centre of 18th century Buckingham looked like this:

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Bickham: View of Buckingham from Page Hill, 1780
On the left is the old Church of St Peter and St Paul, which fell down in 1776. In front of it is the bare summit of Castle Hill where the Parish Church stands today. In the centre is the Town Hall, where the Assizes were held and on the right the new Gaol, facing North-east and the road leading to Stony Stratford. It held the Exercise Yard, still there today, and 4 rooms for prisoners.

One of the more famous prisoners was Simon Byrne, the prize-fighter, who in 1830 was tried at Buckingham Assizes for the manslaughter of fellow prize-fighter Alex Mackay. For the full details see the story of the prize fight on the site of Hanslope and District Historical Society.
The old Old Gaol | Victorian Splendour | Empty Gaol | The Gaol Today