Stone Walls Do Not A Prison Make ...

... at least, not any more, in the case of the former Cornhill Prison at Shepton Mallett here, which until it closed at the end of March last year was the oldest functioning prison in the country, having first opened in 1625.

The poem To Althea, From Prison, from which the quote in my title is taken, was actually written 17 years after the prison opened.

We went over to Shepton Mallett to stock up on Aldi gin and whisky do some shopping this morning, then had a stroll round town and a pub lunch, (as it was Friday!)

In the early 1980s, I ran a weekly O Level English Evening Class at the prison and met some genuinely interesting people, including one very embarrassed ex-pupil.

Notoriously, the prison was used by the US Military during WWII, and 18 servicemen were executed there during this time. It's been suggested that the opening scenes and premise of the film The Dirty Dozen were based on events here. The former execution chamber which housed gallows had been converted into the prison libary by the time I worked there.