Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment
Stories from Hertfordshire
Museum of St Albans
Wednesday 19th December 2007 – Sunday 22nd June 2008
Admission free
"Interior of the Crown Court of Hertford at the moment the prisoners were bought up to plead.", 1823.
This exciting and interactive exhibition will tell the stories of real Hertfordshire crimes. Explore a rich history of highway robbers and witches, thieves and murderers. Find out how they were punished and what would happen to them today, from the 1600s when women were sentenced to death for witchcraft to the 1800s when a boy of eleven was given hard labour for stealing a haddock.
Wooden police truncheon with the St Albans coat of arms, 19th century.
Cast your judgment on the gruesome ways in which criminals used to be punished within the community, with objects such as the pillory and the scold’s bridle. Get a feel for what life was like in a Victorian prison in a reconstruction of a cell from the Grimston Road Prison in St Albans, and find out why the inmates each had a cell to themselves. Hear the story of one of the gaol’s most notorious residents, Mary Ansell, who murdered her sister with a poisoned cake sent through the post.
The exhibition will examine issues such as community punishment and vigilantism, corporal and capital punishment, children and the law, mental health and homelessness. It will also discuss how the nature of what constitutes criminal activity has changed, and what has stayed the same.
Look out for an activities, schools and events programme through the Spring and Summer terms.
What punishments would YOU dish out?
