Within These Walls

I visited the Northallerton Heritage Hub this morning, a small pop up type centre in an old shop. It has some lovely memories of Northallerton's distant past together with stories from living memories. 

One piece of history that stood out for me was this old prison cell door. Northallerton's prison was in use between 1788 to 2013, it once had the biggest treadmill in the world. 

Before I moved to the town some of the buildings had been demolished together with the high surrounding walls to make way for some mid-ranged grocery stores and a cinema. During the work below where the old chapel stood they found a wall that looked like a blocked up doorway and behind it was this door with its original bolts, studs and graffiti. No mention of small cells or forgotten inmates...

I was interested to see what looks like the VW logo carved into the door! No doubt it is an old fashioned W. 

In extra I have added Matilda parked outside a part of the prison that has been repurposed. I believe this was the women's wing. Matilda has been locked up in the garage for a good while so a quick trip around town was called for.