Summary

A late-C17 village lock up or blind house, altered in the early C20, and restored in 1978.

Description

A late-C17 village lock-up or blind house, altered in the circa early C20, and restored in 1978.

MATERIALS: the lock up has limestone ashlar walls and roof.

PLAN: it has an unequal sided octagonal single cell plan.

EXTERIOR: the small, single storey building has a doorway with plain, limestone chamfered surround facing the street, and with a late-C20 door. The building has a plat band to a domed roof, and is topped with a ball finial. The rear, facing a private garden, was not inspected.

INTERIOR: not inspected.

History

The lock up or blind house in Hilperton dates from the late C17. It was altered in the early C20, when a door was inserted to the rear to allow access from an adjacent garden, but was subsequently restored in 1978.
Lock ups, or blind houses, are small buildings built as temporary prisons for the incarceration of drunkards, vagrants and people disturbing the peace. Generally stone built but occasionally wooden, they are square, round or octagonal and contained either one cell or one for either sex. A small, sometimes barred window was often included but the inside was always dim, hence the term 'blind house'. In some examples an iron cradle in which the prisoner slept survives. They were often built by the parish or as a gift to the village or town by a wealthy resident and are generally centrally placed within the settlement. Blind houses went out of use in the mid-19th century when they were made redundant by the formation of a regular police service.

Reasons for Listing

The late-C17 lock up c 40m north east of Church Farm, Hilperton, Wiltshire, altered in the early C20 and restored in 1978, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural interest: as an early and good example of a village lock up;

* Historic interest: as an interesting reminder of the development of maintaining law and order in rural areas in the late C17;

* Intactness: despite later alterations and its restoration in 1978, it has survived mostly intact;

* Group value: it forms an interesting group with the adjacent Hilperton War Memorial (listed Grade II).

External Links

• Historic England Listing

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)