portland convict prison

[roxanne1985]

in 1911 a family member was inportland convict prison,dorset,grove portland

he was a labourer builder

how do i find out what he was in for, when he went in and how long for?

[Unforgiven]

Not sure where you would start to look other than court records. It is now called HMP The Verne.

It was originally a fortress, and then a prison and has been so ever since. I used to live there when I was a child - the verne is actually a citadel and has a community inside (or used to when I was small) the farm inside is still working, but all the houses and flats are closed - though the pub is still there I think.

The prison itself was further into the citadel, but back then the prisoners would wander about maintaining the community and farm quite freely!

As far as I can remember, it has always been a 'medium-low risk' prison, so not serious offences - things like burglary etc - weather it was that way in 1911 is anyones' guess. They did do 'hard labour' there and built many dry stone walls around the island.

I would write to The Governer at HMP VERNE and see if they can help in finding records.

[TimothBStard]

Hi Roxanne,
I wonder where your relative was prior to being in prison?    I recently made a pilgrimage to Dorchester History Centre, where the staff are very helpful, and if your relative was living in Dorset (or Bournemouth), then you could do worse than to look up the petty sessions records, or maybe Crown Court records, that they hold.

I don't know whether prisoners were sent to jails in other parts of the country in the early 20th C., can anyone else answer this?

Tim