Hidden lives of female prisoners past and present

The lives of female prisoners in the 19th Century and those experiencing the criminal justice system today are not dissimilar, a charity worker has said.

An exhibition at Newcastle Cathedral is documenting the untold stories from female prisoners at the former Newcastle Prison, which stood in the city's Carliol Square between 1828-1925.

Coinciding with International Women's Day, it also incorporates a 2023 creation by women who also had first-hand experience in the justice system.

Charity Changing Lives'service manager for criminal justice Dawn Harrison said the women she worked with through the project "still carry the guilt and shame that the women from history will have carried around".

Author and researcher Dr Clare Sandford-Couch is part of a group of academics researching the history of women in the prison and co-wrote the book Newcastle Prison: A History, 1828-1925.

She said in her research she had found the history of the prison had been written about the male prisoners and they wanted to recover the women's stories and make them better known.

"Some of the women come across as incredible characters," she said.

"There's a fabulous character called Bridget Creggans who appeared before the magistrates 250 times.

"If a pub landlord refused to serve her, she would smash the windows."

Sandford-Couch said she found a lot of young girls were sent to the prison, the youngest being 11, and would serve short sentences ranging from a few days to a few months.

Most were locked up for theft of money and clothes and there are records of the girls being transported to Australia.

Sandford-Couch said the proportion of women prisoners was higher in Newcastle than it was elsewhere in the country, which a prison governor at the time put down to a socio-economic problem.

"There weren't particularly many jobs for women in Newcastle compared to, say, the North West, which had the textile industry for example," she said.

The exhibition will also include the Story Chair which was created for Newcastle Cathedral in 2023 through a collaboration with women who have first-hand experience in the justice system.

The chair was built with the aim of the women being able to share their experiences and reclaim their own narrative.

Situated in the cathedral's crypt, the chair allowed the women to tell a story they no longer wanted associated with them.

"I was really excited to see how the exhibition came together to bring out the continuities between the stories of the women that I've been researching from the 19th Century and the women today," Sandford-Couch said.

Harrison said: "The women who took part in the Story Chair, they're not so dissimilar to the women that you might see in the exhibition, except the women currently aren't asked to hold chalkboards with their offence on and the date, but that is the only difference.

"They still carry the guilt and shame that the women from history will have carried around.

"I'm not justifying their actions and neither would they if you ask them, but they still have a right and a part to play throughout history and society today and actually have a lot to contribute."

Women Behind Bars: Life in Newcastle Prison 1828-1925 exhibition until 27 April at Newcastle Cathedral.

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