In June 1816, the 'shocking state' of
Newgate Gaol in Bristol resulted in an
Act of Parliament to facilitate the building of a New Gaol in
Bedminster, at a cost of £60,000. The original New Gaol was designed by
Henry Hake Seward and opened in 1820. In 1831, it was destroyed during the
Bristol Riots and was rebuilt to designs by
Richard Shackleton Pope, but was never properly completed until 1872. The gaol was closed in 1883 due to poor conditions and was sold to the
Great Western Railway in 1895, which demolished most of the site in 1898. In 1884,
Horfield Prison was built to replace it. In 1821, three days after his eighteenth birthday,
John Horwood was the first person to be hanged at the Gaol for murdering Eliza Balsum by hurling a pebble at her which hit her on the right temple and she then tumbled into a brook.
English Heritage designated The Gaol entrance wall and gateway and the south-east perimeter wall as a
Grade II listed building. It is now the centre-piece of a redevelopment project in this area of the city. ==Archives==