Beaumaris Gaol

The Beaumaris Gaol, built in 1829 to a design by Hansom of hansom-cab fame, was considered a model prison of its era. It is unusually well preserved: the cells, treadwheel, punishment cell, women's wing, chapel, and condemned cell are all intact, and the visitor route follows the daily routine of a prisoner from reception to release — or to the gallows.

Compared with the brutality of earlier prisons, this was the new humanitarian model: separate cells, work, religious instruction, basic sanitation. In practice the regime was still grim — silence enforced, hard labour on the treadwheel for hours each day. The audio tour does not soften the picture, and the result is the most evocative small museum on Anglesey.

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A story
The gaol still contains the only working tread-wheel left in any British prison and the route from the condemned cell to the public gallows on the outer wall, where executions were carried out in view of the town. Two men were hanged here, one of whom — Richard Rowlands in 1862 — is said to have cursed the church clock as he climbed the scaffold; the clock kept poor time for decades afterwards.