Lockup, Wheatley, Oxfordshire
This small lock up was built in 1834. Before the establishment of a national police service people were tried by local magistrates. They travelled round their county and held regular courts at certain places. Serious criminals were sent from villages to larger towns to be put in prison until the court next visited that town. However more minor offences such as petty theft and often drunkenness were dealt with locally by placing the offenders in a village lockup like this one. They were often built as part of a complex including the village pound, stocks and pillory. They date back to around the 1560s. Generally the lockup was used by the parish constable who had the unpaid job of keeping law and order in his own parish.
