Face to face with Victorian prisoners

Skip image gallery
  1. A composite image of two sepia-tinged, black-and-white, close-up photographs of young men in the 1870s. On the left, a man with short dark hair and long bushy side-burns wears a dark jacket and buttoned-up waistcoat. On the right, a clean-shaven man with cropped dark hair wears a similar outfit.
    Lincolnshire County Council

    George Dahl, left, and Harry Olsen sailed into Hull from Oslo, but six weeks later they were caught stealing a silver watch from a house in Barrow upon Humber

Paul Johnson
BBC News

Striking photos are bringing museum visitors face to face with Victorian prison inmates.

The images have gone on display at Lincoln Castle for the first time and offer an insight into crime and punishment during the 1870s.

They were found in a document recording the lives and misdeeds of people who were held at the castle's Victorian prison.

Among them were two Norwegian sailors, George Dahl, 24, and Harry Olsen, 22, who were sentenced to three months' hard labour for burgling a house in Barrow upon Humber in June 1876.

The Register of Habitual Criminals was used by police to keep track of the previous convictions of people who reoffended.

Among the prisoners was John Holmes, aged 14, who was accused of stealing two pigeons and jailed for 21 days.

Another man, James Pringle, 21, from Grimsby, was given a month for stealing six tins of condensed milk.

The photos will be on display in the Magna Carta vault at the castle until February.

Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.

Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices

Related topics

More on this story

Related internet links