Stotfold Lock Up

A village lock up was a building used for the temporary detention of people; mostly those who had committed crimes or were being held before the local magistrate, as well as drunks who would usually be released the next day. The use of lock ups fell out of use when the County Police Act 1839 was introduced, and more police stations were built with their own holding facilities.

The lock up [ref: Z1306/115/13/1]

Stotfold lock up is located next to Hope Baptist Chapel on Mill Lane. In 1878 the lock up was in a very dilapidated state was in a very dilapidated state, some of the Parishioners was for pulling it down and some for repairing it, on the 16th September 1878 it was repaired by having a new roof on and the walls repaired by estimate at a cost of £8-0-0 by order of the waywarden, Mr. Bancroft and Mr. Cook the surveyor at that time and the money was paid by the Biggleswade District Highway Board for the purpose of keeping the roadmen’s tools and wheelbarrow in which as [sic] been used for that purpose since that time the Building is of Bricks and covered in with Plain Tiles”. On 19th March 1892, in response to an enquiry by the CountySurveyor, Biggleswade Division of Bedfordshire Constabulary stated that the lock-up in Stotfold: “is in a good state of repair. It is used by the road men for the purpose of keeping their tools in”.

List of sources at Bedfordshire Archives: 

• Z1306/115/13/1: Postcard of the lock up [also knwon as the cage], c.1920