Ghost Hunt

Shepton Mallet Prison in Somerset – officially known as HMP Cornhill – has been home to thousands of convicts since opening its doors in 1610.

Much of what has taken place at this prison was brutal. In the 17th and 18th centuries men, women and children were kept in horrendous conditions, starving in packed, smallpox-infested cells. Former inmates lie in unmarked graves throughout the grounds. Seven judicial executions took place between 1889 and 1926, but the total number of executions at Shepton Mallet in its early years is unknown.

During the Second World War, it was adopted as a military prison by the British and Americans. By the end of 1944, 16 American soldiers had been hanged and two shot by firing squad for crimes that included rape and murder.

The prison was used for judicial executions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In the 1950s, the prison became home to London’s feared East End gangsters Ron and Reggie Kray, during their stay the twins met future rivals Charlie Richardson and George Cornell, who Ron later shot dead in The Blind Beggar pub in London’s Whitechapel.

It is not surprising to learn that the prison is reputedly seriously haunted. If the walls could speak is what previous prison officers repeatdly say.