A well-known monument that people walk by daily is a site where people drowned and one man connected to the building was martyred.

The clock tower in Fisherton Street is built upon the remainder of the old Gaol. The small building with the entrance door onto the street also has handcuffs carved on the side of the building which denotes its former role in Salisbury life.

The lock-up building is all that remains of what was once a much bigger prison and the plaque on the east side of the Clock Tower above the river Avon states 'This wall formed a part of the County Gaol erected 1569 demolished 1823. The river was the city boundary until 1835.'

Salisbury Journal: Image Spencer MulhollandImage Spencer Mulholland (Image: Spencer Mulholland)

Author and history enthusiast Frogg Moody said: "The river used to overflow here and because the cells were below ground, people drowned in their cells.”  

The prison was extensive and had been built on an acre of ground across the site of the old Salisbury Infirmary.  

John Thorpe, a landowner and gentleman who owned the prison and The Sun pub located across the road is known to have been martyred potentially for supporting King Charles II. 

He was buried in the St Clements Churchyard (Secret Garden) located on Mill Road.  

Salisbury Journal: Image Spencer MulhollandImage Spencer Mulholland (Image: Spencer Mulholland)

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Frogg said: “The lock-up was definitely not a place you would want to stay in overnight. Although, there were four highwaymen who were caught and locked up in there. To make their escape, they lit a fire and the plan was that they would burn the door down."

Overcome by smoke, the four highwaymen were lucky to survive. 

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The Gaol was eventually moved to the St Paul’s area and rebuilt between 1818 and 1822 at the junction of Devizes Road and Wilton Road. On that site, some of the prisoners were hanged.

Frogg said: “There is a new block of flats there and I don’t know if the people who are going to buy these flats know this, but there are skeletons to this day under the foundations.”

He added: “In the 1930s, there was an art deco garage there and when they took away the big underground containers for the petrol, they found 30 skeletons buried there.”