HM Prison Manchester is a Category A and B men's prison in Manchester, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It is still commonly referred to as Strangeways, its former official name, derived from the area in which it is located. The present name was adopted when the prison was rebuilt following a major riot in 1990.
The prison is designated as a training prison, having previously been a local prison that accepted those remanded from courts in Greater Manchester. The prison retains a small category A function, located on Echo wing.
The prison featured an execution chamber prior to the abolition of capital punishment in the United Kingdom in the 1960s; the last execution at the prison took place in 1964.
Strangeways was designed by Alfred Waterhouse and opened in 1868 alongside the demolished Manchester Assize Courts. The prison is known for its prominent ventilation tower and imposing design, structured by the principles of the separate system.
History
Construction of the Grade II listed prison was completed in 1869, to replace the New Bailey Prison in Salford, which closed in 1868. The prison, designed by Alfred Waterhouse in 1862 with input from Joshua Jebb, cost £170,000 () and had a capacity of 1,000 inmates. Its tall ventilation tower (often mistaken for a watchtower) has become a local landmark. The prison's walls, which are rumoured to be thick, are said to be impenetrable from either inside or out.
The prison has an element of the separate system with its plan in the form of a star or a snowflake, with two blocks housing ten wings that emanate from a central core. The prison consists of two radial blocks branching from the central core with a total of ten wings (A to F in one block, and G, H, I, and K in the second).
The jail was built on the grounds of Strangeways Park and Gardens, from which it was named. Strangeways was recorded in 1322 as Strangwas from the Anglo-Saxon Strang and gewæsc meaning "[a place by] a stream with a strong current".
The prison was open to male and female prisoners until 1963 when the facility became male-only, and in 1980, it began to accept remand prisoners. As of 2005, the prison held more than 1,200 inmates.
As a place of execution
Originally, the prison contained an execution shed in B wing and after World War I a special execution room and cell for the condemned criminal was built. Strangeways was one of the few prisons to have permanent gallows. The first execution at Strangeways was that of twenty-year-old murderer Michael Johnson, who was hanged by William Calcraft on 29 March 1869.
Twenty-nine hangings took place over the next twenty years and 71 took place in the 20th century, bringing the total number to 100. During the second half of the century, the number of executions decreased, with no hangings between 1954 and 28 November 1962, when James Smith was executed. John Robson Walby (alias Gwynne Owen Evans), one of the last two people to be hanged in England, was executed here on 13 August 1964. Out of the 100 hangings, four were double hangings, while the rest were done individually. The "quickest hanging" of James Inglis, in seven seconds, carried out by Albert Pierrepoint, took place here.
Other executions John Jackson was executed on 7 August 1879. Mary Ann Britland (38) was executed on 9 August 1886 for the murder of two family members and her neighbour. She was the first woman to be executed at the prison. Thom Davies was hanged on 9 January 1889 for sexual deviancy charges. Lieutenant Frederick Rothwell Holt was hanged on 13 April 1920 for the murder of twenty-six-year-old Kathleen Breaks. Louie Calvert was hanged on 24 June 1926. Doctor Buck Ruxton was executed on 12 May 1936 for the murder of his wife. A petition for clemency was signed by 10,000 people, both sympathetic locals with high regard for this "people's doctor" and abolitionists who mounted a large demonstration on the day of his execution. Margaret Allen was hanged on 12 January 1949 by Albert Pierrepoint for the murder of an elderly widower. Her execution was the first of a woman in Britain for 12 years and the third execution of a woman at Strangeways. After the seven second hanging, Albert Pierrepoint executed Louisa May Merrifield on 18 September 1953. She was the fourth and last woman to be executed at the prison.
The bodies of executed criminals were buried in unmarked graves within the prison walls, as was the custom. During prison rebuilding work in 1991, the remains of 63 executed prisoners (of which 45 were identifiable) were exhumed from unmarked graves in the prison cemetery and cremated at Blackley Crematorium in Manchester. The cremated remains were re-interred in two graves (plot C2710 and C2711) at the adjacent cemetery.
The following people were hanged at Manchester Prison between 1869 and 1964: + People hanged at Manchester 1869–1964 Date hanged Name Reason given 29 March 1869 Michael Johnson murder of Patrick Nurney 26 December 1870 Patrick Durr murder of his wife, Catherine 30 December 1872 Michael Kennedy murder of his wife, Ann 21 December 1876 William Flanagan alias Robinson murder of Margaret Dockerty 27 March 1877 John M'Kenna murder of his wife, Annie 4 February 1878 George Pigott murder of Florence Galloway 19 November 1878 James McGowan murder of his wife 20 May 1879 William Cooper murder of Ellen Mather 17 February 1880 William Cassidy murder of his wife, Rosemary Ann 28 November 1881 John Aspinall Simpson murder of Ann Ratcliffe 13 February 1882 Robert Templeton murder of Betty Scott 12 February 1883 Abraham Thomas murder of Christiana Leigh 26 November 1883 Thomas Riley murder of Elizabeth Alston 24 November 1884 Kay HowarthKay Howarth (a male) murder of Richard Dugdale 24 November 1884 Harry Hammond Swindells murder of James Wild 9 August 1886 Mary Ann Britland murders of daughter Elizabeth, husband Thomas and Mary Dixon 15 February 1887 Thomas Leatherbarrow murder of Katherine Quinn 30 May 1887 Walter Wood murder of his wife, Emma 15 May 1888 John Alfred Gell murder of Mary Miller 7 August 1888 John Jackson (Charles Firth) murder of Ralph D Webb 24 December 1889 William Dukes murder of George Gordon 19 May 1891 Alfred William Turner murder of Mary Ellen Moran 20 December 1892 Joseph Mellor murder of his wife, Mary Jane 28 November 1893 Emanuel Hamar murder of Catherine Tyrer 31 July 1894 William Crossley murder of Mary Ann Allen 27 November 1894 James Wilshaw Whitehead murder of his wife 4 August 1896 Joseph Hurst murder of his daughter, Maud Goddard 22 February 1898 George William Howe murder of Joseph Keirby Pickup 6 December 1899 Michael Dowdle murder of his wife, Ellen 4 December 1900 Joseph Holden murder of his grandson, John Dawes 3 December 1901 Patrick M'Kenna murder of his wife, Anna 2 December 1902 Henry Mack murder of Esther Elizabeth Bedford or Thompson 12 May 1903 William George Hudson murder of Harry Short 2 December 1903 Charles Whittaker murder of Eliza Range 27 February 1906 John Griffiths murder of Catherine Garrity 12 May 1908 John Ramsbottom murder of James McCraw 28 July 1908 Fred Ballington murder of his wife, Ellen 3 August 1909 Mark Shawcross murder of Emily Ramsbottom 22 February 1910 Joseph Wren murder of John Collins 12 December 1911 Walter Martyn murder of Edith Griffiths 12 December 1911 John Edward Tarkenter murder of his wife, Rosetta 23 July 1912 Arthur Birkett murder of Alice Beetham 13 August 1913 James Ryder murder of his wife, Ann 17 December 1913 Ernest Edwin Kelly murder of Daniel Wright Bardsley 8 March 1916 Fred Holmes murder of Sarah Woodall 29 March 1916 Reginald Haslam murder of Isabella Holmes Conway 19 December 1916 James Howarth Hargreaves murder of Caroline McGhee 21 March 1917 Thomas Clinton murder of Henry Lynch. 17 December 1918 William Rooney murder of his sister in law, Mary Rooney 6 January 1920 Hyman Perdovitch murder of Solomon Franks 6 January 1920 David Caplan murder of his wife, Freda 13 April 1920 Frederick Rothwell Holt murder of Katherine Elsie Breaks 22 June 1920 William Thomas Aldred murder of Ida Prescott 31 December 1920 Charles Colclough murder of George Henry Shenton 5 April 1921 Frederick Quarmby murder of Christina A Smith 24 May 1921 Thomas Wilson murder of Olive Duff 30 May 1922 Hiram Thompson murder of his wife, Ellen 3 January 1923 George Frederick Edisbury murder of Winifred Drinkwater 28 March 1923 George Perry murder of Emma Perry 8 April 1924 Francis Wilson Booker murder of Percy Sharpe 13 August 1924 John Charles Horner murder of Norman Widderson Pinchin 26 May 1925 Patrick Power murder of Sarah Ann Sykes 11 August 1925 James Makin murder of Sarah Elizabeth Clutton 15 December 1925 Sam Johnson murder of Beatrice Philomina Martin 16 March 1926 William Thorpe murder of Frances Clarke 24 June 1926 Louie Calvert murder of Lilly Waterhouse 3 January 1928 Fred Fielding murder of Eleanor Pilkington 28 June 1928 Walter Brooks murder of Beatrice Brooks and Alfred Moore 6 December 1928 Chung Yi Miao murder of Wai Sheung Yi Miao 4 April 1929 George Cartledge murder of his wife, Ellen 16 April 1931 Francis Land murder of Sarah Ellen Johnson 15 December 1931 Solomon Stein murder of Annie Riley 3 February 1932 George Alfred Rice murder of Constance Inman 18 May 1932 Charles James Cowle murder of Naomi Annie Farnworth 19 December 1933 William Burtoft murder of Frances Levin 30 May 1935 John Harris Bridge murder of Amelia Nuttall 12 May 1936 Buck Ruxton murder of his wife, Isabelle and Mary Jane Rogerson 4 February 1937 Max Mayer Haslam murder of Ruth Clarke 12 August 1937 Horace William Brunt murder of Kate Elizabeth Collier 20 April 1938 Charles James Caldwell murder of his wife, Elisa Augustine 11 February 1941 Clifford Holmes murder of his wife, Irene 4 September 1941 John Smith murder of Margaret Helen Knight 26 July 1944 James Galbraith murder of James William Percey 9 April 1946 Harold Berry murder of Bernard Phillips 24 April 1946 Martin Patrick Coffey murder of Harold Dutton 27 February 1947 Walter Graham Rowland murder of Olive Balchin 12 January 1949 Margaret Allen murder of Nancy Ellen Chadwick 28 November 1950 James Henry Corbitt murder of Eliza Wood 19 December 1950 Nicholas Persoulious Crosby murder of Ruth Massey 26 January 1951 Nenad Kovacevic murder of Radomir Djorovic 8 May 1951 James Inglis murder of Alice Morgan 12 June 1951 John Dand murder of Walter Wyld 3 July 1951 Jack Wright murder of Mona Mather 15 January 1952 Alfred Bradley murder of George Camp 26 February 1952 Herbert Roy Harris murder of his wife, Eileen 18 September 1953 Louisa May Merrifield murder of Sarah Ann Rickets 17 December 1953 Stanislaw Juras murder of Erena Wagner 8 January 1954 Czeslaw Kowalewski murder of Doris Douglas 28 November 1962 James Smith murder of Sarah Isabella Cross 13 August 1964 Gwynne Owen Evans murder of John Allen West
Strangeways riots
Between 1 April and 25 April 1990, 147 staff and 47 prisoners were injured in a series of riots by prison inmates. There was one fatality among the prisoners, and one prison officer died from heart failure. Much of the old prison was damaged or destroyed in the rioting. Several inmates were charged with various offences, and Paul Taylor and Alan Lord faced a five-month trial as ringleaders.
The riots resulted in the Woolf Inquiry, and the prison was rebuilt and renamed Her Majesty's Prison, Manchester. Repair and modernisation cost more than £80 million after the riot, and rebuilding was completed in 1994.
The prison post-1994 The prison is a high-security category A prison for adult males and has a maximum capacity of 1,269 as of 4 August 2008. Operation of the prison was put out to tender in 1994 and 2001. Accommodation is divided into nine wings in two radial blocks. Cells are a mixture of single and double occupancy, all having in-cell power points and integral sanitation.