Right....here goes.......a bit of old Digbeth history...the first prison...Brownell's Hole or Aston Goal...or Tarte's Hole (honest miss!).....
......When Leland visited Birmingham in 1538 he approached from the south, and would have been traversing the parish of Aston in the hamlet of Bordesley and until he crossed the Rea, for Aston circled eastward of Birmingham, and even in the 19th Century it had a goal in Bordesley behind the Brown Lion Inn. The goal, consisting of only two cellars, was known as ‘Brownell's Hole’ after W.D.Brownell, the goaler, whose wife Jemima kept the Inn.” A police museum curator later confirmed that the grisly goal was under the White Lion in Bordesley High street....
That is well before the Moor Street one, and the Digbeth Police Station (which was built on the site of a Pub of course) and the Steelhouse Lane lock ups. There was also a prison in Court House Yard, by Jennen's old House in High Street later I think?
The Goal for the parish of Aston in 1770's was called The Dungeon at High St Bordesley The court was 25ft sq and on one side of the court were two rooms 8ft by 6ft each on the other side were stables. and a couple of rooms above in the winter of 1775 their were over 150 people confined there in 1788 it was still situated in High St Bordesley..once inside their were two rooms you went down 10 steps to two damp dungeons
The Gaoler was not paid as he kept an Ale House..
So I've included the two pubs where the back yards were dig up and the Goal was confirmed..The Lamp and the White Lion (was Brown Lion before)......both in Bordesley, up towards Camp Hill....both now gone....