Winson green prison 1872

[Royston1234]

I was wondering if anyone can help me find my great grand fathers prison records , he was in winson green prison for a year in 1881 ,ive been unable to find any information on how I might be able to obtain this information , could anyone help me please

 

[MWS]

I have had some luck with court proceedings for a relative, not sure about prison records but if you give us a name someone might find something.

 

[Royston1234]

Thank you for your reply, my g,grandfather was called Arthur mcfarquhar, he was in winson green prison in 1881, I have the 1881 census which shows him in prison, I put him there in 1872 which was a typing error on my part , many thanks

 

[sospiri]

The Prison Record image is a double page. He seems to have been involved in the crime with a certain Thomas Wood, but whereas your man was given 12 months for his crime by Birmingham Court, his co-criminal received only 6 months! The main headings are Name/Age/Trade/ - /Committing Magistrate/Date of Warrant/When received into Custody/Offence as Charged/When Tried/Before Whom Tried/Verdict/Previous Convictions/Sentence.

Maurice

 

[Royston1234]

Thank you for this information , do you know how I can find a mug shot of him , I have tried to find it but to no avail

 

[sospiri]

That's another matter. Member SteveR may be able to tell you when Birmingham Police first started taking mugshots, but I think it is not likely to be before the late 1880s. Birmingham Prison mugshots have two problems - date when they started and public accessibility. Perhaps SteveR or another member has knowledge.

Maurice

 

[Pedrocut]

June 1882, Birmingham Mail...

 

[Pedrocut]

Another or the same Arthur in January 1883..

 

[Steve R]

Hello all
Difficult to say if the museum has a picture. We are currently scanning and documenting our officer records some of which will be go onto the ancestry site in due course. For info the oldest pictures we have are from the 1850's and are called collodion positives. These are on glass and of stunning quality but very rare and delicate. Birmingham was perhaps the first force in the country to take prisoner picture, if not the first then one of the first. The pictures of earlier prisoners were taken in Moor Street near to the Moor street public offices which were used as the cells for Birmingham before the Lock Up was built in 1891. We have many photo albums of prisoners including many of the Peaky blinders pictures you see floating around. In short we may have a picture but the photo's are not indexed at the moment. Royston 1234 I will PM you.

Steve R

 

[Terry/Rice/Flemming Brum]

The Prison Record image is a double page. He seems to have been involved in the crime with a certain Thomas Wood, but whereas your man was given 12 months for his crime by Birmingham Court, his co-criminal received only 6 months! The main headings are Name/Age/Trade/ - /Committing Magistrate/Date of Warrant/When received into Custody/Offence as Charged/When Tried/Before Whom Tried/Verdict/Previous Convictions/Sentence.

Maurice

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Wow, how did you manage to find these? My 3 x great grandad was arrested in 1884 and convicted of manslaughter in 1885 for throwing a bucket of paraffin on his wife. She later died at the general hospital. A sad story. Something I often thought about working at the (now) Birmingham Children’s Hospital. “The Aston Burning Case”. There are several newspaper reports about it, local and national. Lots of family lived in the summer lane, Aston cross, New Town Row, Gosta Green areas. Interested to find out as much as possible.