Lockup, Ritson Street, Workington, Cumbria
This former lockup is dated and inscribed over the entrance, although the end of the inscription has weathered away. It reads; BUILT BY SUBSCRIPTION IN 1805 ANNUAL GROUND RENT TWO SHILLINGS FOR EVE .... Workington is known to have had a lockup. No records state where it was but this can be the only explanation of this unusual building. Lockups were used for drunks and petty criminals or to hold people waiting to go to court. They were often built as part of a complex including the village pound, stocks and pillory. They date back to around the 1560s. Generally the lockup was used by the parish constable who had the unpaid job of keeping law and order in his own parish
