Lock Ups in North West Leicestershire

There are five lock-ups (or Round Houses) in and around The National Forest area. These are at Breedon on the Hill, Packington and Worthington within the district of North West Leicestershire and at Smisby and Ticknall in South Derbyshire.

Lock-ups, also known as round houses, cage, lobby, watch house, blind houses and clinks are small windowless stone buildings that can be square, rectangular, octagonal or occasionally circular. Evidence suggests that these local lock-ups were most probably used for the confining drunks who were usually released the next day, with no record kept of those incarcerated.

In Ticknall, however, after the constable had gone home the drunken prisoners were sometimes released by the landlady of the local public house, whose back door key fitted the lock-up!

As well as confining drunken villagers, the lock-ups were also used to detain local rogues and vagrants until they could be moved on to a town and were used as temporary holding places for offenders being brought before the magistrate. The earliest recorded lock-up dates from the 13th Century and most fell out of use when police stations established their own holding facilities.

If you would like to read more about Worthington Round House, download this leaflet. Worthington Round House leaflet (PDF Document, 0.37 Mb)