Bodmin Jail

Starters

Soup of the day served with fresh bread £4.75

Homemade Boston baked beans served with dry crackers £4.75

Prawn cocktail with Marie Rose sauce served with fresh bread £5.95

Sautee mushrooms in cream, garlic and sage served with garlic croute £5.75

½ kg. Mussels with tomato & smoked bacon served with fresh bread £7.95

BBQ ribs and hot wings with the Jail’s own BBQ Sauce £5.75

or sharing platter for two £10.95

Garlic bread £1.95

Cheesy garlic bread £2.50

Mains

Home made steak and ale pie £9.95

Fresh chicken breast wrapped in smoked bacon served with a rich red wine sauce £12.95

BBQ ribs and hot wings with the Jail’s own BBQ sauce £13.95

Pot-roasted shoulder of lamb braised in a red wine and rosemary sauce £12.95

Cajun chicken breast topped with smoked cheese and BBQ sauce £12.95

Duck breast (cooked to order) served with a classic black cherry sauce £14.95

8oz. prime sirloin steak (cooked to order) served with ½ tomato and mushrooms £15.95

16oz. prime T-bone steak (cooked to order) served with ½ tomato and mushrooms £19.95

10oz. gammon steak served with either egg or fresh pineapple £9.95

4oz. homemade burger £7.25 or double up for an extra £1.25

Each main course is served with either home cut chips or minted new potatoes and a choice of either salad or vegetables.

Bodmin Jail’s famous chicken curry and rice/chips served with poppadom and mango chutney £9.95

Pasta

Authentic homemade lasagne served with a side salad £9.95

Linguini Carbonara Ham in a cream sauce topped with parmesan cheese £10.95

Mixed seafood pasta topped with parmesan cheese £12.95

Garlic bread £1.95

Cheesy garlic bread £2.50

Vegitarian

Mediterranean vegetable pasta in olive oil & fresh basil £10.95

Mushroom stroganoff served with rice £10.95 (gluten free)

BBQ tofu and courgette kebab £10.95 (gluten free)

Salad Menu

Slices of cheddar cheese £8.95

Home roasted honey glazed ham £9.95

Home roasted beef £9.95

Home roasted turkey & cranberry £9.95

Fresh prawns with Marie Rose Sauce £10.95

Warm Salads

Chicken and bacon with a honey and mustard dressing £10.95

Tandoori chicken served with a mint yoghurt dip £10.95

Three bean salad with a garlic and chilli dressing £9.95

Extras

Creamy peppercorn sauce £2.25

Red wine & mushroom £2.25

Port & Stilton sauce £2.25

BBQ sauce £2.25

Garlic bread £1.95

Fresh bread £1.50

Cheesy garlic bread £2.50

Portion of chips £1.95

Portion of cheesy chips £2.75

Side salad £2.50

Childrens Menu

Grilled award winning sausages £ 4.50

Homemade chicken goujons £5.25

Jumbo breaded fish fingers £4.50

Freshly battered cod fillet £4.95

Baked salmon or baked cod fillet £5.25

Each children’s meal is served with a choice of either home cut chips or minted new potatoes and one of the following accompaniments:

Heinz Baked Beans, Heinz Spaghetti, peas, or lettuce or tomato & cucumber

Childrens Vegetarian Options

Mediterranean vegetable pasta in olive oil & fresh basil £5.25

Mushroom stroganoff served with rice £5.25

BBQ tofu and courgette kebab £5.25

Jail Roast with all the trimmings

Starters

Soup of the day served with fresh bread £4.75

Boston baked beans served with dry crackers £4.75

Prawn cocktail with Marie Rose sauce served with fresh bread £ 5.95

Sautee mushrooms in garlic, cream & sage served with garlic croute £5.75

½ kg. Mussels with tomato & smoked bacon served with fresh bread £7.95

Tender BBQ ribs and chicken wings with our own BBQ Sauce £5.75

or sharing platter £10.95

Garlic bread £1.95

Cheesy garlic bread £2.50

Sunday Lunch

Home Roasted Pork Loin with apple sauce…£ 8.45

Home Roasted Beef….£8.95

Home Roasted Turkey….£8.95

Mix of Beef & Turkey….£8.95

Home Made Fruit & Nut Roast….£8.95

If you require a mix of any of the above plus the Roast of the day, the cost will be the price of the Guest Roast of the day

All the above Sunday Main Courses are served with 2 Yorkshire Puddings Home made roasted potatoes Minted new potatoes Garden Peas and seasonal fresh vegetables

The above Sunday Main Courses are also available in children’s portion size at £4.95

Mediterranean vegetable pasta in olive oil & fresh basil £10.95

Mushroom stroganoff £10.95

Childrens menu to suit all tastes

Young Offenders Menu

Grilled award-winning sausages £4.50

Home made chicken goujons £5.25

Jumbo fish fingers £4.50

Freshly battered cod fillet £5.25

Baked salmon or cod fillet £5.25

The Children’s Menu is served with either home cut chips or minted new potatoes, and a choice of either lettuce, tomato and cucumber or spaghetti, or baked beans, or peas.

Please see chalkboard specials for vegetarian & salad specials of the day!

From the grill

A La Carte Menu

Home made steak and ale pie £9.95

Pot roasted shoulder of lamb braised in a red wine and rosemary sauce £12.95

8 oz prime sirloin steak, served with ½ tomato and mushrooms £15.95

Chicken wrapped in smoked bacon served with a rich red wine sauce £12.95

Breast of chicken served with a cream, white wine and mushroom sauce £12.95

Catch of the Day – Please see Chalkboard – Price subject to availability

The A La Carte Menu is available either as a roast dinner or accompanied by home cut chips or minted new potatoes.

While the Jail is open all year round as one of Cornwall’s top historic attractions, we also cater to local charity groups, birthday parties, weddings, photo shoots and even film crews. Please contact us using the form below to discuss your specific requirements.

[View with PicLens]

Lighting Photography Shots by Claire Rosen
Lighting installation by Alex Randall

Selina Wadge was one of only four women to be hanged for of the murder of their child during the period 1868 – 1899. (I have included Louise Masset in this figure as the crime and trial took place in 1899, although her execution was carried out in January 1900). They were Mary Ann Cotton who was a serial poisoner who murdered as many as ten of her children for the insurance money. Elizabeth Berry poisoned her daughter for the same reason and Louisa Masset who murdered her son because he was an encumbrance to her relationship.

Selina was very much at the bottom end of the Victorian social spectrum. She was a 28 year old unmarried mother of two illegitimate sons and due to her poverty and inability to get work whilst raising two small children, often had to ask for admission to Launceston Workhouse. This was a very stigmatising thing for a woman to have to do at the time.
Her sons were Henry aged two and John aged six. Henry who was always known as Harry was partially crippled and could hardly walk. Both boys seemed well cared for, however.

In the summer of 1878 she had taken leave from the workhouse to visit her mother at Altarnum, a village some 8 miles west of Launceston in Cornwall, accompanied by her sons.
Selina claimed to be in a relationship with a former soldier named James Westwood although it is not thought that he was not the father of the boys. According to James he had met Selina just twice previously, in December 1877 and again in March 1878. He had written her a letter telling her that they could meet in Launceston on Saturday 22nd of June and then another telling her that he would be unable to see her that day because he had to work that day. However on Friday the 21st June 1878 Selina and the children hitched a ride towards Launceston with a local farmer named William Holman. She told Mr. Holman that she was going to meet her boyfriend in the town before returning to the workhouse that evening.
Later on the Saturday morning Selina was recognised near Mowbray Park and by mid-day had reached the workhouse but by now only the older child, John, was with her. She told her sister who was also an inmate, in the presence of the Workhouse Master, Mr. Downing, that Harry had died at Altarnum. On the Saturday night John told the work house nurses that Selina had put Harry into a “pit”. Mr. Downing and his wife who was the matron questioned Selina about this on the Sunday morning and she told them that her boyfriend had taken Harry from her and drowned him in a well on the Friday evening and threatened to kill her and John.
Mr. Downing immediately sent for the police who despatched Superintendent Barrett from Launceston to investigate. Selina repeated the story to him under caution and directly implicated James Westwood in Harry’s disappearance. Barrett launched a search for Harry and found his body in three feet of water at the bottom of a 13 foot deep well shaft in Mowbray Park. The top of the well was covered so it would not have been possible for Harry to have accidentally fallen in. His body showed no signs of violence.
Selina was not in custody at this point but remained in the care of Mrs. Downey at the workhouse to whom she confessed that she alone had committed the murder and that only John had been present. Once Harry’s body had been found Supt. Barrett had sufficient grounds to arrest and charge Selina and remove her to Launceston police station. She told one of the constables that James Westwood had persuaded her to kill Harry on the promise that he would marry her if she did.

She came to trial at Bodmin before Mr. Justice Denman on the 27th of July 1878 and the prosecution outlined the story above, calling the workhouse staff as witnesses to the confession evidence and reading James Westwood’s letters out. James assured the court that he had no ill feeling toward the children.
Evidence of Selina’s previous good character and affection for her children was given by other inmates at the workhouse and by people from her home village.
It took the jury took 45 minutes to reach a guilty verdict to which they added a recommendation to mercy on account of the way she had previously looked after her children and that in their opinion the murder had not been premeditated. Mr. Justice Denman told her that she could not rely upon the jury’s recommendation and sentenced her to death whereupon she was taken back to Bodmin Gaol and placed in the condemned cell.
Here she received a letter from James Westwood asking for her forgiveness which, when it was read to her, she allegedly said “Yes, he needed forgiveness for many things.”
The judge prepared his report for submission to the Home Office and clearly did not concur with the jury as to mercy. This report along with the case papers were examined by the officials who did not recommend a reprieve to the Home Secretary, Sir Richard Assheton Cross. It seems probable that one of the reasons that Selina was not reprieved is that she had tried to blame the murder on John Westwood, a crime for which he would probably have been hanged if convicted. By this period most women who murdered their children, unless by poisoning were reprieved.

In the condemned cell Selina was guarded round the clock by teams of matrons (as female prison officers were known at this time) who would no doubt have done their best to comfort her and prevent any suicide attempts.

The High Sheriff of Devon had decided not to admit representatives of the press to the execution which was set for 8.00 a.m. on Thursday the 15th of August 1878. It had originally been intended for Monday 12th of August but William Marwood was otherwise engaged for the hanging of Thomas Chorleton in Nottingham on that day.
The gallows for her execution was set up outside a first floor door in the open air and attached to the four iron rings set into the wall. (see photo) The location of this was also the receiving area for food deliveries. To the left of the doorway is the civil wing and behind to the right is the naval wing of the prison.

Selina was close to collapse on her last morning. Her terror at the thought of her execution is not hard to understand. It is unlikely that she would have known about Marwood’s newly introduced method of hanging and probably expected that she would strangle at the end of the rope in front of witnesses as most people previously had. Hers would be the first private execution at Bodmin and also the first to employ the measured drop. William Marwood calculated her drop at eight feet.

The prison chaplain remained with her from 7.15 on that morning until the end and she was reported to have sobbed on her last walk from the condemned cell. Selina’s last words were “Lord deliver me from this miserable world”. She held a handkerchief in her hand during the execution although by this time would not have been expected to drop it as the signal that she was ready. Marwood made the usual preparations and operated the lever plummeting her down in front of the entrance to the tunnel where her lifeless body dangled for the next hour. After the formal inquest she was buried within the prison grounds. The Liverpool Post newspaper reported that those who witnessed the hanging, including the chaplain and the under sheriff of Cornwall were deeply affected by it. How they obtained this information is not stated. Their article also stated that she “died without a struggle” so even the press had not realised the change Marwood had brought to the process of hanging by this time.

What is unclear is why Selina harboured the delusion that James Westwood would marry her if she disposed of her children whom she seemed to love and care for. His actions and statements do not seem to indicate that he was deeply in love with her.
Whether she intended to kill John as well or whether, when it came to it, she could not bring herself to we will never know. Selina may have seen Westwood as a “good catch” – an ex soldier with a job who was at least somewhat interested in her.

Her ghost still haunts the prison and tries to reach out to small children and instil feelings of guilt and remorse on pregnant women. Mark Rablin, the paranomalist at Bodmin, reports that children have been known to ask who the lady in the long dress crying was and that pregnant women get very emotional on the 3rd and 4th floor. Selina’s ghost is seen as a full torso manifestation.

William Bartlett was executed on the same gallows some 4 years later on the 13th of November 1882. In 1897 an execution shed was constructed in one of the prison’s yards and this was used for the final two hangings in Cornwall in 1901 and 1909. Normally this shed was used to house the prison van, as at Exeter and Kirkdale prisons.
The prison is now a museum and the gallows in the execution shed have been recently rebuilt by my friend Gary Ewart. This is the only workable example of a Victorian execution shed and gallows in Britain.

To read more like this please head over to capitalpunishmentuk.org

Now in its fourth year and back by popular demand, we are currently taking bookings for our highly popular evening ghost walks. Not for the faint of heart!

For further details or to book, please call 01208 76292 or complete the form at the bottom of this page.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS IN 2010/11: -

Saturday 18th September 2010
Friday 29th October 2010
Saturday 30th October 2010 Full
Sunday 31st October 2010 Full
Saturday 20th November 2010
Saturday 11th December 2010
Saturday 5th February 2011
Saturday 5th March 2011
Saturday 2nd April 2011
Saturday 7th May 2011
Saturday 4th June 2011
Saturday 2nd July 2011
Saturday 6th August 2011
Saturday 3rd September 2011
Friday 28th October 2011
Saturday 29th October 2011
Sunday 30th October 2011
Saturday 12th November 2011
Saturday 3rd December 2011

FORMAT: –

Arrival: Please arrive at the jail for around 10:30 p.m. Format: The night will be hosted by Mark Rablin, our experienced and professional Psychic medium & energy therapist who has many years experience of research into paranormal fields.

Various group workshops will be undertaken in elected areas of both the main civil prison, and also the naval prison, and it is expected that you will enjoy the night and gain a better understanding into the paranormal field.

Facilities: Tea and coffee facilities are available throughout the nght and a function room and toilets will be on hand. A fully licensed restaurant is available for food and drink prior to the start of the evening – if is advisable to book prior to your arrival – and you are welcome to bring snacks and/or refreshments yourselves; no alcoholic drinks are permitted during the course of the event.

Please bring warm clothing as temperatures get very cold in the lower areas of the prison and do not forget a torch and/or a camera for pictures.

Close: The night will finish at approximately 7a.m., with a full English breakfast included in the price. Please advise us if there are any vegetarian requirements.

Cost: The cost of this event is £70.00 per person per night. This amount is used to cover staffing and administration costs, with residual monies being used to fund our Regeneration Project for both the premises and site of Bodmin Jail.

Please tell us as much about your ghost walk enquiry as possible and we will get back to you as soon as possible alternatively you can download this booking form (right click and select download) and return it to us by post.

Jacket Potatoes

Home baked jacket potatoes with a choice of:

Butter £4.25

Melted cheese £4.95

Egg mayonnaise £5.25

Tuna mayonnaise £5.25

Baked beans £5.00

Cheese and baked beans £5.25

Prawns in Marie Rose sauce £5.95

All served with butter and a salad

Burgers

Homemade by our own chefs

4oz Beef burger £6.25

4oz Beef burger with cheese £6.95

4oz Beef burger with Cornish blue cheese £7.50

4oz Beef burger with cheese and bacon £7.50

4oz Beef burger with cheese and pineapple £7.50

Double up to 8oz for an extra £1.50

All served with homemade chips and a salad garnish

Wraps

Freshly made to order

Cheese with salsa £4.25

Hot beef with mustard £4.95

Hot chicken & bacon with salsa £5.50

Prawns with Marie Rose sauce £5.50

Home roasted turkey with cranberry £4.95

Breaded chicken strips with salsa £4.95

All wraps are served with a salad garnish and crisps

Home baked chilled ham, egg & chips £9.95

Filled French Sticks

Freshly made to order

Slices of mature Cheddar cheese £4.25

Egg mayonnaise £4.00

Slices of Blue cheese £4.50

Tuna mayonnaise £5.50

Home roasted honey glazed ham £4.75

Home roasted turkey & cranberry sauce £4.75

Home roasted beef £4.75

Prawns in Marie Rose sauce £5.50

All French sticks are served with a salad garnish
and crisps

Children’s Filled French Sticks

Freshly made to order £3.95 each

Egg mayonnaise

Slices of Cheddar cheese

Home roasted honey glazed ham

Home roasted beef

Home roasted turkey & cranberry

All French sticks are served with a salad garnish

Side Orders

Garlic bread £1.95

Cheesy garlic bread £2.25

Homemade chips £1.95

Homemade cheesy chips £2.50

Side salad £2.50

Fresh bread £1.50

Thunder & Lightning

Two freshly baked scones topped with golden syrup and clotted cream served with either a traditional pot of tea or a cup of straight black or white coffee £4.25

Traditional Cream Tea

Two freshly baked scones served with either a traditional pot of tea or a cup of straight black or white coffee £4.25

Tea–Cake

Toasted spiced tea-cake served with either a traditional pot of tea or a cup of straight black or white coffee £2.95

Bar Menu

Main Menu

Sunday Menu

Our Famous 'CCT'

Here in  Cornwall, the cream tea was traditionally served with a “Cornish split”, a type of slightly sweet whitebread roll, rather than a scone. The warm roll (or scone) should first be buttered, then spread with strawberry jam, and finally topped with a spoonful of Cornish clotted cream

Another variation to a cream tea is called “Thunder and Lightning” which consists of a round of bread, topped with clotted cream and golden syrup, honey or treacle.

Bodmin Jail

As well a the Jail Museum we also have a newly refurbished bar and lounge serving hot and cold refreshments, remember, a Cream Tea always goes down well after a good walk.

Or join other weary travelers in the dining room where we serve a great range of home cooked food freshly prepared from local produce by our team of qualified chefs.

10am to 6pm – Monday to Saturday

A large range of light bites made fresh to order including Jacket potatoes, Door-step sandwiches and wraps

All served with salad garnish and homemade fresh chips; plus the best CREAM TEA, which includes two homemade plain scones, individual clotted cream and small pot of the best jam or maybe try “THUNDER AND LIGHTENING” Scones as before but with runny honey all served with tea or freshly ground coffee.

Cream Tea

Young offenders menu comes with fresh healthy alternatives if you wish I.E new potatoes instead of chips or lettuce, Tomato and cucumber instead of baked beans!

10am to 9pm – Monday to Saturday

This is about experiencing the best Cornwall has to offer on a plate, everything is made fresh to order from Hangman’s Chicken, to scallops and prawns, not forgetting our gluten and vegetarian options. We can talk with confidence should you have a special dietary need.

Our chalkboard specials change on a daily basis, reflecting the changing seasons in the sea and on the land.

Dessert Menu

10am TO 9pm Available Daily

Our desserts are all home made and come with a choice of clotted cream, fresh cream, ice cream or custard! Or try our Totally ‘Cornish Cheese Board’

Sunday Menu

12am to 8pm – Every Sunday

Finish the weekend with a banquet! Feast on our Sunday Roast, or a little something from the A La Carte Menu.