Camp Hill Borstal Instution

Camp Hill Prison and former Borstal

In 1908 The Prevention of Crime Act was created with a new form of imprisonment, which was aimed at both to reform habitual criminals and protect society by removing them by way of imprisonment.

Building work started in 1909-10 for Male Preventive Detention Prisoners and it opened in 1912, although it was still being built in 1914-15. It was the only type to be built. It was opened by the then Home Secretary, Winston Churchill M.P.

Up to 1935 it housed prisoners when it became a Borstal. During World War II it housed convicts but reverted to a Borstal again in 1946. During the 1950’s it briefly held Corrective Trainees and from the 1960’s became a Category C prison. It ceased to be in operation from 2013 when the last of the prisoners were moved out.

Listed Buildings

The Administrative Offices listed as Grade II on 15 April 2015 under entry number 1423396

Prison Chapel, built c.1912 in Early English style,  listed as Grade II under entry number 1423399

War Memorial located outside the main gate, listed Grade II under entry number 1423405

 Legal

The building as listed above is under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.

War Memorial to prison officers

The War memorial to six officers of H M Prison Camp Hill who fell in the First World War.

Description – a two metre high memorial comprising an octagonal tapering obelisk with a ball finial and moulded base on a square plinth. On the west side it has a bronze plaque with a gadrooned edge inscribed ‘TO THE MEMORY OF THE OFFICERS OF H.M.PRISON CAMP HILL WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR’.

• Bryant, E
• Collins, D
• Cooley, E
• Duckett, G
• Litchfield, C
• Milsom, M

• Books and journals:
• Lloyd, Pevsner, The Buildings of England, Isle of Wight (2006)
• Brodie, Croom, Davies, English Prisons (2002)
• Historic England 2018-1