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A new Channel 5 documentary reveals the plight of Edwardian inmates who were sent to Holloway prison.

Some women found conditions so bad they went on hunger strikes, only to face ‘brutal’ punishments such as vaginal and anal force-feeding.

Inside Holloway takes a look one of Britain’s most notorious prisons and is an eye-opening look at some of the most extraordinary inmates British prisons have ever seen.

The two part documentary tells the story of Emily Wilding Davison who was a suffragette and part of a movement of women fighting for the female right to vote.

In the early 1900s, suffragettes were often sent to prison after marches and demonstrations.

(Image: © Wildfire Television)

Outraged at conditions they found ways of fighting back - which included smashing windows, starting fires in their cells and going on hunger strikes.

Historian and Author Kate Williams explains what would happen to those who didn't tow the line.

She says: “They refused to take food, they refused to take water, this was a big problem for the Government. The last thing they wanted was a woman to die in prison.”

The reconstruction in the documentary above details what happened to Emily and those who refused to eat.

Williams adds: "[Vaginal and anal force-feeding] wasn’t going to nourish them whatsoever, it was a way to violate and attack [prisoners]."

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The documentary also asks if the unforgiving regime provoked the women into further radical action, such as Davisonʼs act of martyrdom under the hooves of the King's horse at the 1913 Derby.

The first part of the film looks at the prison from its foundation in 1852 up to 1948, a few years after the end of World War II.

Holloway House of Corrections was built in 1852 and later nicknamed ʻThe Camden Castleʼ, it was one of a network of new purpose-built prisons to emerge across the rapidly growing capital.

(Image: © Wildfire Television)

Initially its inmates were men, women and even children – mainly petty criminals such as pickpockets, robbers and drunks – forced into repetitive, menial tasks such as mat and rope making.

Holloway became a place of punishment, squalor and disease, and complete and utter silence.

* Inside Holloway premieres tonight at 10pm on Channel 5

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