Prison where 1,000 inmates at a time were held from 1790s revealed by overhead photos

© Courtesy University of Salford

© Courtesy University of Salford

Outlines of a prison where three wrongly-convicted men were hanged in 1867, built as the first jail to be constructed in accordance with reformist principles, have been uncovered by archaeologists in Manchester using aerial photos to plot the foundations of its extension more than 200 years ago.Founded between 1787 and 1790, New Bailey Prison had male and female blocks of misdemeanant workshops and wards in a rectangular enclosure surrounding its gardens, a radial-plan Gaoler’s Building and Gate Keeper’s Lodge.The prison site, where a huge office development will be built, was expanded during the 1810s with the clearance of Bolton and Faulkner Street, making way for a western extension including a Governor’s House and four structures, two of which were used as a cook house and hospital.The- three innocent Irishmen convicted of killing a sergeant - were hanged outside the prison in November 1867, by which time a turn keys office, clerk’s office and a new chapel had been added to the western extension.A tread wheel, stables and mill house were also excavated in 2014 by experts who say the prison was demolished and turned into railway sidings for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1871, having been superseded by Strangeways.New Bailey tended to be used for minor offences rather than capital crimes, with around 1,000 inmates are thought to have been incarcerated at a time. Several members of the crowd from thewere briefly held there in 1819.Salford University archaeologists have been excavating the site since February.