Laura Sellers

I have visited Lincoln Castle a number of times but in recent years the site has been undergoing some quite serious renovations. It is now possible to go all the way round the wall and access has been improved. The buildings, in particular the prison are now more historically accurate and generally in a better condition. On this particular day there was also a Roman history event which made my partner very happy (swords, horses, birds of prey, men in uniform and catapults for the win.)

I was of course particularly interested in seeing the prison, most of which I hadn’t been in since I was a child because of the renovations. The chapel has been visible almost every time I visited but it has been repainted. The new colour, which I’m told is historically accurate, is a pinkish-brownish colour rather than the dark wood that was there was before. At the moment it all looks odd to me, it is a too clean and the off brown colour makes the whole place look like a (unfinished) prison-film set. Maybe when a few more visitors have knocked it up a bit it will look less staged.

The reopened prison is using non-traditional ways to present information to its visitors. Volunteers in costume roam the gantries as inmates and wardens. Mostly sticking to character they attempt to add to the feel of the prison. The number of people freely moving about slightly spoils the affect but generally it does help. In some of the cells there are videos or audio trying to convey the stories of some of the people who stayed there. These weren’t massively riveting – and my partner was quick to bail on watching them. There weren’t any textual sources – this appears to have been an active choice and I know enough about prisons that I could give a pretty through tour to my partner but if I didn’t have that knowledge I suspect questions would have gone unanswered.

I guess the idea is that you asked the volunteers for information, but we were there on a very busy Saturday, trying to get hold of someone wasn’t always possible, and not everyone likes talking to strangers anyway. One of the volunteers I spoke to said each individual researched their own characters history, which I like and added a personal touch but meant some of the over arching narrative was lost or a bit misconstrued.

Regardless I definitely recommend a visit, the renovations are beautifully done and the themed days are genuinely fun. Especially when there’s owls.