The Galleries of Justice

JK visited the Galleries of Justice with his Aunt several years ago, but although it is not far away, for various reasons I have never been. So when a friend of Madi's from RYSC organised a group visit, complete with tour and activities, it seemed an excellent opportunity to take a complete break from our Romans theme and look at a completely different aspect of history.

We took the train in to Nottingham (still making the most of our free Family and Friends Railcard, courtesy of the Daily Fail) and arrived in time to buy a new daysack big enough to fit the clarinet in, especially for 11th Session. In fact I had initially hoped to visit the Nottingham Contemporary , another local venue that we have yet not managed to visit, but sadly the galleries were closed today for an exhibition changeover so it was not to be, and instead we had to make do with a quick drink and snack in their Café Bar.

Upon arrival we were all issued with a numbered ticket, and then entered the Victorian courtroom for a mock trial.

We were then led down to the cells, to find out from our ticket what crime we had committed, and what our punishment would be...



Unfortunately, in spite of being joined by her BFF, Madi found the whole experience very frightening, getting particularly upset at the parts of the visit that were underground, and was much happier when we reached the exercise yard, where we were drilled...




...and hunted for 'historic grafitti'. I was delighted to find this example from a prisoner from Ashfield...



...whilst Madi was happier to find a nice (safe!) activity table!



After a very short break for our 'packed loonch' (as described by Madi and BFF in a strong northern accent at every available opportunity)



we entered the Narrowmarsh area where we took part in a range of activities designed to help the children imagine what it would have been like to live in the area around the Galleries of Justice in Victorian times.