NEN Gallery

The use of the stocks had largely died out. However they were still used occasionally in some places. This picture represents a case as reported in the West Britain Newspaper 4th October 1844 "On Monday last, a very disgusting scene was witnessed. Two woman, old and notorious offenders as drunkards, were placed in the stocks, under a sentence of six hours. One of the took the affair very calmly; she had attained a due elevation by sitting on a quantity of straw and a pillow, and she employed herself with knitting, appearing as indifferent to the hundreds of people and children standing around her, as she could have been i her own room. The other woman was not so comfortably perched and whether from the effects of a bad leg, or the novelty of her situation, she certainly seemed to be distressed at her position and wept continually.