History
HM Prison Shrewsbury was a Category B/C men's prison in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. It closed in March 2013.
The former prison site, on Howard Street, adjacent to Shrewsbury railway station, is near the site of the Dana Gaol, a medieval prison. The name The Dana is still often used for the prison, as well as being the name of the road to one side of the prison and the pedestrian route that runs from near the front of the prison into the town centre via a footbridge over the station. The now disused platform 8 at the station, masked from the opposite platform by a high wall, was used for transporting prisoners between 1868 and the First World War.
There has been a prison on the site since 1793, the original building being constructed by Thomas Telford to plans by Shrewsbury architect John Hiram Haycock;[1] the present prison building was constructed in 1877. The prison took female convicts until 1922.
Between 1902 and 1961 the following seven people were executed by hanging within the walls of HMP Shrewsbury for the crime of murder:-
Richard Wigley aged 34 yrs on Tuesday, 18 March 1902 (Mary Ellen Bowen [girlfriend])
William Griffiths aged 57 yrs on Tuesday, 24 July 1923 (Catherine Hughes [mother])
Frank Griffin aged 40 yrs on Thursday, 4 January 1951 (Jane Edge)
Harry Huxley aged 43 yrs on Tuesday, 8 July 1952 (Ada Royce [girlfriend])
Donald Neil Simon aged 32 years on Thursday, 23 October 1952 (Eunice Simon [estranged wife] & Victor Brades [her lover])
Desmond Donald Hooper aged 27 yrs on Tuesday, 26 January 1954 (Betty Smith)
George Riley aged 21 yrs on Thursday, 9 February 1961 (Adeline Mary Smith [neighbour)
