The former Gatehouse and Perimeter Walls to Her Majesty's Prison Shepton Mallet

MATERIALS: the gatehouse is a rubble stone building with an ashlar-faced front. The perimeter wall is rubble stone construction with tile coping. PLAN: the gatehouse is a rectangular building which stands to the north of the prison site and is attached to main prison by a C20 extension to the rear, with an attached perimeter wall.

GATEHOUSE EXTERIOR: a substantial ashlar gatehouse is located to the north-west of the Keeper’s House Range. A set of later central double doors are at the top of a set of four stone steps. The doors are set within large moulded jambs and, above, oversized cut stone brackets support a cornice, all of which is surrounded by a stone architrave with a rounded-arched head incorporating a barred fanlight. The arch surround is decorated by rusticated stone detailing and a central giant keystone, above which is a set of stone scroll consoles that support a parapet. The side elevations are blind, save for an arrow-slit opening at second-floor level. The gatehouse is joined to the Keepers House range by a mid-C20 link building which obscures the rear elevation that still contains a large entrance way with square stone surround, a set of full height gates and a large fanlight above similar to the front. Internally, the ground floor of the gatehouse contains a guards room with a timber panelled partition and central stable doors. Opposite is an enclosed stone winder staircase which leads up to a heated room, probably a former sitting room area for the guard, with a blocked brick fireplace, timber cupboards and a flagstone floor. The top floor is unheated and was probably the guard’s bedroom.

PERIMETER WALL The perimeter wall is circa 8m high. There is evidence on both the internal and external faces of the wall of former entrances, particularly in the walls extending around the south-east corner of the prison site. Here evidence of former gateways, probably dating to the prison's use during the Second World War, is visible, adjacent to the more recently inserted vehicular gateway. The east side of the wall incorporates an awkward change of direction near the rear of the courtyard prison, suggesting this was the original line of the 1820s prison phase, before it was further extended in the 1830s. Part of the wall to the north of the keepers range has been removed. At the north-west corner of the site a section of wall extends around a triangular piece of land adjacent to the former tread-wheel house which forms (part of) the site of the former flour mill, and is now (2013) in use as a private garden. The perimeter wall was substantially re-pointed in the late C20.

The low section of wall attached to the east side of the gatehouse, and which runs for circa 11 m east has been lowered to a couple of courses and has largely been rebuilt. This section of wall is excluded from the listing.