The Spanking Writers

Have you ever been to the Bridewell Museum in Norwich? If not, don’t bother going for the sake of pervery: the museum is almost entirely dedicated to the history of local trade, with any mentions of its more exciting days as a house of correction and then prison banished to a hand-out in the introductory room.

So, I copied out everything that looked remotely pervy, to save you a trip.

In 1585 part of (the house) became a “brydewell to keep and stay idle persons to some honest worke and labour”, that is a kind of workhouse to correct as well as punish. Vagrant women and girls were trained for domestic service or as apprentices in crafts such as millinery. Tramps and beggars were taken off the street and put to work cutting wood and grinding malt.

No, it doesn’t specifically say what happened to these folks if they didn’t apply themselves to their work, but I have no trouble filling in the blanks.

Apparently, they had a real problem with vagrants in Norwich back then, but they knew how to deal with this:

Vagrants were arrested, whipped and sent back to their place of origin.

Those would be the vagrants that didn’t end up in Bridewell instead, I suppose.

Then the house became a proper prison. In 1622 its Keeper produced an inventory of items found there. Among other things, like sheets, pillows and benches, there were:

One paire of stockes, two whipping postes, one chaire for unruly p(er)sones, two paire of manicles, two paire of shackles.

A chair for unruly persons? OMG, they gave them time-outs!

Anyway, this is it for kink potential in the Bridewell Museum. All the rest is Norfolk shawls, wrought iron gate latches, recreated workshops and stuff like this.