
The stocks in Roberts Park, Saltaire, Baildon, Shipley, West Yorkshire. (Photo: John Yeadon/CC BY-SA-3.0)
Generally, we think of public punishment as a relic of the past — a style of justice rendered obsolete by the development of the modern prison system which took criminal justice out of the town square and moved it behind bars. But this week, Thame town councillor David Bretherton has discovered that although public punishments have fallen out of favor over the past 200 years, they haven’t been entirely scrubbed…
Source: In the UK, It’s Still Legal to Place People in the Stocks | Atlas Obscura
Very interesting!
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One of us should do some research on what’s never been taken from the statute books. I have a feeling, for instance, that we might still be able to graze geese on common land!
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Indeed!
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I don’t know about foot-tickling in Thame. I can think of a few people I would like to stick in the stocks, and do more than tickle their tootsies! Time to build the Beetley Stocks, methinks!
Best wishes, Pete.
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Likewise!
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