The Stocks & Whipping Post

Legislation of 1376 required that stocks be set up in every town or vollage to encourage virtue and discourage evil doers. A short spell in the stocks was the usual reward for misdemeaners such as blasphemy, drunkenness or breaking the Sabbath. The Whipping Post still has iron grips of three different sizes to fit all comers! Neither were used after the early part of the 19th century when responsibility for miscreants had passed from the manorial Constable to the parish Vestry.

©text Sheila Millard 1993 photograph by Garrett Coakley

(Photograph by Garrett Coakley)