AN HISTORIC form of punishment for convicts - the treadmill - was finally removed for Worcester Gaol in Castle Street at this time 100 years ago.

Berrow's Journal reported: "The Treadmill, which for so long a period was a means of enforcing discipline in Worcester Prison, has disappeared.

"The complicated treadmill introduced into the prisons of Great Britain was the invention of Mr (afterwards Sir William) Cubitt of Ipswich. It was first erected at Brixton in 1817 and afterwards in other large prisons. However, after prolonged experience, unproductive crank and tread-wheel work has now been abolished.

"The treadmill in Worcester Prison was in late times used for grinding corn sent by persons outside and, more recently, for raising water from a well. The latter use was stopped about 12 months ago, and the mill has since been gradually removed. Prisoners have clearly been more easily reformed and put to more productive prison work now that they are no longer made to feel degraded by the punishment of 'grinding the air'.

"Thus it is at Castle Street that a landmark has been destroyed."

The Journal also went on to quote "a Worcester journalist" who had once visited the treadmill at Castle Street.

"I remember well the long treadmill apartment, the one end of which touched the gallows chamber where I had previously been compelled to watch three gruesome executions as an official public witness.

"The treadmill was very large, and it took eight or 10 convicts to turn the wheel. I was told they had a turn of 20 minutes and then a little interval of rest before starting again. They climbed up steps to get over the wheel, and seized hooks in the wall. From these they hung their weight, doing their honest duty of moving the treads with their feet. If they 'bilked,' their shins got rapped as the wheel revolved."