PRN 45609 [This record includes information from PRN 47187 which has now been deleted.] The house of correction in Louth was one of three which served the administrative district of the Parts of Lindsey, the others being at Kirton-in-Lindsey and Spilsby. The house of correction existed here at least as early as 1669 when there is a record of a woman having been set to work there. In 1809 two additional dayrooms and yards were created at the gaol. In 1819 it was capable of holding 100 prisoners, 70 male and 30 female, in four classes. In 1820 a corn mill for employing 24 male prisoners was constructed. A new house of correction was erected between 1825 and 1828 to the designs of Henry Edward Kendall. It had a central building in the form of a truncated square, which contained the keeper's house and chapel, and three attached wings. In 1848 James Sandby Padley produced plans for a new west wing and an enlarged treadwheel with 28 compartments. New workrooms were built in the early 1850s. In the late 1860s the decision was taken to reorganise the penal system in the Parts of Lindsey. A new prison for the whole of Lindsey was opened in 1872 in Lincoln, and the three existing houses of correction, including Louth, were closed.{1}{3}