THE MYSTERY OF THE DARK HOUSE
MARTYN J GRIFFITHS
The very name DARK HOUSE suggests something a bit strange, a bit frightening.Neath had a Dark House but it is barely mentioned in any text and its function remains a mystery to this day.
In 1819 wheels were set in motion to replace the Guild Hall in the middle of High Street (now called Old Market Street) with a new Town Hall (strangely today this building is colloquially referred to as the Old Town Hall).The council decided that the best place for this multi-purpose building would be between Church Place and Cattle Street and that this would necessitate pulling down a property called the Dark House.
NAS/XPL/2/2/5
The name 'Dark House' and modern street names are inserted for the benefit of readers.
The only other reference found to the Dark House in Neath is in a trial at the Great Sessions of Spring 1801 where the passage of a coach through town refers to the route passing that particular building.
Perhaps a clue to the function of the building lies in the Cardiff & Merthyr Guardian of 12th July 1834 where it was reported that a prisoner in Neath was lodged in the 'dark house'.Note this does not have capital letters, but it suggests that the local prison or gaol was known locally by that name.The parish constable who had lodged the prisoner there added that he later spoke to him through the window.Of course, the Town Hall had, by this time, replaced the Dark House so the 1834 report must be referring to a later place of incarceration, probably the one in James Street.
Another clue comes in a lecture given in 1899 by nonagenarian Miss JA Madge.She spoke about the Swansea of her youth and about the Town Hall which stood where the Post Office was later situated in Castle Street.
“Beneath the Town Hall was what was known as the Dark House, a prison entered from another direction….. Here drunkards and brawlers were locked up….. It was a large empty room, with a little straw in a corner for the occupants to lie on, and what light there was, was admitted through a single round hole, which also served for ventilation, having no glass in it. Later on, the Dark House was converted into a Police Station.”
Was the Neath Dark House a prison of some sort?We will probably never know for sure, but a quick internet search shows the term 'dark house' referring to gaols or lock-ups in many other places including East Looe and Launceston in Cornwall and Lancaster castle.
James ll granted a charter to the Borough of Neath in 1685.In it he granted permission for the borough to house a prison, so the town possibly, or even probably, had a prison from that time.The county gaol in Cardiff would have housed prisoners waiting for the next Quarter Sessions.These Sessions held at Neath once a year for serious crimes rated below the level of the most serious which were heard at the Great Sessions.Prisoners would probably have been held in the town for the duration of the Sessions or at least until their trial was heard.Others kept in the local gaol may have been those travellers who attended fairs and markets in Neath and had been caught committing some offence or other.If they were released then they might be likely to abscond so they would have been kept in custody to be put before the next, quickly assembled, Court of Pie Powder.*
The first gaol we know much about in Neath town was in James Street from 1807 (see article 'Gaols and Lock-ups in Neath' NAS website 13th April 2020). There certainly was a Gaol in the town prior to this as it is mentioned in 1788 with reference to the Gaol in Swansea (An Account of the Principal Lazarettos in Europe by John Howard, 1791). There the Swansea Gaol is described as;
'The room for felons (called the black hole) has an aperture in the door but no window : yet at the Michaelmas Quarter Sessions, prisoners of both sexes are here confined for some days…….Similar to this is the prison at Neath where one of the Quarter Sessions is held.'
Perhaps the answer then to our mystery is that Dark House was the Neath Gaol’s James Street predecessor.Everything remains supposition until and unless some further more substantial evidence is discovered, but Neath certainly had a gaol before 1807 and there are no other candidates for its location.
Wikipaedia (public domain)
'A Rake’s Progress' - William Hogarth’s depiction of an eighteenth century prison.
*A court of piepowders was a special tribunal organised by a borough on the occasion of a fair or market. These courts had unlimited jurisdiction over personal actions for events taking place in the market, including disputes between merchants, theft, and acts of violence.
With thanks to David Michael for his advice and assistance.
