165 – Wrist Shackle

Physical description:

An iron wrist shackle, with three closing positions. It consists of three iron bands held together with hinges (now seized solid), with an integral ring and another larger separate ring through it. One of the bands has three rectangular holes, giving the three closing positions that enable the shackle to be adjusted to fit the prisoner. Possibly 19th century.

Museum classification:

Persecution

Size:

43 x 122 x 100

Information:

"A small wrist shackle used for female prisoners in Launceston castle. This is one of several items recovered from the rubble of the witches tower of Launceston castle when it collapsed and fell into the roadway skirting the castle many years ago."

The above was abstracted from a card written by Cecil Williamson. An early reference to the 'Witches Tower' of Launceston Castle can be found in William Borlase, Observations on the Antiquities, Historical and Monumental, of the County of Cornwall, 1754.

164 – Neck Shackle

An iron neck shackle, constructed simply from metal rods. Two rods have been bent in a forge to form loops which join them together in a kind of hinge, and wider loops at the other end which would have been joined to a chain once the shackle was around the prisoner's neck.

167 – Ankle Shackle

A shackle hand-forged in two sections: a curved section with one end bent to form a loop, and a hollow rectangular tube-like section, bent to form a flat end with a hole that the loop passes through to join them together. There is another hole at the end of the curved section that is pushed into a hole in the side of the rectangular section, and would have been held in place with a peg (now missing).

952 – Thumbscrews

Iron thumbscrews used in torture. Suspended on a long chain of thirteen narrow oval links, joined to the thumbscrews by two linked rings, and with an ingenious link halfway made from a nail that allows them to rotate. A further larger ring is attached to the end of the last oval link of the chain. The thumbscrew apparatus consists of a bar mounted on a simple screw, and which travels upwards or downwards operated by a rotating wing nut on a W-shaped frame.