Monument record MDO43397 - HMYOI Guys Marsh, Cann

In September 1962 Guys Marsh opened as a borstal on a site which was a former Unites States Armed Forces hospital. Some of the wartime buildings which were adapted survive at the north side of the site. The main rebuilding programme occurred during the early 1980s. The new houseblocks are early examples of the British importation of American thinking and they relate to the blocks at Feltham and Erlestoke which are featured in New Directions in Prison Design which was published in 1985. Each house block consists of three triangular units containing 20 cells on two floors arranged around an association area which is lit by windows on the third side. In theory each block could be run as 1, 2, or 3 units. However, there is no strong physical separation in the centre between the units. On the exterior the cells on the top floors project beyond the ground floor cells to allow an internal projecting gallery to be avoided. Instead the gallery runs above part of the ceiling of the ground floor cell. The form of each unit and the complex junction of the units leads to very complicated external massing. This leads to some awkward sections of roof and wall which may prove difficult to maintain in the future. Feltham, Erlestoke and Guys Marsh were the first prisons to use the triangular houseblock form which had developed in America. In the 1990s two new houseblocks were added at the west of the site. In plan they are similar to the slightly earlier blocks but there is a secure division between each triangular unit and the central area of the cluster. Architecturally, these blocks have more modern detailing and a simplified external shape. A new DOW VI (Directorate Of Works VI) unit has recently opened and there are plans to add an RTU (Ready To Use) accommodation block to the site.

<1> 1961, Report on the Work of the Prison Commission (Monograph). SDO17620.

<2> Historic England, Historic England Archive, BF093894 HMYOI GUYS MARSH, SHAFTESBURY (Index). SDO14738.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1125885 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 10 2022 4:36PM