The 'unique' building in a Cambridgeshire town once used to keep rowdy locals at bay
Cambridgeshire is filled with weird and wonderful buildings that have hidden histories to discover. While Cambridge is seen as the hub of history in the area with the iconic University of Cambridge and its many old colleges, the rest of the county is worth being explored by history lovers.
This particular building in the middle of a residential street has an interesting history behind it. The Eaton Socon Cage can be found on School Lane and was created as a lock-up for local drunks and people causing trouble on the streets.
As Eaton Socon was a part of Bedfordshire until 1965, anyone that needed to be detained could not be sent to the nearby town of St Neots, as it was in Huntingdonshire. The Cage provided a safe space to allow criminals to cool off before being taken to the magistrates in Bedford the next day.
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After the village stocks had to be repaired multiple times throughout the early 19th century, the town Vestry decided more needed to be done to detain criminals and ordered the Cage to be built. The Cage is different to the other existing village lock-ups as it has two cells compared to the usual one.
One of the cells had a bench inside, which could also be used as a bed, and there were chains to restrain any particularly violent criminals. The building's ceiling was clad with iron plates to avoid prisoners breaking out through the roof.
In 1831, funds were raised to build a fire engine house connected to the lock-up to house a horse-drawn fire engine. The two buildings were originally frequently used over the 19th century but soon fell into disuse with the last known man to be thrown in the Cage for drunkenness recorded in the mid 1890s.
After the two buildings became obsolete, talks about their future would come up frequently. In the 20th century, the town established an Institute for reading and recreation and decided the plot behind the Cage and engine house would be the ideal site its building.
To provide better access to the Institute, the old engine house was demolished but the Cage was surprisingly left untouched. Little had been done over the years to maintain the Cage with ownership of the building changing fairly frequently until in 2008 when the St Neots Town Council decided to take over the Cage to make sure the building's condition doesn't deteriorate.
Keys to open the Cage are held by the Eatons Community Association, which regularly opens the building for the summer months and for pupils at nearby schools to explore.