If you were a wrongun at any point in the Middle Ages, chances are, this is where you'd land yerself!

Berwick Stocks are a tight fit, a sliver of history sitting on the side of the Old Town Hall on Marygate.

The real McCoys are kept inside, presumably to prevent any Friday night tomfoolery. These are replicas of the originals and are given Grade II listed structure status.

They're made up of a series of six leg holes on a hinged piece of wood, something akin to a wooden shame sandwich, which aimed to hold captive anyone who'd created a bit of a brouhaha in Berwick!

The clamping of baddies' ankles was a form of humiliation, where misdemeanants were made to sit in full view of the public, often at a crossroads or outside a public building. Passersby would jeer, ridicule and maybe throw the odd Ye Olde Greggs remnants at those locked in the stocks. Scamps would be literally on the seat of their pants in public for anywhere from a few hours to a few days, depending on the severity of their sins!

And what could cause a visit to the stocks? Well, anything from having a sherry too many, public effing and jeffing (I'd never be out!), sticky-fingered stealing, hanging abooooot or demanding higher wages, absenting oneself from church, blaspheming or gossiping about others (that's all of the FN team).

This illustration shows the stocks from The Dunlop Book: The Motorist's Guide, Counsellor and Friend. First published in the early 1920s.

Giles Jacob commented that the stocks were:

The image above shows a man and a woman held in stocks and is a wood engraving from 1858 in John Cassell's Illustrated History of England, Volume II.

They could have been held here for such minor crimes as selling full pots of strawberries that were back-filled with ferns!

The Berwick Stocks were a form of corporal punishment taken by the body, but felt in the mind for sure. Who'd want Mrs Smith up the lane knowing you'd not paid your butcher's bill, or your work colleagues knowing you'd been caught with your bum on ye olde photocopier?

The stocks were seen as a preventative rather than a cure. It was a way of policing people and shaming them into social norms. Who wants to sit exposed in full sun, rain, hail, a hurricane or a full-blown snowstorm in full view of your neighbours, family and work colleagues?

It was an encouragement of judgment. After all, who wants to be the 'Laughing stock of the village'? Passersby were actively encouraged to taunt captives and were able to spit, mock and throw stones or poo! The shame! Note to self...pay the window cleaner!

You definitely wouldn't want to be pilloried. That was altogether worse. Your hands, head and neck would be held in a similar device, but you'd be forced to stand all the time, causing great pain and discomfort and you would have been much more vulnerable to flying objects with no hope of deflecting the damage to your face. There are records of a woman in London who had her ears nailed to the pillory for spreading rumours! Who's put on a few pounds and started the fat jabs? Shhhhh...keep it to yourself!

This 1862 painting here is by artist Eyre Crow and shows Daniel Defoe in the Pillory for seditious libel.

Most towns and villages were required to hold a set of stocks. Most were double sets, so this set of stocks, adequate for three louts, is a bit of an upgrade. Lo and behold, if you were big-bottomed and your bahookie overlapped the next bad ass. Berwick must have perpetually had plenty wronguns!

The originals can be seen inside the Old Town Hall, which houses the fascinating prison, well worth a visit, alongside a multitude of other forms of punishment which would make your toes curl.

There are apparently other examples of regional stocks in the North East at Hexham, Wallsend, Tynemouth and Jarrow! You just need to source them by looking them up in The Directory of Stocks, Pillories and Whipping Posts in England. Yes, that's a thing. There's some weekend reading!

Berwick Stocks are said to have been last used in 1849 for a wife who skipped a fine for being drunk and disorderly!

This image is taken from the Builth Wells Historical Pageant in 1909 and is entitled 'In The Stocks Again'. It's evidently a mock-up of a punishment that once was.

Today, these stocks are a silent reminder on Marygate of the evils of punishment for stepping out of line. Today we have CCTV and security cameras and tags. We are discouraged from speaking ill of others and general wrongdoing...What might happen if we had a return to the stocks?

Who do you think deserves a day or two in these eh? It's a good reminder to watch yer P's and Q's!