If you wanted to visit Maidstone prison then you would see a building finished in 1819. I mean you are just going to see a load of walls but then that is generally what prisons look like.

You might like to visit the local hostelries of the Flower pot, The Rifle Volunteer or the Cellars Alehouse which are all excellent local pubs.

Or you might like to saunter over to Maidstone Museum which has some displays on the prison.

If you are interested in what I was talking about then feel free to have a gander at these various reading materials.

British execution website

Another rather grisly website she details executions on each day of the year

For details on Thomas Hardy and Calcraft you can look at The Thomas Hardy Journal Vol. 1, No. 3 1985. You might also care to read The Three Strangers and the Withered Arm.

New York Times article from 1880 on William Calcraft

British Library on its collection of Charles Dicken’s letters against public execution

Kent Online article on the execution of Frances Kidder

Interesting website on the execution of Frances Kidder which suggests that she had received a head wound which had altered her personality

The Standard March 13th 1868

Daily News March 14th 1868

The Standard April 3rd 1868

Daily News April 3rd 1868

Morning Post August 14th 1868