The museum of the strange.
Littledean Jail - The Forest of Dean.
British Horror Film Locations.
In the early noughties my good friend, Derek Pykett, asked me to help seek out some locations he needed to cover for his upcoming book. He was going to write a reference guide of all the locations used in British Horror films throughout our horror film history.
As projects go, this couldn’t have been more up my street (and as it turned out, it practically was). I accepted the task with excitement and enthusiasm, and Derek gave me my two films.
The first was to visit Crickadarn in Wales, to photograph the house that was used as the frontage for ‘The Slaughtered Lamb,’ in An American Werewolf in London (the interior used is a pub called The Black Swan, in Surrey). My favourite film of all time, I couldn’t wait to get started tracing the steps of Jack and David, as they made their way through pretend Yorkshire all those years ago.
However, this newsletter is all about the second, very unexpected experience I had visiting a location for a film I hadn’t heard of before, but that I would never, ever, forget.
The House of Whip-what?
At the time I lived in the Forest of Dean and the location for the second film, House of Whipcord, was in the next village. I knew of the museum, you couldn’t not know of it if you passed by the gates. At one time (before complaints had them taken down) you would almost crash your car as you saw for the first time a mannequin on the pavements outside, dressed in bondage gear. Littledean is a small village, with little else on the high street other than a pub, post office and fish & chip shop..its no Soho and nor would its inhabitants want it to be (hence the complaints about the half naked plastic lady holding a whip.)
When Derek gave me the mission to find out more about this old courthouse I jumped at the chance, the perfect excuse to go beyond Miss Whiplash and have a look for myself, under the guise of professionalism. I grabbed my notebook and pen and away I went. Was I prepared for what I found? I most certainly was not.
Before I visited, I had bought House of Whipcord on DVD planning to watch it to get a better feel for the location. I took one look at the cover and various reviews and decided it probably was not for me. It felt exploitative and strange, to put it mildly. Horror? Yes, but in my opinion, horror should scare and thrill, making you feel glad to be in the safety of your home, it isn’t something that should arouse viewers sexually and it just felt like this was what the film was. Certainly horror films can be sexy, erotic vampires et al, but this, simply doesn’t feel like that (if you have seen it and disagree, feel free to say and I may yet watch…but probably not.)
Abandon all hope all ye who enter…
From the outside, Littledean Jail looks like an interesting historical building. Yes, there are some stocks to navigate, but it still looks, well, normal. Originally a house of correction, it later became a courthouse (Fred West was tried there for petty offences before he was charged with the Cromwell Street murders). Now it’s a private residence upstairs and a museum across the entire ground floor.
Any notions of normal you may have had standing on the outside, will be blown out of the water once you go through the doors and enter the building.
It has been over ten years since I was there, but the impression will last forever. Every inch of useable space has been utilised, the walls are thick with photographs, posters, Saddam Hussein’s toilet seat, Newspaper clip-
‘What? Sorry? Yes, yes…that’s correct, I did say Saddam Husseins toilet seat, now let me continue...’
Glass cabinets stand across the floor crammed with exhibits from police history, to the personal possessions of serial killers. Myra Hindley’s court outfit anyone?
And the toilet seat…
The sheer amount of exhibits and range of topic is mind blowing, here are just some of the things you may see (at the time of my visit so may have changed):
An extensive pornography exhibition (in a private room so can be avoided, though if you’re seeing everything else, its appropriateness, or not, may pale into insignificance!).
Correspondence between the museum’s owner and various gangsters and criminals, including the Krays and Charles Manson (dubbed Britains most violent prisoner). Andy, the owner and curator of the museum had/has a friendship with Charles Bronson and even attended one of his weddings.
A Holocaust exhibition.
Nazi uniforms.
Crime / serial killer exhibits.
Hollywood stars.
KKK robes.
Stuffed / taxidermy animals.
Exhibitions in the cells, that still stand as they were back in the day, their walls filled with autographed celebrity photos alongside murder memorabilia.
And last but not least…
The largest exhibition of ‘Quadrophenia’ film memorabilia in the UK. There is an entire outbuilding dedicated to it.
I don’t think this covers even half of what you will find once you enter those doors, but it’s a taste of it. I found the KKK robes and Holocaust exhibition particularly upsetting and shocking, and would argue this is not the place to have them, but honestly, I don’t think that’s the point of Littledean Jail. It is everything that interests Andy, and he has amassed a huge collection, you have the opportunity to see it if you wish. There is a warning on the website not to visit if you are sensitive and that the museum is politically incorrect, I promise you, this is not hyperbole.
The night after I visited for the first time I really didn’t sleep well. All that I had seen swam around in my head, polluting my dreams and turning them to nightmares.
Some time after I returned to give the DVD to Andy and information on the book (the upstairs is his private residence and is beautiful). While I was there, two blonde haired, angelic looking children appeared and skipped by us. It was only seeing these gorgeous kids laughing and running through the museum, that I truly realised how dark it all was.
You can visit Littledean Jail for opening days, times and prices go to the website:
www.littledeanjail.com
Derek Pykett’s brilliant book (I am biased, but he is brilliant) is available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Horror-Locations-Derek-Pykett/dp/0786433299/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Until next time…