Tuesday, May 22 2012
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The story of Wakefield Prison & the origin of a nursery rhyme

The old prison gates "Here we go round the mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush.
Here we go round the mulberry bush,
On a cold and frosty morning."  

This well-known children's nursery rhyme may have begun life as a song or chant by inmates of Wakefield prison as they exercised around a mulberry bush within the prison grounds.

The mulberry bush (or more accurately, tree) still thrives at the prison today.


Wakefield Prison - Historic Maps
Take a look at the site of the prison over the past 150 years with our historic maps collection
From the Twixt Aire & Calder collection