Editing Norman Cross Prison (section)

==Craft and prison economy==
[[File:Norman Cross block house model.jpg|thumb|Model of the Block House made by a French prisoner in 1801; photographed in 1913]]
At the outbreak of the war, the Transport Board wrote that "the prisoners in all the depots in the country are at full liberty to exercise their industry within the prisons, in manufacturing and selling any articles they may think proper excepting those which would affect the Revenue in opposition to the Laws, obscene toys and drawings, or articles made either from their clothing or the prison stores".

[[File:cmglee_Peterborough_Museum_doll_house.jpg|thumb|left|Doll's house at Peterborough Museum]]
Many prisoners at Norman Cross made artefacts such as toys, model ships and [[dominoes]] sets from carved wood or animal bone, and straw [[marquetry]]. Examples of the prisoners' craftwork were sold to visitors and passersby. Some highly skilled prisoners were commissioned by wealthy individuals, some of the prisoners becoming very rich in the process.<ref name="TrenchArt">{{Cite book|title=Trench art: an illustrated history|author=Kimball, Jane A. |publisher=Silverpenny Press|year=2004}}</ref> Archdeacon William Strong, a regular visitor to the prison, notes in his diary of 23 October 1801 that he provided a piece of [[mahogany]] and paid a prisoner £1 15s 6d to build a model of the Block House and £2 2s for a straw picture of [[Peterborough Cathedral]].<ref name="Walker">{{cite book|author=Walker, Thomas James 
|title=The depot for prisoners of war at Norman Cross, Huntingdonshire, 1796 to 1816|url=https://archive.org/details/b31347447
|publisher=Constable & Company|year=1913}}</ref>

Prisoners were permitted to sell artefacts twice a week at the local market, or daily at the prison gate. Prices were regulated so the prisoners did not undersell local industries. In return, prisoners were permitted to buy additional food, tobacco, wine, clothes or materials for further work. In 1813 ten inmates on behalf of the prisoners were allowed to attend the sale of articles, a long tent was erected in the barrack-yard, where these were exhibited to the visitors, who had purchased articles through the summer, to the amount of £50 to £60 a week.<ref>{{cite news|title= Notwithstanding |newspaper= Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser|date= 15 October 1813|page= 3}}</ref>

At the end of the war, the Transport Board noted that some prisoners had earned as much as 100 [[Guinea (British coin)|guineas]]. An advertisement in 1814 demonstrated that some items were made collectively and others by a solo craftsman.
{{blockquote|The Exhibition of the Thuilleries, the Luxembourg, and the Palace of Charles IV which are now open, No. 42, Old Bond-street, are most uncommon proofs of human ingenuity; whether we take into consideration the many figures moving in all directions, and exercising their different trades on the material with which they are constructed, namely, the bone of beef, they are equally the objects of our admiration. The Thuilleries and the Luxembourg took two years and four months in arranging the architecture only; and the Palace of Charles IV was seven years in completing, being the labour of an individual. These celebrated productions were the work of the French prisoners, during their confinement at Norman Cross.<ref>{{cite news|title= Exhibition |newspaper= Morning Post|date= 1 June 1814|page= 2}}</ref>}}
Thousands of Norman Cross artefacts survive today in local museums, including 800 in [[Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery|Peterborough Museum]], and private collections.<ref>{{cite web|title= Norman Cross Collection|url=http://www.storiesofpeterborough.com/peterboroughmuseum/normancross/|website= www.storiesofpeterborough.com|access-date= 8 February 2021}}</ref> A collection of model ships made at Norman Cross is on display at [[Arlington Court]] in Devon.

During December 1804, prisoners Nicholas Deschamps and Jean Roubillard were discovered [[Counterfeit money|forging]] £1 bank notes. Engraved plates of a very high standard and printing implements were found. The former was convicted of forgery and the latter of [[uttering]] at the Huntingdon [[Assizes]] in 1805. Francois Raize gave evidence for the crown.<ref>{{cite news|title= At Huntingdon Assizes|newspaper= Stamford Mercury|date= 2 August 1805 |page= 3}}</ref> Forging banknotes was a [[capital crime|capital offence]] at the time. They were sentenced to death but this was commuted. They remained in Huntingdon Gaol until they received a free pardon from the [[George IV of the United Kingdom|Prince Regent]] and were moved to Norman Cross and repatriated with the prisoners of war to France in 1814.<ref>{{cite news|title= The two French prisoners|newspaper= Caledonian Mercury|date= 2 June 1814|page= 3}}</ref>

Prisoners at the Norman Cross site were not permitted to manufacture [[straw hat]]s or bonnets (presumably so as not to impinge upon the local industry).<ref name="Walker"/> The authorities appear to have enforced this stipulation: at Huntingdon Assizes in May 1811 John Lun, snr (twelve months) and three sons (six months) were sentenced to prison for a conspiracy, in endeavouring to persuade the NCOs and privates of the garrison to permit a quantity of straw to be conveyed into the site for the purpose of making straw hats.<ref>{{cite news|title= LAW REPORTS|newspaper= National Register (London)|date= 26 May 1811|page= 14}}</ref> In September 1812 the North York Militia held a regimental court-martial lasting three days that reduced four sergeants to the ranks and reprimanded two others for conniving at the guards smuggling raw straw into the prison and the [[Straw plaiting|plaited]] product out.<ref name = Turton104>Turton, pp. 104–5.</ref>