A SMALL piece of paper pinned to a door may not seem like a landmark in history, but in April 1930, a large group of onlookers gathered for just such an occasion.

The paper was a notice informing people that the last hanging to be carried out at Maidstone Prison had taken place; that of Sidney Harry Fox, for the murder of his mother.

David Hatt, from Maidstone, said it was his grandfather, Chief Warder Hatt, who had been the one to pin the notice up.

He recognised him in a Kent Messenger photograph of the occasion some 50 years ago, although he was just six years old when his grandfather died.

“I recognised him when I saw the picture, and I think we have the picture in the family archive somewhere. My mother also told me about it,” he said.

Retired prison governor Bernard Dunn, now living in Maidstone, contacted the Kent Messenger after we published a picture of a large group of people gathered outside the gates of the prison in County Road.

Mr Dunn, whose last post was governor of Elmley Prison, Sheppey, and served at Maidstone Prison between 1980 and 1995, said: “The onlookers are most likely viewing the notice of execution that would have been posted just after the hanging had taken place.

“The execution building was later used as a dog handler unit and the condemned cell area is now the reception centre. The gallows were taken down and placed in oiled cloth and kept in a cellar area under one of the cell blocks. It was still there when I left in 1995.”

Mr Dunn said he recalled a tunnel from the centre of the prison to the River Medway, which was blocked up in the 1960s when two prisoners tried to use it to escape.

“The tunnel was used to take convicted prisoners to ships that would transport them to the colonies. I can remember seeing prison records of women and children who had stolen a loaf of bread or clothing and had received harsh sentences that also included transportation orders.

“The tunnel was also used to take French Prisoners of War from the Napoleonic era who were transferred to hulk ships moored on the Medway.”

According to Mr Dunn, builders carrying out renovation work in the prisoners’ visiting hall in 1885 uncovered human remains around the building.

“These were found to be executed prisoners who were buried in bore holes,” he said.

He added that the prison also had a ghost, the Grey Lady. “Several staff have been startled by unexplained happenings and sightings of the ghostly fogure. I was present one evening when several doors that were open suddenly slammed shut. There was no wind or other natural conditions present that would explain what had happened.”