Guardhouse Lane black plaque

This black commemorative plaque records: Guardhouse Lane Guardhouse Lane takes its name from eighteenth-century guardhouse - the tall building 50 metres down on the right-hand side. The Napoleonic Wars of the late 1790s and early 1800s saw a new warfare of mass armies and large fleets. This made necessary the first serious attempt to house prisoners-of-war in specially built prisons or prison camps, as on Dartmoor or at Norman Cross near Peterborough. Captured French soldiers and sailors were landed at Dorset ports, and marched about 20 miles day, lodging en route at specially constructed staging-posts. Wells Guardhouse was the last overnight stop for other ranks before reaching the newly enlarged Stapleton Prison at Bristol. Recorded plaque organisation: Wells Civic Society.

Guardhouse Lane is named after a guardhouse that served as an overnight lodging for French prisoners-of-war during the Napoleonic Wars, highlighting the logistical efforts to manage large numbers of captives marched from Dorset to prisons in Bristol.