The Roundabout

A Memory of Wakefield.

The Roundabout use to be a popular place for me to go, it was a public house just a short distance from the Wakefield Jail. I was somewhat surprised on chatting to one man at the bar (I was somewhat interested where he lived) he smiled in such a way that I found it hard to believe when he told me that he lived in the biggest mansion within the whole of Wakefield which had hundreds of rooms and big gate. He was actually referring to to the Prison! He was an inmate at that prison and was allowed out of his prison cell to go over to the Roundabout public house and drink alcohol and then go back over the road to his cell. When he had left the pub that night, and feeling that he had told me a load of pork pies (lies), I spoke with the landlord and asked him if this was right. He told me that he was one of the long term inmates who were allowed to come out for a drink. I'm still not convinced that this was so. Can anyone enlighten me with the facts about this matter? Perhaps you live, or lived in Wakefield - it would be nice to know the truth of the matter.