Staff at Ruthin Gaol recently held a launch to celebrate the children’s book they have created and recently had published.
‘Tales of the Gaol’ is available in Welsh and English and tells a story of Chocolate and Vanilla, two mice who live in Ruthin Gaol with the prisoners and kitchen workers.
The book was written by Heritage Assistant Margaret and illustrated by Lynne (aka ‘the mice’, pictured). Another team member, Iwan Davies, digitized the illustrations and John Myddleton translated the book into Welsh.
The team can usually be found greeting visitors and giving guided tours at the Gaol, so the book creation was something they wanted to do for all the families and children they meet.
Margaret says “Children love visiting the Gaol so we wanted to create something they could take away with them and enjoy, and also help their reading skills. It was a team effort – most of us are ex-teachers in our second careers and this is something we were really excited to do”.
Lynne added “The launch was great fun, the younger children really loved the costumes, we had a few giggles with the grown-ups… and the odd cheese joke!”
Manager Emma Bunbury says “The book is on sale at the Gaol and has been very popular, especially with younger audiences as a night time story book. We’re hoping to be able to sell them online at some point as they also make a nice gift and at £2.95 they seem good value. The team here at the Gaol work so hard and really enjoy welcoming people to ‘prison life’. They have lots of creative ideas and it’s great to see their book on sale at the Gaol….now we just need to persuade them to create a Volume 2.”
