"My" Swedish Adventure ~ Resan ~ Torture Chamber ~ Post 35



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We are starting to finish up at the Tower of London with one final section to check out. Look at the line for the Torture Chamber!

I wasn't sure I wanted to go through this, but the line must be there for a reason. I imaged it must be worth it. What kind of things would there be in this building? Maybe things I'd rather not envision. 

When we reached the beginning there was a sign with a bit of explanation of the chamber. It had been used for prisoners and considering, not many really were actually tortured. After reading that I felt I was ok to see the inside.

 The Manacles

 I typed what the sign says below the photo in case it is difficult for anyone to read.


"The normal torture they employ is to hang a man up by his hands and for this purpose they use a piece of iron with two holes…The iron is tied in the middle by a rope to a beam and the victim is thus left hanging for five or six hours. Sometimes the iron with the holes is rounded off and polished at the part where it touches the hands. This makes the pain more bearable. Some irons have what resembles a cutting edge that draws blood…"

The Rack

I think the sign can be read ok on this photo. 


Here is "The Rack" itself.


One more…

Scavenger's Daughter

I typed this one up also, below.


"Besides the Rack, the principal kind of torture in England is called the "Scavenger's Daughter." It is the complete opposite of the rack…The prisoner's body is folded into three, with the shins up against the thighs and the thighs against the stomach. The torturer then forces the ends of two iron bows together and locks the prisoner inside, almost crushing his body with a hellish compression. This is an inhumane torture, in every way, worse than the rack…"

Ok, enough torture for me…moving on...


Walking around the grounds themselves, I think if I ran across these below, that would have been torture enough for me!


These next two photos I just found. They were taken as we were entering the Crown Jewels exhibit, before we were told we couldn't take photos.


Interesting swap of numbers…and years.


And, with that, we leave the Tower of London.


Thanks for stopping by! 

Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts! 




 Copyright © 2014 Cheryl Palmer All Rights Reserved

Comments

  1. GiniApril 24, 2014 at 9:08 AM

    That rack looks pretty scary . . . thank goodness we have more human ways of punishment today. Great post Cheryl . . . thank you for sharing your wonderful photos of your memorable trip.

    ReplyDelete
  2. my Heritage HappensApril 24, 2014 at 9:43 AM

    The rack was a bit unnerving to see. Thank you for taking time to read my post and comment, it is greatly appreciated!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Organizing ~ Cousins Found

Image
I finally took time yesterday to do something I have been wanting to do for awhile now. It has been several years since I started genealogy and blogging. Many cousins have been found. But, how many? Who? I have not kept any kind of system to log these cousin contacts. I was past due, do I even remember all of them? Well, that was the goal here. I started a spreadsheet of "Cousins Found." I titled columns with things like, phone number, address, email address, surname, how/where we made contact, and if I have met them. I am all about meeting my living cousins and their family members, it does my heart good, plus you never know how long they will be with us. Of course, they may also have information to help us in our genealogy research.   I started listing the cousins names I remembered making contact with, those were cousins I generally keep in contact with anyway, so that was easy. Then, sporadically, I would remember someone contacting me on one e-mail address w
Read more

#31 WBGB ~ Week 11 ~ Come Up with 10 Post Ideas

Image
I am following  Tonia's Roots  as she brings several GeneaBloggers through 31 weeks of working towards a better blog, prompts written by Darren Rowse.  Here is this weeks challenge adapted from Darren Rowse's daily challenges which Tonia is doing as weekly challenges: Ever run out of things to write about on your blog? If your answer is yes – you’re not alone. This weeks's task is to do an exercise that will identify a range of post ideas that you can use when stuck for an idea in future. The key with this process is not to put yourself under pressure to come up with completely new and out of the blue ideas for every post you write. Instead – this process taps into what you’ve recently written on your blog and helps you to identify ways to extend those ideas. Here’s the mind mapping method that I’ve used (note: I’ve talked about this previously so it could be familiar to some). 1. The Set Up Get a whiteboard, piece of paper, note book, tablet pc or someth
Read more

Sentimental Sunday ~ Western Union Telegram

Image
Do you remember telegrams? Western Union Telegrams were a bit before my time. I have scanned the few that were kept and received by my paternal family back in the day.  This telegram was sent to my grandmother from Obed Olson stating his brother Philip had passed away on Wednesday March 9, 1960. It also let the family know that the funeral services were to be on Saturday at 2:00pm at Coop Mortuary in Hibbing, Minnesota. The telegram was to be received by Friday (which would have been March 11) and the funeral with the funeral being the next day I highly doubt my grandparents made if from California to Minnesota for the funeral. Philip and Obed Olson were my first cousin once removed. Unfortunately, I never met either of them. Thanks for stopping by!  Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts!  Copyright © 2011 Cheryl Palmer
Read more