Once upon a time, at the bottom of Broad
Close in Shaw Street in Greenock there was a thatched house that served as the town
gaol. Daniel Weir in his "History
of the Town of Greenock" (1829) describes it as "an ill-looking thatched house of one
story, and consequently one apartment".
From the walls of the building hung the jougs (or jugs) - an iron collar
attached to the wall by a stout iron chain. This representation of the jougs can be seen on a wall off Cathcart Street (east end) in Greenock where the Broad Close once ran down to Shaw Street which (neither still exist).
In Scotland, the jougs were used both for detention of
wrongdoers and also as a punishment.
Offenders would be secured in the collar and left to the mercies of the
local population who hurled abuse, and heaven only knows what else, at the miscreants. Jougs were often attached to churches and town tollbooths. They acted as deterrent as well as a punishment. Another set of jougs could be found at the West Quay head in Greenock - handy for errant sailors!
In the Ayrshire town of Kilmaurs, the jougs can still be seen attached to the Tollbooth in the centre of the town.
