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One producer, one randomly generated postcode, and the search for an unheard story.

One producer, one randomly generated postcode, and an unheard story unfolding in a corner of Britain we wouldn't otherwise know about.

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The Patch: Gartree, Market Harborough

Gartree, Market Harborough

BBC Radio 4 - The Patch, Gartree, Market Harborough

The small rural village that hosts a prison for people serving life sentences.

The random postcode generator sends producer Polly Weston to a village that hosts a prison for people serving life sentences.

One random postcode and a story you probably haven't heard before.

Gartree, outside Market Harborough, is a rural Leicestershire village which hosts an unusual prison. HMP Gartree is a category B prison for people serving life sentences. When producer Polly Weston arrives in the postcode, she is drawn to the village by the big yellow banners in the hedgerows which say "Stop the new prison". The Ministry of Justice hope to build a new super prison here, housing another 1700 people. On her first trip, the Gartree Action Group are deep in preparations to fight the forthcoming planning inquiry. But at the planning meeting she realises that the village itself was originally built to house prison officers, and while the properties were all sold off long ago, to this day a number of former prison officers remain here and are part of the planning objection group. They claim the current prison is short staffed. Is it true? While waiting to be allowed to go and visit the prison, we track down former prisoners to talk about prison staffing and what they witnessed unfold inside the jail.  

Produced and presented in Bristol by Polly Weston
Editor: Chris Ledgard
Mixed by Ilse Lademann
A BBC Wales and West Audio Production

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