Sophie Constable

Sophie Constable was an eleven year old girl, who was sent to Northallerton Prison, Yorkshire, in 1873 sentenced to three weeks hard labour for stealing a loaf of bread from a shop in Whitby. She was youngest female ever to be incarcerated in the prison and said she had only stolen the threepenny loaf of bread because she was hungry. The sculpture, which is entitled The Ballad of Sophie Constable, depicts Sophie holding the loaf of bread with a prison warden standing behind her with a hand on her shoulder. Following her prison sentence, Sophie was sent to a reformatory school for four years. Northallerton Prison closed in 2013, the sculpture is located in the Treadmills development, in front of the women’s wing of the former jail.

Location: East Road, Northallerton, North Yorkshire.