WORCESTER jail, then in Friar Street, was one of the last prisons in Britain still to have a treadmill at this time a century ago.

The Journal of 1901 explained: "Treadmills are fast disappearing from our prisons. They have had a long prison life, having been introduced into houses of correction the year before the accession of the late Queen Victoria (1837).

They were the invention of a Mr Cubitt, and in various prisons have been turned to more or less valuable uses.

''Cynical prisoners say that the uses requiring the greatest energy for the least result have been most favoured, and it has been alleged that they have been employed for grinding air and smoke, though goodness knows how that is done.

The treadmill in Worcester Prison, which is one of the last 18 remaining in the country, was formerly employed to grind corn, and latterly to pump water. Its recent service cannot be said to have been very profitable, although exercise upon it cannot but have been chastening.

Visitors to the prison, whether honoured or otherwise, had better take a farewell peep at it, for like the other 17 remaining, it has to be abolished as soon as a satisfactory substitute can be provided.

As a water wheel revolves and its steps catch the weight of the falling water, so the treads of the mill catch the foot weight of the prisoner who hangs by his hands from a hook in the wall.

''He gets a rap on the shins by the edge of the tread if he misses his footing lazily or accidentally.

This kind of penal labour is on its last legs, so to speak, and weary-legged prisoners will not regret it. Some people who have been privileged to turn the treadmill for a few minutes by way of diversion have thought it funny, and have described it as climbing endless stairs or pedalling a cycle blindfolded.