thumb|right|270px|''Spes'' or "Hope"; engraving by Beham, German c1540">Sebald">Beham, German c1540 The stocks were popular in medieval times as a mild restraining device for minor offenders. They were also used as punishment for military deserters, or for dereliction of military duty. In the stocks, an offender's hands and head, or sometimes their ankles would be placed and locked through two or three holes in the center of a board. Either before or after this the wrongdoer might have his or her footwear removed, exposing their bare feet. Exhibiting an offender's bare feet was considered a form of humiliation. Offenders were forced to carry out their punishments in the rain, during the heat of summer, or in freezing weather, and generally would receive only bread and water, plus anything brought by their friends. Finger pillories often went by the name of "finger stocks". Public stocks were typically positioned in the most public place available, as public humiliation was a critical aspect of such punishment. Typically, a person condemned to the stocks was subjected to a variety of abuses, ranging from having refuse thrown at them, paddling, and tickling, to whipping and roasting of the unprotected, extremely sensitive bare feet, a now illegal action called bastinado.

The stocks were used in Elizabethan England, and by the Puritans in the colonial period of American history. Their last recorded use in the United Kingdom was in 1872 at Adpar, west Wales. John May, ''Reference Wales'' (1994)

Current uses

The stocks have also taken on a lighter image, as they are often found at Renaissance Fairs where the public can experience a form of "stocks entertainment" by watching actors locked in the stocks.

Examples

An excellent example of stocks can be seen in Dromore, County Down, in Northern Ireland.

thumb|left|pcx150|The old village stocks in Chapeltown, Lancashire, England.

Locations of examples in England include:

• Aldbury

• Chapel en le Frith

• Chapeltown, Lancashire

• Lymm, Cheshire

• Nottingham

• Prestbury, Cheshire

• Seamer, North Yorkshire

• Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire

  See also

  *Barrel pillory

• Stock (cage)

  References