Stocks

Stocks are feet restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law describing its use is cited by the orator Lysias: "'He shall have his or her foot confined in the stocks for five days, if the court shall make such addition to the sentence.' The 'stocks' there mentioned, Theomnestus, are what we now call 'confinement in the wood'" (Lys. 10.16).^[1]

For other uses, see Stocks (disambiguation).

Modern use[edit]

United States[edit]

In 1989, the Arkansas town of Dermott passed a curfew law punishable by up to thirty days in jail for the offender and up to two days in the stocks for the offender's parents.^[13] The city almost immediately remitted the punishment because, among other things, the city did not have a set of stocks and had allocated no funds to build one.^[14]

United Kingdom[edit]

The British town of Thame made international headlines in 2016 when it took up a proposal to build stocks in the town. Introduced by Councillor David Bretherton, the stocks would be used for hire and for charitable events. As noted by Bretherton, "Perhaps for charity we could do something like that, get people in the stocks and have others donate money for the time they last while having their feet tickled and syrup poured between their toes for laughs."^[15] Bretherton noted that the stocks were still legal in England. It is not believed that the stocks would be used for actual punishment purposes. Currently, further study of the topic is ongoing.^[16]

Colombia[edit]

In Colombia in 2012, married thirty-four-year-old Alfreda Blanco Basilio and her eighteen-year-old lover Luis Martinez were placed in stocks by the Sampues tribe in Colombia due to Basilio's adultery. Basilio spent 72 hours barefoot in the stocks for her offense.^[17]

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, police in Chinu, Colombia, placed residents who broke quarantine in stocks for a few hours.

Worcestershire, on Merstow Green.^[18]

Evesham

Derbyshire; 18th century, on the village green.^[19]

Eyam

Derbyshire; stone stock-ends in a small walled recess on the village street, dating from the 17th century or earlier.^[20]

Little Longstone

Essex; inside the village lock-up, dated 1775.^[21]

Canewdon

Hertfordshire; combined stocks and whipping post on the village green.^[22]

Aldbury

Hertfordshire; in the churchyard but originally sited behind a public house.^[23]

Great Amwell

Lancashire; 18th or 19th century stocks in the High Street.^[24]

North Turton

Norfolk; 1804 or earlier.^[25]

Haveringland

Oakham, Rutland.^[26]

Oakham Market Cross and stocks

Surrey; 18th century stocks and whipping post under a roof outside the church.^[27]

Alfold

; last used in 1866, located on The Green since 1954.^[28]

Bilton, Warwickshire

Warwickshire; 18th century or earlier, by the churchyard wall.^[29]

Ufton

Poulton-Le-Fylde, Lancashire; 18th century, in the market square.