Female inmates who had recently given birth and were still suckling their babies were often exempt from hard physical labour. Here the surgeon orders that 'No Woman that is suckling to be work'd on the Wheel' (i.e. prison treadmill). The County Gaol at Haverfordwest was one of the first provincial prisons within Wales to install a treadmill. A corn-grinding 'mill' was installed at the prison some date before August 1823. The mill was designed and built by Sir William Cubitt, who had installed similar mills in twelve other British prisons. The treadmill provided work for up to 64 prisoners, men and women. Source: Michael Freeman, 'Haverfordwest Castle, 1577-1964' in Dilllwyn Miles (ed.), 'A History of the Town and County of Haverfordwest' (Llandysul, 1999).

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