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The Modern Cell at Ruthin Gaol was set up with the help of HM Prison Shrewsbury. When Ruthin Gaol was closed in 1916, the prisoners were divided between Shrewsbury and Caernarfon prisons, depending on where they came from. Compare the metal bed with the foam ribber mattress - and pillow (!) - to the wooden boards with straw mattress on top of the Victorian Cell. The clothes here are genuine modern prison clothes marked "SYB" - Shrewsbury, B Block.

When the Gaol closed in 1916 it was used as a depository for the county archives and libraries. It came back into major use in 1942 when the Lang Pen factory moved in, coming from a heavily bombed Liverpool to the calmer backwater of Ruthin. The company made munitions for the war effort such as fuses and gun sights, mostly small articles that would be assembled into larger items later on in other factories. After 1945 the Gaol reverted to depository use until renovation in the early 2000s led to its current use as the Gaol Museum and Denbighshire County Archives.