Escapee to lead tours around Dana Prison

Walter is now 81 and says he has plenty of time to ponder how he has turned his life around since scaling the perimeter wall.

And he will be telling his story to visitors as part of the jail's History Day on May 1.

"I am proud," he said. "I wanted to be good. Generally I am a generous person. I would sooner give people money than take it off them." He had been in and out of custody since the age of 16 when he was first detained for breaking into shops.

Walter's first stretch inside the Dana in Shrewsbury saw him serve four years for a host of petty crimes. It was during a second spell there, while serving a three-year sentence, that he made his daring escape – but he only lasted six days on the run.

After escaping on October 21, 1961 at the age of 25, he was recaptured in Moss Side, Manchester, on October 27.

"I have never killed anybody or been violent. I had done a four stretch here, which is why I was able to find my way out of the prison," he recalled. "It was only when I met my wife I became a good lad.

"I had been here for one week when I was approached by another prisoner who was desperate to get out.

"Some of the cons had told him if anybody knew how to get out, it was me.

"I thought it would be a challenge. I helped him if only for the challenge of it. Then I thought I may as well go myself.

"From the day he approached me it took 16 days to get out and over that wall.

"I had high-profile friends in London and in Moss Side, Manchester. I was going to go to London but instead I changed my plans.

"I ended up being grassed up in Moss Side after six days."

After his capture, Walter spent three months on the block in Strangeways, including 28 days of bread and water.

"Then when I finished that I was taken to a smaller block in Durham for high security prisoners," he recalled.

Walter was then moved back to the Dana to see out the rest of his sentence.

He later served one more, much shorter, sentence at the Dana, before meeting his wife shortly after his release.

Prisons in the 60s were tough, Walter said. "In those days it was no holiday camp.

"The discipline was very severe, not like it is today. When I first came in, a daily routine was get up early in the morning, about 7.30am. You had to slop out and then you went back to your cell." Walter puts his turnaround to meeting his wife, Barbara, whom he met shortly after being released from the Dana for the last time.

"I met her through my sister," he said.

"My sister said I had to go and live with her. I had a job and I wanted to try and go straight. When I had got somebody that meant something to me, I thought I was missing out somewhere. It was hard to go straight but I did it. I went on to work 14 hours a day for 50 years."

After returning to the prison for the first time as a surprise for his 81st birthday with his family, Walter's story has now been put in a book, which will be available at the History Day at the prison, an event put on by Jailhouse Tours. And Walter admits he is looking forward to taking guided tours.

"That is what it is all about – bringing real life stories to the prison," he said.

"Ultimately, I have made history here and I will be showing people how I got out."

The History Day takes place on May 1. It is open to visitors aged 12 and above.