AN aspiring overseas aid worker is set to confront her one of her worst nightmares by spending a night locked alone in a 17th Century jail cell, to help impoverished children and women in Africa.

Bethany Longden said she will follow in the footsteps of inmates at the former prison in St Marygate, Ripon, which served as the House of Correction for Vagrants and Liberty Prison, from 1686 to 1878, from dusk on January 4 to dawn the following day.

The cells, which were considered among Britain's worst when it closed as part of Government reforms, still contain wooden beds with no mattresses and slop buckets.

The prison, which has been converted into a museum, invites visitors to imagine the horrors of being set in the pillory, strapped in a restraint chair or hung in chains.

The harsh regime there during the Victorian era included hard labour by turning the crank, carrying out shot drill or climbing the treadmill.

Miss Longden, the sister in law of James Etherington, the director of Ripon Museums Trust, which runs the former jail as an attraction, said she had been inspired to take on the challenge after learning of economic inequality in Nigeria.

She will visit communities in the south-west of the African country in February with the the Voluntary Service Overseas Project to promote small-scale entrepreneurship, encouraging young people and women to take up vocational skills training and raisr awareness of ways to increase food production.

To boost funds for the project and the trust, she will share the harsh conditions she experiences in the bare cell, throughout the night on twitter @RiponMuseums

She said: “I wanted raising money for these good causes to be a real challenge for me, so I thought of the worst things that could happen to me and being imprisoned was near the top of my list

"For a long time I have been volunteering with charities, from helping run Girl Guides for four years, to working in a charity shop, to spending a summer teaching English with a charity in Ethiopia.

"This is the next step of my journey, which I hope will lead to a career working with non-governmental organisations."

Anyone wanting to support Miss Longen can contact the museum to donate or visit her fundraising page justgiving.com/Bethany-Longden/