The Smisby lock-up is built of brick and is a Grade II* listed building.

They were commonly constructed in rural areas, some distance from local courts, prisons or police stations, where there was a need for a structure for the temporary confinement of wrongdoers.

It was built in response to an order from the Derbyshire Court of quarter sessions, dated January 1790, which required that, "all parishes in the county where there is not already a Round House, House of Correction, or Gaol, shall provide a place of temporary confinement for the reception of vagrants, paupers, felons and the like.

"[5] The lock-up at Smisby, known locally as “The Jug”, is considered the best exemplar of the type now surviving in Derbyshire.

[7] Clare Hartwell, in her 2016 revised volume, Derbyshire, of the Pevsner Buildings of England series, notes the pyramidal roof,[8] topped by a ball finial.