Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Cold Bath Fields Prison, in Farringdon, London, fl. 1794–1877, and known for its severity; thus feed the chickens on Charley Bate’s farm, to be sentenced to the treadmill.

c.1850		‘Bates’ Farm’ in Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues I (1890) 141/2: I’m up to every little fake, / But in me there’s no harm, / For it was this blooming morning / That I left Old Bates’ Farm.
1884		Sporting Times 22 Nov. 1/1: Captain Knox—What at it again? Do you want another stretch at Johnny Bates’ Farm?
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.