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Main Boards => General Walking Discussion => Topic started by: Jays on 18:48:32, 23/03/19

Title: Gallow locations
Post by: Jays on 18:48:32, 23/03/19
hi all
A chat in a sauna today.
Mike said he did a lovely walk around Gosforth, Cumbria.
He mentioned hangman’s point, a hill in Gosforth, Cumbria which I assume was a gallows.
So coming home looked online, no information.
Looked on the os pathfinder map, no information.


So asking the wise.


Any ideas?


Thanks
John
Title: Re: Gallow locations
Post by: Strider on 20:28:09, 23/03/19
My OS 1:25 shows a Gallows hill about 1km south of Gosforth  NY 076 022
Title: Re: Gallow locations
Post by: Jays on 22:28:35, 23/03/19
Will check it out next week and report.
Thank you
John
Title: Re: Gallow locations
Post by: gunwharfman on 10:19:50, 24/03/19
We have a gallows location here in the South, its at the end (or beginning) of the Wayfarers Walk. Its on Inkpen Hill (Coome Gibbet) a few miles west of Newbury.
Title: Re: Gallow locations
Post by: astaman on 11:15:35, 24/03/19
In Shetland we have 13 sites that I know of that were used as gallow hills. The one I know best overlooks Scalloway and, on the map, is called the Berry Hill. It was used a number of times for the execution of women convicted of witchcraft at trials held in nearby Scalloway Castle. One of the sites on the island of Fetlar still has a stone enclosure that surrounded the execution site. In the period when these sites were used it is likely that the population of Shetland numbered no more than 10,000 people so this number of execution sites seems very high. I don't have an explanation for this but will give it some thought and dig around.


A report by an archaeologist from the University of Vienna suggests 15 sites all of which seem plausible. I haven't read this report carefully yet but will do now. Here's the link for anyone interested:


https://www.khm.uio.no/english/research/projects/previously-projects/assembly-project/documents/field-report-5.pdf (https://www.khm.uio.no/english/research/projects/previously-projects/assembly-project/documents/field-report-5.pdf)


The county archaeology record or Historic Environment Record for your own area should be available from your county archaeologist or local history archive and a digest of it may be available on line and might have some record of gallow hills and even research reports.


Visiting all of the sites on foot would make a good Shetland walking project and could be done elsewhere.
Title: Re: Gallow locations
Post by: Bigfoot_Mike on 11:38:58, 24/03/19
We have a gallows location here in the South, its at the end (or beginning) of the Wayfarers Walk. Its on Inkpen Hill (Coome Gibbet) a few miles west of Newbury.


I ended my Wayfarers Walk here a few years ago. Inkpen is also the start / finish for the Test Way, which I walked part of. Both routes are worth trying out if you are in the area. The Wayfarers varies considerably in character over its length and has a lot of history (not just the gibbet).
Title: Re: Gallow locations
Post by: KimE on 19:22:53, 28/03/19

200 meters from my house there is a cellar there they locked in witches for a whole winter in the 1600 century. The witches had walked from the cellar to the church for a cermony maybee 10km then from there they walked 6km to the mountain there they there beheaded and burned. About 70 were executed for witchcraft most there women and children.


 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torsåker_witch_trials


Title: Re: Gallow locations
Post by: Owen on 19:35:30, 28/03/19
200 meters from my house there is a cellar there they locked in witches for a whole winter in the 1600 century. The witches had walked from the cellar to the church for a cermony maybee 10km then from there they walked 6km to the mountain there they there beheaded and burned. About 70 were executed for witchcraft most there women and children.


 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tors (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tors)åker_witch_trials


Grim time to have lived, especially if you were a woman.
Title: Re: Gallow locations
Post by: Dyffryn Ardudwy on 20:14:26, 30/03/19
The highlight at Gosforth, is the incredible !0C Saxon cross in the churchyard.
Its one of those very rare survivors, a Saxon cross standing at its full height of around 12ft.
Title: Re: Gallow locations
Post by: harland on 20:27:18, 30/03/19
They didn't mess about in the 1700s, sheep theft, burglary, forgery etc!  See:-

http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/northumbria.html

Nothing about MPs!
Title: Re: Gallow locations
Post by: Doddy on 15:29:46, 04/04/19
Melton Gallows, near Barnetby le Wold, North Lincolnshire
Famous gallows on the A18 with two possible histories.
Erected buy an order of James I and that any deaths from a feud  between two local families should be treated as murder.
Or possibly-a local legend has it that the gallows were erected in remembrance of a childrens tragic hanging accident  in the nearby wood.
The simple wooden structure, short rugby post style, was still there the last time I looked.

More on Google
Title: Re: Gallow locations
Post by: ninthace on 17:43:34, 04/04/19
There used to be a gibbet at the eponymous Caxton Gibbet (Ermine Street/A428 crossroads) near Cambridge when I was a boy and used to camp at Longstowe nearby  According to GoogleEarth it is still there - now by the entrance to a MacDonalds.


Edited to add:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caxton_Gibbet
Title: Re: Gallow locations
Post by: astaman on 19:55:29, 04/04/19
[quote author=ninthace
There used to be a gibbet at the eponymous Caxton Gibbet (Ermine Street/A428 crossroads) near Cambridge when I was a boy and used to camp at Longstowe nearby  According to GoogleEarth it is still there - now by the entrance to a MacDonalds
[/quote


I remember it was a rather good Chinese restaurant - sorry to hear it's a MacDonalds. So it goes.