Some dark yet interesting history

Rare photo of Newcastle Gaol, one of the largest and harshest jails in the country through the 1600/1800s.
St James' Park was built on the Southernly grounds of Castle Leazes where many prisoners where sent to death via capital punishment.
If the Gallowgate at St James' Park rings a bell, that's because it was named after the “Gallows Hole” a site in which St James Park was built upon!
The “Gallows Hole” was a place of brutal and prolific public execution including 22 people being hung in just one day in 1650.
You may think that only the worst of criminals were sent to the Gallows Hole but you'd be wrong. Such was the extent of our historic brutality that people, aged between 13-70 where hung for things as menial as forging a bank note or stealing a Horse. Witches where also hung from the site on a reported daily basis.
The last hanging took place in 1844, only three decades before the first ball was kicked at the site. The man was named Mark Sherwood who was convicted of murdering his Wife. Mark was taken by cart to the gallows, in front of the elegant Leazes Terrace, whilst being sat up-right upon his coffin!
Hangings still took place in Newcastle in the 1900s with John Dickman being the last man to be executed in 1910, however, they stopped using the Gallows Hole after the execution of Sherwood due to two things, the controversy surrounding the hanging of Sherwood and the construction of St James Park on the Gallows Hole site.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wife Pours Hot Water On Husband’s Private Part

Image
A Primary school teacher, Mallam Aliyu Ibrahim from Danbatta Local Government Area of Kano State has had hot water poured on his body by his wife, targeting his private part. The teacher who was rushed to the hospital spoke with newsmen on his hospital bed Writhing in pains , he said “Since the time I told her about my plan to marry another wife, I did not see any change of attitude from her and we had been living together “Last night after I returned home, I bought some meat for them. I met her boiling the water, but I had no idea she was going to use it for me.” The incident was later reported to police in the area .
Read more

26 Decade-Defining Events in U.S. History

Image
Dividing history into decades is an arbitrary but sometimes very useful way of trying to understand the arcs and significance of events. Trying to identify any single event as crucial to the understanding of a given decade may be even more arbitrary. It is certainly subjective. Nevertheless, that attempt can at the very least be a catalyst for discussion. What follows is an attempt to identify decade-defining moments in the history of the United States since the country’s inception. 1770s: Declaration of Independence (1776) The centrality of the Declaration of Independence (1776) to the developments of the 1770s is self-evident. From the Boston Tea Party to the “shot heard round the world,” Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River, and the Valley Forge winter, the American Revolution’s pursuit of liberty was made meaningful by the founding document of the great American experiment in democracy. 1780s: Constitution of the United States of America (1787) With the war won, independenc...
Read more

The death penalty is still very much alive

Image
Despite the repeated intervention of international organisations, the death penalty is being handed down in courts in countries across the world, on a daily basis. Having faced the death sentence on several occasions, Tintin has direct experience of this dreadful punishment. Let us take a look at the origins, history and modern-day use of this brutal punitive measure. Brought back into use in the United States in 1977, today capital punishment is common In the year 2007 alone, some 1252 executions were recorded in 24 countries, and at least 3347 people were condemned to death in 51 countries. This figure is likely to be inaccurate as it does not take into account the many executions which take place outside of the public eye. The whole world seems to be implicated: the death penalty is not only a state-controlled punishment but is also practised by terrorists. Sometimes these executions are highly publicised such as the televised 'death sentence' (murder) of journalist Daniel ...
Read more