Warning – this article mentions murder and capital punishment of criminals.
The gibbet near the village of Elsdon is often referred to as Winter’s Gibbet, taking its name from William Winter who was hanged from it. On 10th August 1792 William Winter and two sisters Jane and Eleanor Clark(e) were executed for the murder of Margaret Crozier and house-robbery of Raw Pele near Elsdon; a number of others, including children, were committed to a house of correction on suspicion of being accomplices. Winter was hung in chains near the site of the crime until his clothes rotted off and then his body was cut down. The original gibbet remained until the wood was destroyed, but it has been remade along with a replica head since.
The execution was reported nationwide. Winter made a voluntary confession in front of three magistrates and named the sisters as being involved in both crimes. Jane and Eleanor had denied being part of the murder. At the execution it was said that he acknowledged the justice of his sentence. Newspapers of the time refer to all three parties having both a criminal past. Winter appeared to have served previous sentences including stealing in Hexham and Newcastle; it was said that ‘he [had] not been at liberty six months together during the last eighteen years’.
The Leeds Intelligencer newspaper (amongst others) reported that his father and brother were hanged at Morpeth in 1790 alluring that this familial pattern was the root cause of William’s behaviour. It is possible that newspaper got the year wrong. In August 1788 John and Robert Winter, father and son, were executed at Fair Moor, Morpeth for breaking into Hesleyside House, the home of William Charlton and stealing a silver tankard. Other reports refer to Robert and John Winter as being horse stealers and were executed for stealing a bay mare worth £10 in the parish of St. John Lee.
At the execution, the son addressed the spectators recommending that they paid attention to their ‘duties of religion’ especially the Sabbath; he had turned towards evil and a life of vice from a young age as he had been brought up ‘without any regard to morality’. This last-minute speech did not change the outcome either man faced, and both seemed resigned to their fate.
An interesting account of Willie Winter is given in Lord Baden Powell’s book, Scouting for Boys, probably first published 100 years ago at least.
It recounts the tale of a local shepherd boy who enabled the capture of Winter by tracking him, as he was able to recognise the sole pattern of the villain’s boots. This was a scouting & tracking skill which Baden Powell had learned while with the Matabellie bushmen in the Transvall, South Africa, during the Boer War.
Fascianting piece. I remember going there when I was a lad. But can anyone help me? My Mam, now long gone, sometimes mentioned a place not far from there as ‘Dancing Hall’. As she had been a farm worker I assumed it was a farm of sorts I paid no heed to it, and never asked questions, but the odd name stuck. And I recenly saw on-line a mention (now lost) of Dancing Hall being the name of the place/house where people were confined on their way to the Hangman’s a few miles away. Dancing – hence dangling from a rope. Can anyone tell me anything about this place?
Hello,
Please email us at archives@northumberland.gov.uk & we will try to assist with your enquiry. Thank you
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