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Title: The Site of Gibbet, Halifax - DPC00389
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Title
The Site of Gibbet, Halifax - DPC00389
Description
This rather forlorn looking mound is what remained of the infamous Gibbet in the town. The street where it is situated is called Gibbet Street and there is a modern incarnation there today.
The Halifax Gibbet was an early guillotine, or decapitating machine, used in Halifax. It was probably installed during the 16th century as an alternative to beheading by axe or sword. Halifax was once part of the Manor of Wakefield, where ancient custom and law gave the Lord of the Manor the authority to execute summarily by decapitation any thief caught with stolen goods to the value of 13½d or more, or who confessed to having stolen goods of at least that value.
Decapitation was a fairly common method of execution in England, but Halifax was unusual in two respects: it employed a guillotine-like machine that appears to have been unique in the country, and it continued to decapitate petty criminals until the mid-17th century.
Almost 100 people were beheaded in Halifax between the first recorded execution in 1286 and the last in 1650, but as the date of the gibbet's installation is uncertain, it cannot be determined with any accuracy how many were dealt with by the Halifax Gibbet. By 1650 public opinion considered beheading to be an excessively severe punishment for petty theft; use of the gibbet was forbidden by Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, and the structure was dismantled. The stone base was rediscovered and preserved in about 1840, and a non-working replica was erected on the site in 1974. The names of 52 people known to have been beheaded by the device are listed on a nearby plaque.
The gibbet gives rise to the Beggar’s Litany ‘From Hell, Hull and Halifax, Good lord Deliver us!’
Courtesy of Wikipedia
The Halifax Gibbet was an early guillotine, or decapitating machine, used in Halifax. It was probably installed during the 16th century as an alternative to beheading by axe or sword. Halifax was once part of the Manor of Wakefield, where ancient custom and law gave the Lord of the Manor the authority to execute summarily by decapitation any thief caught with stolen goods to the value of 13½d or more, or who confessed to having stolen goods of at least that value.
Decapitation was a fairly common method of execution in England, but Halifax was unusual in two respects: it employed a guillotine-like machine that appears to have been unique in the country, and it continued to decapitate petty criminals until the mid-17th century.
Almost 100 people were beheaded in Halifax between the first recorded execution in 1286 and the last in 1650, but as the date of the gibbet's installation is uncertain, it cannot be determined with any accuracy how many were dealt with by the Halifax Gibbet. By 1650 public opinion considered beheading to be an excessively severe punishment for petty theft; use of the gibbet was forbidden by Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, and the structure was dismantled. The stone base was rediscovered and preserved in about 1840, and a non-working replica was erected on the site in 1974. The names of 52 people known to have been beheaded by the device are listed on a nearby plaque.
The gibbet gives rise to the Beggar’s Litany ‘From Hell, Hull and Halifax, Good lord Deliver us!’
Courtesy of Wikipedia
Rights
PHDA - Dave Pearson Collection
Relation
Pennine Horizons Digital Archive
Identifier
DPC00389.tif
Collection
Citation
“The Site of Gibbet, Halifax - DPC00389,” Pennine Horizons Digital Archive, accessed April 18, 2024, https://penninehorizons.org/items/show/28760.
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