Street Tales: Gallows Hill

illustration: Eva Brudenell
 

Back in the good old days when a hanging could easily be turned into a bit of a family day out, the principal sites used for executions in Nottingham were Gallows Hill, County Hall (Shire Hall), the House of Correction, and Bagthorpe Gaol. Ogilby’s road map of 1675 depicts the town’s permanent gallows as standing at the summit of the forest ridge – at the juncture of the present Mapperley Road – and there’s little doubt that it was the common place of executions for centuries.

The prior of Lenton, Prior Heath, was probably hanged there with his monks in 1538 after they were accused of high treason, and executions were continued here – or in later times across the road where the Church (Rock) Cemetery gates now stand – until 1827. It was not unusual for the bodies of the hanged persons to be buried at the foot of the gallows, and when levelling work was done at the site in 1826, more than fifteen skeletons were exhumed. In 1871, St Andrew’s Church was erected on this site.

James Granger (1904) commented, “the gallows appears to have been erected on the level ground which now forms the portion of the Church Cemetery, and it was probably 100 yards, or rather more, from Mansfield Road. At that time the old road on the top of the Forest (Forest-side) was for a distance from Mansfield Road included in what is now the Church Cemetery. I consider it probable that going northwards, the site of the gallows was about 100 yards from the southern boundary of the cemetery, and probably rather more from Mansfield Road, according to the contour of the ground as depicted on the official map. There is so much likelihood that the gallows was erected near to where the last windmill on that side of the Forest then stood or was afterwards constructed.”

It should not be forgotten that in former times, criminals belonging to the county as well as the town were hung upon the Nottingham Gallows. The course taken to the place of execution from the County Hall, High Pavement (now Galleries of Justice Museum) and the Town Hall, Weekday Cross was by way of Bridlesmith Gate, High Street, Clumber Street, Milton Street and Mansfield Road to Gallows Hill. The last execution that took place there was that of a man named William Wells – condemned for highway robbery – on 2 April 1827.

For more on Nottingham history, check out the Nottingham Hidden History website.

Nottingham Hidden History website

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