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Myths Of Great Britain.
#69
If one desires to visit Gordie's domain of Scotland from England, there's county on our shared-border called Northumberland
that stretches from the centre of northern England to the coast of the North Sea. In the middle of this county, lies Elsdon, a small
village and civil parish that sits on the south-eastern end of -what now is, the Northumberland National Park.

The bleak surrounding moors are fantastic if a person requires solitude. But in past years it provided great cover for the Border
Raiders -or 'Reivers', who plundered villages in the 13th century, regardless of their nationality. Elsdon holds another piece of
intriguing history that can still be seen today, a type of gallows known as a Gibbet can be still seen when travelling those lonely
heathlands.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=11453]
The Gibbet.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=11455]
The stone marker of Steng Cross.


The current gibbet stands on the exact spot where the old gibbet had resided and an etched stone at its foot is the base
of a Saxon cross (Steng Cross) which marked the highest point of this ancient drover's road down which cattle were brought
from Scotland to the English markets. In the past, the dead body of a criminal would be placed in a suspended cage or set of
chains hanging from the gallows with the intention of deterring would-be lawbreakers by displaying their ultimate end.

On the night of 29th August 1791, an elderly lady named Margaret Crozier had closed her little drapery shop for the evening
and retired to bed in -what folk called back then, her 'Raw'. A Raw is really titled a Bastle house, a fortified stone farmhouse
deriving from the past need to defend oneself from the Border Reivers.

Being alone in such a remote community, locking the doors was more of a case of habit than concerns of a fellow-Elsdonian
may attempt some type of thievery. But she wasn't alone that night, three pair of eyes were watching the old woman prepare
for sleep and had devilish thoughts on their minds.

William Winter was a big burly man and what they'd call around those parts 'a wrong-un'. For several crimes -including sheep
-stealing, Winter had been transported to Australia in a penal colony. But being ever industrious, had found his way back and
taken up what may have been a family tradition.

The Winter family in general could placed under the title of 'wrong-doers' as William Winter's father -John and his other son
Robert Winter, had already been executed on August 6th 1788 for breaking into the home of William Charlton, esqire and
ransacking the place.

Mr Charlton resided in Hesleyside, just a few miles south of where William Winter and his two female cohorts now primed
themselves to raid Mrs Crozier's store. Both men were hanged in Morpeth, just four years prior to William's next crime.

Jane and Eleanor Clark were of Romany stock and after befriending Winters, told him of some kindness Margaret Crozier
had offered when the two women had passed through Elsdon. They believed she was wealthy and along with the felon
who had committed many crimes around this area, plotted to relieve the old lady of this burden.

Sitting in a livestock enclosure on the Whisker-shield Common of Elsdon Moor the day before and eating what foods they
had acquired, the women and Winter honed their scheme and believed their private charting had gone unnoticed.

Entering the house on that fateful night of August, the ungodly trio cruelly murdered Mrs Crozier and pillaged the rooms in
search of a fortune that never existed. But what trinkets there were, they loaded onto a donkey and fled the scene before
dawn arrived.
An unseen crime, yes. But there's many a slip twixt cup and lip.

During their sheep pen-discussion the day before, a young shepherd boy had passed by and warily evaluated the strange
adults hiding in the corral. Being of an attentive age, he took stock of the type and number of nails in the man's boots as
well as the butcher's knife, a 'gully' that Winter was carving-up their meagre fare with.

It was this evidence that painted William Winter, Jane and Eleanor Clark as the culprits due to footprints found at the murder
scene and the weapon used to accomplish the brutal manner Margaret Crozier had been despatched. The sentence by the
court was that Jane and Eleanor Clark were to be hanged along with William Winter at the Westgate of Newcastle Upon Tyne
on the 10th of August, 1792.

The women's bodies were given over for medical dissection, whilst Winter's corpse had an appointment with the wooden
structure at Steng Cross.

Winter’s rotting corpse hung for many years on his gallows. After it fell apart, the structure was dismantled -but in 1867 the
English naturalist Walter Trevelyan, now landlord of the site, had a replica erected with a wooden mannequin. That figure was
in its turn stolen, and over the years only the often-stolen and -replaced wooden head has remained; even the gallows itself
was torn down at least once. But it has weathered the years and borne the dim memory of William Winter down to the present
day.
..........................................................

To visit this lonely sight of a villain's final look towards the community he'd ravaged, one can use the A696 out of Otterburn and
take the B6341 road about two or three miles, the Gibbet will be on your right. There will be a Northumberland National Park
marker where you can park, the Gibbet is across the road.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=11454]


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Messages In This Thread
Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 11-02-2020, 12:32 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Ninurta - 11-02-2020, 12:57 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 11-02-2020, 01:37 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Wallfire - 11-02-2020, 08:12 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 11-02-2020, 10:00 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Wallfire - 11-03-2020, 07:48 AM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by guohua - 11-11-2020, 07:13 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 11-03-2020, 01:57 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 11-05-2020, 02:01 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 11-06-2020, 10:50 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 11-11-2020, 11:37 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Ninurta - 11-12-2020, 06:26 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 11-12-2020, 06:36 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by PLOTUS - 11-12-2020, 06:46 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 11-12-2020, 07:08 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Wallfire - 11-15-2020, 11:41 AM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 11-12-2020, 06:55 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 11-14-2020, 11:03 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 11-18-2020, 05:57 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 11-30-2020, 10:58 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 12-18-2020, 01:30 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Wallfire - 12-18-2020, 01:48 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 12-18-2020, 02:02 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Ninurta - 12-18-2020, 08:31 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 12-18-2020, 08:44 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Ninurta - 12-18-2020, 08:50 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 12-18-2020, 08:55 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 12-19-2020, 10:03 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by NightskyeB4Dawn - 12-19-2020, 11:42 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 12-20-2020, 07:21 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by NightskyeB4Dawn - 12-20-2020, 08:35 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 12-27-2020, 03:33 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Wallfire - 12-27-2020, 06:31 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 12-27-2020, 06:36 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Wallfire - 12-27-2020, 06:51 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Ninurta - 12-28-2020, 12:15 AM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 01-02-2021, 12:36 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Ninurta - 01-20-2021, 12:24 AM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 04-11-2021, 12:15 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by gordi - 04-11-2021, 01:19 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 04-11-2021, 02:15 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Ninurta - 04-12-2021, 10:33 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 04-13-2021, 09:10 AM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by F2d5thCav - 04-13-2021, 12:04 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 05-14-2021, 04:26 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 07-02-2021, 09:47 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 08-06-2021, 10:32 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 08-20-2021, 05:06 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Ninurta - 08-21-2021, 03:25 AM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 08-21-2021, 10:13 AM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Ninurta - 08-21-2021, 06:34 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 08-21-2021, 07:34 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 12-06-2021, 04:15 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 03-23-2022, 02:38 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Rodinus - 03-23-2022, 04:15 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 03-23-2022, 04:24 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Rodinus - 03-23-2022, 04:32 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 03-23-2022, 04:36 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by WonderCow - 03-23-2022, 04:18 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 03-23-2022, 04:23 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by guohua - 03-23-2022, 05:45 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 03-23-2022, 06:11 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Ninurta - 05-04-2022, 06:34 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by putnam6 - 03-23-2022, 06:12 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 03-23-2022, 06:17 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 04-04-2022, 12:12 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 05-04-2022, 04:52 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Ninurta - 05-04-2022, 06:00 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 05-21-2022, 09:32 AM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 06-03-2022, 01:19 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Ninurta - 06-03-2022, 09:50 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 06-03-2022, 09:57 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Ninurta - 06-03-2022, 10:12 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Selbiene_Raveren - 06-04-2022, 12:37 AM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 06-04-2022, 08:34 AM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 06-11-2022, 11:04 AM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 07-03-2022, 09:45 AM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Minstrel - 07-03-2022, 01:54 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 07-03-2022, 02:17 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 07-24-2022, 07:49 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by Ninurta - 08-07-2022, 07:59 AM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 08-07-2022, 06:57 PM
RE: Myths Of Great Britain. - by BIAD - 10-21-2022, 02:44 PM

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