Citylife in Lichfield June 2023

Bloody Lichfield
The Gallows at the Crossroads
By Jono Oates
In the winter of 1651 George Fox, founder of the Society of
Friends, or Quakers, strode through the streets of Lichfield
crying out ‘Woe to the Bloody City of Lichfield’, after he had a
vision of the streets running with blood as he approached the city
gates.
One of the bloodiest locations was at the Lichfield Gallows, situated
at the cross roads of St John Street, Tamworth Road, London Road and
Shortbutts Lane (where the Shell Garage is now). Gallows were often
erected on crossroads and there are several possible explanations for
this, one of the most popular being that the gallows would act as a
warning beacon to others, that this might happen to them if they broke
the law too – welcome to Lichfield!
Gallows were a wooden structure, with two upright posts connected
by a crosspiece, from which the hanging rope would be attached.
Gallows were used in Britain from as early as the 5th century, and the
last two people to be executed by hanging took place in August 1964,
just before Capital Punishment was abolished in the UK.
Although executions were definitely not commonplace in Lichfield,
between 1735 and 1799 15 death sentences were issued leading to six
executions (the others received an official pardon post-sentencing).
Prisoners were held in the Lichfield Gaol, now the Prison Cells in the
Guildhall building on Bore Street, before being taken in a horse and cart
to their final destination at the gallows. The death sentence was often
issued for major crimes such as murder, as was the case with Henry
Murral in May 1738 for the murder of Edward Cheney, but also for
minor crimes, such as John Jones in August 1735, who was a pickpocket,
and Joseph Yates in August 1776 for the crime of forgery. In
September 1782 William Davis was hung at the gallows, found guilty of
stealing a horse from John Silvester, who was a butcher from Lichfield.
Davis was a an ‘old lag’, a multiple offender and who had been
sentenced to death at the Old Bailey a few years earlier, but had
received a Royal pardon after agreeing to be transported abroad for life
- although he had obviously escaped and returned to England! As
William stood in the cart waiting for the executioner to despatch him,
he hurled himself off the edge of the cart with such force that he
snapped the hanging rope and fell, unharmed, to the ground! His
‘freedom’ was short-lived though as another rope was found, and he
was not so fortunate the second time around, although the enforced
delay did give him the opportunity to turn to the large crowd and cry
out ‘This is indeed murder…’.
Several of the executions at the start of the 19th century were for
the act of forgery, known at that time as the crime of ‘uttering’. In April
1801 Ralph Greenfield, who had a wife and six children, Thomas Nailor
aged 31 and William Chetland, 46, were all executed at the gallows for
the crime of forgery. The three men all showed contrition while
awaiting their grisly demise, and were visited daily in the gaol by a
clergyman, when they each professed ‘a humbling hope of the pardoning
mercy of God through the blood of Christ’.
The last three men to be hung at the Lichfield Gallows followed a few
years later, in 1810. William Weightman, aged 26, who owned a draper’s
shop in Birmingham, his assistant John Neve, 25, and another multiple
Gallows Wharf at the Lichfield
and Hatherton Canal
offender James Jackson,
aged 39, were all
sentenced for the crime
of forgery. Unlike
Jackson, Neve and
Weightman were first
time offenders, and from
good families, but
despite this they were all
sentenced to death.
A large crowd
attended this gruesome
event, and an eyewitness
said that they
arrived in droves on foot,
on horseback or in
carriages and that they
all drank ale and wine,
laughed out loud and
chatted to their friends
as though they were at a
garden party. After they
had been executed the
Memorial of Neve, Weightman and
Jackson, St Michael's Churchyard
1765 map of Lichfield showing
Gallows location
bodies were transported in the cart to St Michael’s churchyard on
Greenhill, where all three bodies were placed in to the same, unmarked
grave. A stone tablet at the side of the church lists the initials of the
three men and their date of execution.
Today there is no sign of where the gallows once stood, but the
nearby bridge across the former Lichfield and Hatherton Canal, now
being restored, bears the name Gallows Wharf, a stark reminder of
Lichfield’s bloody past.
Sources: The British Newspaper Archive; www.capitalpunishmentuk.org;
Lichfield Lore website.
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