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Winter's Gibbet
Two miles east of Elsdon along the Drove road to Newcastle-upon-Tyne on a windswept and remote Northumberland moor known as Whiskershields Common, stands this gruesome gallows. On 10th August 1792 notorious criminal William Winter together with two accomplices, sisters Jane and Eleanor Clarke (also known as Douglas) were hanged for the murder of Margaret Crozier of Raw Pele, a hamlet within sight of the gibbet. William Winter and the two sisters had knocked on old widow Crozier's door late on a stormy night in November 1791, apparently seeking shelter. But the trio of evil-doers plundered her house, strangled the old lady and then slit poor Margaret's throat. They were soon apprehended and tried at Newcastle Assizes. William Winter was hanged in chains and his body was left on the gibbet until his clothes rotted away, while the women’s bodies were given over to local physicians for teaching anatomy to medical students. Once Winter was finally cut down, the gibbet remained until the weather destroyed the wood. It has been remade a number of times since the original stood here but no matter how many times the executioner’s pole has been stolen or destroyed, the gibbet is always rebuilt by the local community. Taken with a Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera Supercolor Autofocus on Polaroid (TIP) B+W film
Shotdate | -location:
2022
July
27
| Northumberland (GB)
Camera
| Filmtype:
POLAROID SX-70
| Impossible SX-70 B/W 2.0
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