The Halifax Gibbet

Another freezing cold but sunny day up here in North Yorkshire. Went over to Halifax in West Yorkshire to take some photos of the Halifax Gibbet. It is a replica that stands in Gibbet Street, Halifax. The Gibbet is a guillotine which was used for public execution in Halifax from the 13th to the 17th century, long after the practice had been discontinued in other parts of the country. Between 1541 and 1650, the official records show that 53 people (men and women) were executed 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.
Most people will know the famous Beggar's Litany 'From Hell, Hull and Halifax, Good Lord deliver us'.