Is there a chance that you recognise anyone in this rather bizarre image from faces in your family photographs, or perhaps you have learnt from family stories that they took part in this tableau? It shows one participating group from the Conservative Pageant at Alnwick Castle on July 6th 1927. The “Rothy and Combo” Conservative Party group is recreating the horrific Tale of the Winter’s Gibbet. The gibbet at the back of the picture represents one put up at Elsdon, not in that season but to display the body of a man called William Winter.
in 1791 a lady called Margaret Crozier lived near Elsdon. Believing her to be rich, a chap called William Winter and two female accomplices (Jane and Eleanor Clark) broke in to her house, murdered the old woman and then made off with her goods. However the keen eye of a shepherd boy who had seen them near there the night before managed to bring them to justice.
The three convicted murderers were hung at Westgate in Newcastle on the 10th August 1792. Winter’s body was then taken to Steng Cross, not far from the actual murder. It hung in chains on the gibbet for many years, until until even his clothes had rotted away, as a warning to others contemplating a life of crime. In 1867 Walter Trevelyan, owner of the land and the Wallington Estate, built a replica gibbet with a wooden mannequin, so the tale of Winter’s Gibbet continued to be remembered by later generations.
If you have any information about anyone in the photograph above, do please contact Bailiffgate by emailing ask@bailiffgatemuseum.co.uk. Both the museum and the Northumberland and Durham Family History, who kindly provided us with this image, would love to hear any news, and we will be happy to pass it on.