Raise The Horns For Halloween / A Day Out At The Gallows

Winter’s Gibbet, on Steng Cross, in Elsdon, Northumberland, remains a popular venue for a day’s excursion. Named after one William Winter, hanged at Newcastle’s Westgate in 1792 for murder and whose body was subsequently displayed as a warning to all Steng Cross, the current gibbet is the latest in a long line of wooden replacements. What is perhaps most surprising to us about this picture (top of the page) is the seeming formality of the group’s clothes. It is a cold day – but not that cold, given that the group is wearing hats and scarves, but not gloves. And this is a family group – there are resemblances to be seen. What has brought them together? What were they commemorating in this photograph, under the wooden head of William Winter? – Chris Wild.