Discovery of Spence Broughton's Gibbet

[Guest tsavo]

Nearly went to look at it myself. (until I checked the date)

Discovery of Spence Broughton's Gibbet

The remains of the Gibbet-post of Spence Broughton, who was hung in irons on Attercliffe Common after being executed at York for the robbery of the Sheffield and Rotherham Postman, have this week been dug out of the ground.

It is solid old oak, perfectly black and quite sound, though embedded in the ground since 1792. It consists of a MASSIVE framework, 10ft. long and 1ft. deep, firmly embedded in the ground to support the Gibbet-post, which passed through it's centre and was bolted to it. Some 4ft. 6in. of this post is left, the remainder of the post is 18in square.

This relic was discovered by a person named Holroyd, in making excavations for the cellars of some houses in Clifton Street, Attercliffe Common, opposite the "Red Lion". It was conveyed into the garden of that Inn, where it may now be seen.

Many hundreds of persons have paid it a visit.

Source: Times Newspaper 6th May, 1867

[Guest Danny]

Was this ever preserved, dug out of the ground etc??

Cant see why not, Spence Broughton is quite famous in Sheffield aint he? (or is he just well known amongst us Sheffield History buffs?)

Also, without being at home and checking my OS map of the area before Attercliffe Common was widened, does anyone know how far Clifton St/Broughton lane extended in comparison to today?

Just wondering if the site will still be accessible, or if it is now in the middle of the road?

Dan

[Guest Gramps]

Clifton street still runs from Attercliffe common to Surbiton street as it did in 1903...

[Guest Danny]

Does it still extend as far out onto the common though?

Just thinking, if they pulled back the opening when they widened Attercliffe common, because it is surely wider now than it was back then, the site where the gibbet was found might now be in the middle of the carriageway.

[Guest Gramps]

Leader's version of the story has the Yellow Lion as the name of the pub.

" In 1867 a person named Holroyd, while making excavations for cellars opposite the Yellow Lion, came upon an upright piece of solid black oak, passing through and bolted to a MASSIVE framework, firmly imbedded in the ground. There can be no doubt that these were the socket and the bottom of the gibbet- post,"

There is a photo of the rear of the Yellow Lion in the book East End Camera which indicates it was on or near the corner with Pickering street - some distance from Attercliffe Common.

Perhaps one of our Public House experts could establish what pubs/beerhouses were on Clifton street in 1867 ?

Also worth noting that in 1792 'Attercliffe Common' didn't refer to the road as we know it, but the land across which the road ran; in a contemporary picture the gibbet is shown as standing well back from the road.

[dunsbyowl1867]

Leader's version of the story has the Yellow Lion as the name of the pub.

" In 1867 a person named Holroyd, while making excavations for cellars opposite the Yellow Lion, came upon an upright piece of solid black oak, passing through and bolted to a massive framework, firmly imbedded in the ground. There can be no doubt that these were the socket and the bottom of the gibbet- post,"

There is a photo of the rear of the Yellow Lion in the book East End Camera which indicates it was on or near the corner with Pickering street - some distance from Attercliffe Common.

Perhaps one of our Public House experts could establish what pubs/beerhouses were on Clifton street in 1867 ?

Also worth noting that in 1792 'Attercliffe Common' didn't refer to the road as we know it, but the land across which the road ran; in a contemporary picture the gibbet is shown as standing well back from the road.

Hi Gramps - this may explain it ! AS you know the arrow was across the way from the Gibbet possibly, maybe !

Yellow Lion

59 Clifton Street

Open 1796 Closed Span

Comments formerly The Arrow or Harrow

Earlier

1871 Charles Pickering (Beerhouse)

I can't see a Red Lion in the area but of course a pub may have changed name and back again etc

[Guest Danny]

Marvellous!!

So if it was on a site unnaffected by the widening of the Common, the 'site' may still be there.

Once we find the spot, i might have to pay a little sneaky visit, see what i can find.

edit - i once read, cant remember where now, it might be in one of my sheffield books, that the gibbett at one point was situated in the corner of a builders yard near the end of Broughton Lane in recent years. I will look later when i get home and update if i find it. This peice of info might narrow it down.

[dunsbyowl1867]

Marvellous!!

So if it was on a site unnaffected by the widening of the Common, the 'site' may still be there.

Once we find the spot, i might have to pay a little sneaky visit, see what i can find.

edit - i once read, cant remember where now, it might be in one of my sheffield books, that the gibbett at one point was situated in the corner of a builders yard near the end of Broughton Lane in recent years. I will look later when i get home and update if i find it. This peice of info might narrow it down.

Seen this ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/myths_legend...article_4.shtml

THE PICTURE ON THIS BBC web page is incorrect !

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/pi...ff.refno=s13791

[dunsbyowl1867]

Seen this ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/myths_legend...article_4.shtml

THE PICTURE ON THIS BBC web page is incorrect !

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/pi...ff.refno=s13791

And see this

http://www.rotherhamweb.co.uk/misc/arrow.htm

[SteveHB]

The 17th of Oct 1791

[RichardB]

Somewhere on here I've posted a high definition scan of the site of the gibbet post, it's got the Arrow shown and Carbrook Hall - blowed if I can remember where it is - can't find the book either - not a good day then hahaha

Steve and Stuart (aka The "Broughton Babes") are in possession of about 20-25 pages from the 1600-1900 British Newspapers which they will post up when there is something extra rubbish on the Telly.

[dunsbyowl1867]

Leader also gives this information

It was Mr. Henry Sorby, of Woodburn, who took down the gibbet

when the land on which it was erected became his property. His chief

motive was to put a stop to the injury done by trespassers visiting this

relic of a barbarous custom. I suppose he must have cut it off instead

of taking it up out of the ground. The gibbet was deposited in his

coach-house, where I saw it. I am not clear what afterwards became of

the post, but I am under the impression that it was used for a beam in a

cottage, and that it was removed in consequence of the prejudice it

caused against the house.

Engraving :

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/pi...ff.refno=s13124

[RichardB]

Now, it's not to say my desktop is rather full and messy - but - the "missing" file was on there; here it is again :

[dunsbyowl1867]

If that engraving is correct the Arrow IS quite a distance from where the Yellow Lion was ?

The other building on the engraving is meant to be the Pheasant across the way from Carbrook Hall ?

The original Pheaant

PS

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/pi...ff.refno=s07046

[Guest Gramps]

If that engraving is correct the Arrow IS quite a distance from where the Yellow Lion was ?

The other building on the engraving is meant to be the Pheasant across the way from Carbrook Hall ?

The original Pheaant

PS

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/pi...ff.refno=s07046

In the account by the landlord of the Arrow ^^^ the gibbet is said yo be 200 yards from the pub.

Not sure those cottages were the Pheasant at that time but they're certainly on the site of the Pheasant. I read an account somewhere, - may have been by Leader, that Broughton's body was laid on the kitchen table in one of those cottages while it was encased in chains, before being hoisted on the gibbet.

The landlord of the Arrow must surely have retired a rich man :)

[Guest Gramps]

Marvellous!!

So if it was on a site unnaffected by the widening of the Common, the 'site' may still be there.

Once we find the spot, i might have to pay a little sneaky visit, see what i can find.

edit - i once read, cant remember where now, it might be in one of my sheffield books, that the gibbett at one point was situated in the corner of a builders yard near the end of Broughton Lane in recent years. I will look later when i get home and update if i find it. This peice of info might narrow it down.

The builder's yard was still there in 1976 - on the map I posted earlier http://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/i...ost&id=8822 it was where you see the benchmark 'B.M. 141.4', but has probaly been absorbed in the widening of Broughton lane.

[dunsbyowl1867]

Leader's version of the story has the Yellow Lion as the name of the pub.

" In 1867 a person named Holroyd, while making excavations for cellars opposite the Yellow Lion, came upon an upright piece of solid black oak, passing through and bolted to a massive framework, firmly imbedded in the ground. There can be no doubt that these were the socket and the bottom of the gibbet- post,"

There is a photo of the rear of the Yellow Lion in the book East End Camera which indicates it was on or near the corner with Pickering street - some distance from Attercliffe Common.

Perhaps one of our Public House experts could establish what pubs/beerhouses were on Clifton street in 1867 ?

Also worth noting that in 1792 'Attercliffe Common' didn't refer to the road as we know it, but the land across which the road ran; in a contemporary picture the gibbet is shown as standing well back from the road.

Gramps

I don't think we are the 1st to be on this quest!

in 'A wander up the 'Cliffe' Michael Liversidge has this to say

' Clifton Street held something of a mystery for us young folks in the fifties. It was said to still have a piece of the gibbet that old SB was left hanging from for 20 years. With this piece of information and the supposition that the gibbet could still be seen near Tinsley Locks, I swasted a good few days cum weeks of my life, looking for these lumps of wood and to no avail. I was told the gibbet post was outside the Yellow Lion which was at 59 Clifton Street. As the Yellow lion had disappeared many years before I can rembember Mrs Ada Goddard, a grocwe was our target for questions as she was situated at no 59' he he

[Guest Danny]

The landscape of that old picture confuses me somewhat.

If the furthest building away is Carbrook Hall, where has the hill gone that is behind it? or is this just purely artistic license?

I hope i am looking at the picture correctly, as I see the furthest building away to be Carbrook Hall, and the road through the picture to be the common. The building on the same side of the common, would this be the Pheasent? And the other building, the same side as the gibbet, would that be the Yellow Lion?

[Guest Gramps]

The landscape of that old picture confuses me somewhat.

If the furthest building away is Carbrook Hall, where has the hill gone that is behind it? or is this just purely artistic license?

I hope i am looking at the picture correctly, as I see the furthest building away to be Carbrook Hall, and the road through the picture to be the common. The building on the same side of the common, would this be the Pheasent? And the other building, the same side as the gibbet, would that be the Yellow Lion?

On the left you have the Arrow pub, then Carbrook Hall. On the right the Pheasant (or the cottages that became the Pheasant).

Clifton street and the Yellow Lion didn't exist until the 1870s. It was whilst digging out the cellars for new houses opposite the Yellow Lion that the remains of the gibbet were found. That picture is from the late 1790s or early 1800s.

[Guest Gramps]

Gramps

I don't think we are the 1st to be on this quest!

in 'A wander up the 'Cliffe' Michael Liversidge has this to say

' Clifton Street held something of a mystery for us young folks in the fifties. It was said to still have a piece of the gibbet that old SB was left hanging from for 20 years. With this piece of information and the supposition that the gibbet could still be seen near Tinsley Locks, I swasted a good few days cum weeks of my life, looking for these lumps of wood and to no avail. I was told the gibbet post was outside the Yellow Lion which was at 59 Clifton Street. As the Yellow lion had disappeared many years before I can rembember Mrs Ada Goddard, a grocwe was our target for questions as she was situated at no 59'

J.R. Wrigley was looking for it too.

[dunsbyowl1867]

From London Chronicle 14/4/1792

[Guest Danny]

On the left you have the Arrow pub, then Carbrook Hall. On the right the Pheasant (or the cottages that became the Pheasant).

Clifton street and the Yellow Lion didn't exist until the 1870s. It was whilst digging out the cellars for new houses opposite the Yellow Lion that the remains of the gibbet were found. That picture is from the late 1790s or early 1800s.

Cool, so i had the orientation correct, just a few of the premises names mixed up.

So with the veiwpoint of that picture being as it was, there seems to be a hill sprouting directly from the back of the yard for the Carbrook and the Arrow. there isn't a hill anywhere near there now, it is the other side of brightside lane where the landscape raises up toward Wincobank etc.

Like i said, would this be artistic license? The whole of that hillside cannot possibly have been landscaped to what we see now can it?

Also, if the occupents of what used to be the Yellow Lion knew the post had been removed, will anyone find anything now?

I think just to pin point the exact spot would be good enough to start.

[popt]

According to my notes there were four pubs near the end of Broughton Lane on the Rotherham side- On the corner was the Broughton then the Bird in Hand, The Enfield and the Railway.

On Clifton Street which runs parallel with Broughton Lane was the Yellow Lion and then the Clifton both on the Rotherham side of the street.

The Yellow Lion was situated directly at the rear of the Bird in Hand but across Clifton Street.

Hope this helps. PopT

[Guest Jeremy]

On the 1855 OS map on old-maps.co.uk does that say "gibbet post" just above the word "TRUST"? Maybe not... it's on the wrong side of the road anyway.

In "Some Forgotten Facts in the History of Sheffield and District" on page 60 it says that Spence Broughton was gibetted in the plot of the Commons numbered 87 on the inclosure plan. Unfortunately Google seem to have neglected to scan the plan.

If you look at maps 179 and compare it with the modern aerial view at google maps you can make out the outline of the plots of land that was occupied St Bartholomew's Church and the neighbouring Methodist Chapel. From this it seems that Attercliffe Common was widened to the north not the south, so if the gibbet post was found on Clifton Street, the spot is probably not in the middle of the dual carriage way.

You can also see this same curved boundary on the 1855 OS map. Clifton Street would go through the plot of land that has the word "Broughton" of "Broughton Houses" written on it on the 1855 map. So perhaps this is the plot #87 mentioned above.

Jeremy

[Guest Danny]

If you look at various pictures posted here, i think i have found where the Yellow Lion used to stand

On the map 179 posted by Jeremy, near the end of Clifton St (Surbiton St end), just after Pickering St is plot No. 77, with a 'wall' infront and round the side. Next to it is Plot no. 79.

On the actual Photograph posted, supposedly of cottages that used to be the Yellow lion with the little script attached to it about going to look for it, you can see a short row of houses, the end one having a wall jutting out in front of it and apparently running round its side (like No. 77 on map 179). Now this picture also shows the opening to another road, and although i cant actually read it, the road sign on the side of the house (that looks like plot n0. 75 on map 179) looks as though it could say Pickering St. The house on the picture and also plot 75 on map 179 are both only as deep as the house, they are not terraced to another house down Pickering St.

If this is the case, then the Yellow Lion would have stood further down Clifton St than what Jeremy proposes (plot no. 87), and more toward the opening with Pickering St and if the location of the photograph in relation to the site of the Yellow Lion is correct, the Yellow Lion is either No. 77 or No. 79 on the Map 179.

I have attached a couple of edited pictures to try and illustrate my theory.

This one shows the features of the Photograph i pointed out (the Wall surrounding the end property, The road sign and empty space behind what i think is No. 75)

And this one is, i think, the same features pointed out on the map 179.

As Pickering St is still labelled on Google Maps, even though it looks to be nothing more than just a worn trackway,

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=e...reet,+sheffield

the space to its right is now an open bit of land (in the picture is has a Blue and a Black car parked on it) so this could be the site of the Yellow Lion, and if so, if this is where the Gibbet was, it will have been in this general area.

Hope that makes sense.

Dan