A replica of the Halifax Gibbet on its original site, 2008, with St Mary's Catholic church, Gibbet Street, in the background
The Halifax Gibbet/ˈhælɪfæksˈdʒɪbɪt/ was an early guillotine used in the town of Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. Estimated to have been installed during the 16th century, it was used as an alternative to beheading by axe or sword. Halifax was once part of the Manor of Wakefield, where ancient custom and law gave the Lord of the Manor the authority to execute summarily by decapitation any thief caught with stolen goods to the value of 131⁄2d or more (equivalent to £10 in 2023), or who confessed to having stolen goods of at least that value. Decapitation was a fairly common method of execution in England, but Halifax was unusual in two respects: it employed a guillotine-like machine that appears to have been unique in the country, and it continued to decapitate petty criminals until the mid-17th century.
The device consisted of an axe head fitted to the base of a heavy wooden block that ran in grooves between two 15-foot-tall (4.6 m) uprights, mounted on a stone base about 4 feet (1.2 m) high. A rope attached to the block ran over a pulley, allowing it to be raised, after which the rope was secured by attaching it to a pin in the base. The block carrying the axe was then released either by withdrawing the pin or by cutting the rope once the prisoner was in place.
Almost 100 people were beheaded in Halifax between the first recorded execution in 1286 and the last in 1650, but as the date of the gibbet's installation is uncertain, it cannot be determined with any accuracy how many individuals died via 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. The names of 52 people known to have been beheaded by the device are listed on a nearby plaque.
8674°W / 53.72372; -1.8674 The HalifaxGibbet /ˈhælɪfæks ˈdʒɪbɪt/ was an early guillotine used in the town of Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. Estimated...
the HalifaxGibbet was first used; the first recorded execution in Halifax dates from 1280, but that execution may have been by sword, axe, or gibbet. The...
A gibbet (/ˈdʒɪbɪt/) is any instrument of public execution (including guillotine, executioner's block, impalement stake, hanging gallows, or related scaffold)...
name Halifax Explosion, a 1917 explosion that leveled a large portion of Halifax, Nova Scotia HalifaxGibbet, an early guillotine used in Halifax, West...
in Europe, or disabling the foot or leg of a runaway slave. When the HalifaxGibbet was used as a method of execution, if the offender was to be executed...
achieved. Early versions of the guillotine included the HalifaxGibbet, which was used in Halifax, England, from 1286 until the 17th century, and the "Maiden"...
included the grant of "sack and sock, toll and team, and infangthief". HalifaxGibbet Variously spelled infangenthef and outfangenthef, infangtheof and outfangtheof...
Dunnie Duergar The Hedley Kow Jack-In-Irons Jingling Geordie's Hole HalifaxGibbet Kilburn White Horse John the Jibber Laidly Worm The Lambton Worm Legend...
Christopher Cockerell (1910–1999). 1286: First recorded use of the HalifaxGibbet, an early guillotine. Early 17th century: The closely cut "English"...
The Halifax Academy (formerly Halifax High) is a mixed all-through school located in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. The school is predominantly made...
Production Code Original airdate 1 TBA TBA June 15, 2008 (2008-06-15) HalifaxGibbet, Chinese water torture, Iron Boot, Iron Maiden, Chinese Fire Arrow 2...
Post Office, and ran along Horton Street to Halifax railway station, to King Cross Street, and along Gibbet Street, where a depot was built for the tramcars...
(probably the first in the Thirteen Colonies). Boston Common took over from the gibbet outside the gate of Boston Neck as the town execution grounds and was used...
Wooden Watch" 1312. "Jarvis the Coachman('s Happy Deliverance from the Gibbet)" 1313. "The Cruel Gamekeeper", "The Staffordshire Tragedy" 1314. "The Devil...
small farms during the early settlement of Halifax. A rock outcropping at Black Rock Beach was used to gibbet the bodies of executed criminal such as the...
Cattewate (1913–18). Re-opened in 1928 as RAF Mount Batten. RAF Caxton Gibbet England Cambridgeshire 1940 1944 RLG RAF Chailey England Sussex 1943 1945...
next the Portway; and from thence, through Bilston, to the further End of Gibbet Lane, and several other Roads leading to and from Bilston, in the County...
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