Caxton Gibbet is a small knoll [1] on the Ermine Street Roman road (now the A1198) in England, running between London and Huntingdon, near its crossing with the road (now the A428) between St Neots and Cambridge.
Caxton Gibbet is a small knoll [1] on the Ermine Street Roman road (now the A1198) in England, running between London and Huntingdon, near its crossing with the road (now the A428) between St Neots and Cambridge.
There are tales of murderers being hanged and displayed at the nearby village of Caxton in the 1670s, and records in a court case that the gibbet was still there in 1745. Several local writers say that it was no longer there by the early decades of the nineteenth century, but in January 1822, William Cobbett recorded seeing the gibbet in his "Huntingdon Journal" (published in his Political Register , vol. 41, no. 4, 26 January 1822), and in 1831 the Rev H. G. Watkins, whilst on a carriage tour of England, records passing, a mile from Caxton village, "a gibbet on the roadside with an inscription, Caxton Gibbet". There is a modern replica, which can be seen in photographs dating back to 1900.[ citation needed ]
It is reputed to be a gruesome example of the cage variation of the gibbet, into which live victims were allegedly placed until they died from starvation, dehydration or exposure. After execution, dead bodies were certainly suspended in cages as a warning, and this may have happened here. There are a number of folk tales reported on various websites and in secondary sources of people being hanged at Caxton, none of which can be verified from primary sources. The most gruesome concerns the murder of a man called Partridge, either by a poacher or a man who thought Partridge had killed his dog. The murderer, sometime after having escaped abroad for a period, boasted or was otherwise detected of the crime and ordered to be gibbeted alive. In some versions, a local baker who offered him bread suffered a similar fate. There is no contemporaneous record of anything that confirms any part of this story, either in court or in burial records. The practical difficulties of enforcing this penalty would be insuperable. There is little evidence of this practice anywhere in England.
Cambridgeshire County Record Office, which is part of Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies, says that the following entry in the manuscripts of William Cole, a Cambridgeshire antiquarian (1714–82), has been taken to refer to the Caxton Gibbet, although there is no more specific mention of the actual location in the text. He is clearly referring to a dead body.
About 1753 or 1754 the son of Mrs. Gatward being convicted of robbing the Mail was hanged in chains on the Great Road. I saw him hanging in a scarlet coat after he had hung 2 or 4 months; it is supposed that the screw was filed which supported him and that he fell in the first high wind after.
The erection of the modern replica may have been connected with the nearby public house The Gibbet Inn. The inn was a Paine and Co. pub [2] and was later used as a Chinese restaurant, but has now been demolished. [3]
The location gave its name to an RAF Relief Landing Ground, operated between summer 1940 and 9 July 1945, in the field to the east of Ermine Street. [4] It was used by Tiger Moths of the 22 Elementary Flight Training School (Cambridge) and huts there were used to house personnel from 105 Squadron at RAF Bourn. [5]
A milestone, south of the site of the Caxton Gibbet Inn, is Grade II listed. [6]
Cambridgeshire is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, Northamptonshire to the west and Bedfordshire to the south-west. The largest settlement is the city of Peterborough, and the city of Cambridge is the county town.
Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cromwell was born there in 1599 and became one of its Members of Parliament (MP) in 1628. The former Conservative Prime Minister (1990–1997) John Major served as its MP from 1979 until his retirement in 2001.
Godmanchester is a town and civil parish in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. It is separated from Huntingdon, 1 mile (1.6 km) to the north, by the valley of the River Great Ouse. Being on the Roman road network, the town has a long history. It has a waterside location, surrounded by open countryside of high value for its biodiversity but it remains highly accessible, with a railway line to London, the A1 road and M11/A14 which run nearby.
Huntingdon and Peterborough was a short-lived administrative and geographical county in East Anglia in the United Kingdom. It existed from 1965 to 1974, when it became part of Cambridgeshire.
Gibbeting is the use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of criminals were hanged on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. Occasionally, the gibbet was also used as a method of public execution, with the criminal being left to die of exposure, thirst and/or starvation. The practice of placing a criminal on display within a gibbet is also called "hanging in chains".
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Combe Gibbet is a gibbet at the top of Gallows Down, near the village and just within the civil parish of Combe in Berkshire, England.
Huntingdon is a constituency west of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire and including its namesake town of Huntingdon. It has been represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Ben Obese-Jecty of the Conservative Party.
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Needingworth is a village in Cambridgeshire, England. Needingworth lies approximately 7 miles (11 km) east of Huntingdon and just west of the Prime Meridian. Needingworth is in the civil parish of Holywell-cum-Needingworth. Needingworth is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a historic county of England. The village is attached to Holywell by a single road, connecting the two villages.
Brampton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England, about 2 miles (3 km) south-west of Huntingdon. It lies within Huntingdonshire, a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and a historic county of England. According to the 2011 UK census Brampton had a population of 4,862 A 2019 estimate puts it at 5,462.
Holywell is a village in Cambridgeshire, England, approximately 6 miles (10 km) east of Huntingdon, in the civil parish of Holywell-cum-Needingworth. It is situated within Huntingdonshire, a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire, and is a historic county of England.
Tilbrook is a village and civil parish in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England, approximately 10 miles (16 km) west of Huntingdon and 24 miles (39 km) north-west of Cambridge. Though administered as part of Cambridgeshire, the village historically belonged to Bedfordshire, being situated 12 miles (19 km) north of Bedford. The parish had a population of 256 in 2021.
Farcet (/ˈfæsət/) is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Farcet lies approximately 2 miles (3 km) south of Peterborough city centre, between Yaxley and the Peterborough suburb of Old Fletton. Farcet is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a historic county of England.
Conington is a village and civil parish in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. Conington lies about 6 miles south of Peterborough and 2 miles north of Sawtry. It is near the A1(M), part of the Great North Road, which follows the course of the Roman Ermine Street. Conington lies within Huntingdonshire, which was once one of the historic counties of England.
Longstowe is a civil parish and small rural village of nearly 200 residents in South Cambridgeshire, England, 12 miles (19 km) west of Cambridge. The population was measured at 205 at the 2011 census. It is situated on the western side of the A1198 road, running for about a mile along the B1046.
Earith is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Lying approximately 10 miles (16 km) east of Huntingdon, Earith is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a historic county of England. At Earith, two artificial diversion channels of the River Great Ouse, the Old Bedford River and the New Bedford River, leave the river on a course to Denver Sluice near Downham Market, where they rejoin the Great Ouse in its tidal part. At the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 1,677, reducing to 1,606 at the 2011 Census.
Eltisley is a village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England, on the A428 road about 5.5 miles (8.9 km) east of St Neots and about 11 miles (18 km) west of the city of Cambridge. The population in 2001 was 421 people, falling slightly to 401 at the 2011 Census.
Great Stukeley is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of The Stukeleys. It is 1.8 miles (2.9 km) north-west of Huntingdon. Great Stukeley is in Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as a historic county of England. It lies on the old Roman road of Ermine Street. In 1931 the parish had a population of 354.