Family, Historic Sites & Trails : Halifax

Halifax Gibbet

Imagine a market day in Halifax. Two thieves are being led from the gaol and in turn, forced to lie with their heads between two upright posts. Above, a fearsome blade is glinting in the sunlight. A horse, yoked to a rope, wrenches out the security pin and the blade slices down..! The date was 30th April 1650 and Halifax Gibbet had claimed its last victim.



The Halifax gibbet was an early guillotine. The Lord of the Manor possessed the authority to execute summarily by decapitation any thief who was caught with stolen goods to the value of 13½d or more, 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 that 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.



A 15 foot high replica of the Gibbet has been constructed on the original site at the bottom of Gibbet Street. To find the Gibbet; from Halifax town centre, take Pellon Lane, turning left onto Bedford Street North. The Gibbet is at the end of the street, to your left, on the junction with Gibbet Street.



The Gibbet’s original blade has been preserved and is on display at Bankfield Museum, Halifax.