The noose that cast a shadow over city jail

Executions in the form of hangings took place there from 1816 until 1958.

Before this time, they had taken place at Dryburn, just north of the city.

The Dryburn executions dated back to medieval times when drawing and quartering were often part of the ritual.

Dryburn is best known for its hospital today, but the area known as Dryburn covered a much wider area in times past.

It is probable that Dryburn hangings took place where St Leonard's School now stands, as this occupies a site described as the Gallows Field on old tithe maps.

Other sites around Dryburn may also have been used. At nearby Back Western Hill, overlooking Flass Vale, was Gibbet Knowle, probably the hill where dead bodies were left hanging from a gibbet after execution.

Executions at Dryburn were implemented for a whole host of crimes.

In Elizabethan times, some people were executed simply for being Catholics or gipsies.

In later times, murder was the offence that usually merited an execution, although in 1803, a man called John Carleton was hanged at Dryburn for stealing linen from a Barnard Castle shop. Hanging for shoplifting was abolished in 1818.

The executions at Dryburn were always held in public and often attracted big crowds keen to witness these macabre events.

In 1816, executions were transferred from Dryburn to the new courthouse at the front of the prison that was then being built. The executioner, William Curry, who previously undertook the task at Dryburn, performed some of the first hangings at the new site.

The new gallows were situated near the steps just outside the courthouse where public executions continued to attract big crowds.

A nearby house with an iron balcony facing the court was often rented out for the occasion, for those wealthier or perhaps more bloodthirsty spectators who wanted to get the best view.

The first execution outside the courthouse was on August 17, 1816, when John Grieg was hanged for the murder of Elizabeth Stonehouse at Monkwearmouth.

Described as a stout, goodlooking man of 37 years of age, his body was cut down and given to his friends for interment after the hanging.

In later times, the bodies were often buried in the prison grounds or handed over to surgeons for dissection.

Almost all of the executions that took place at Durham Jail or courthouse were for murder, but very occasionally executions took place for rape.

These included George Acheson, executed for the rape of a child in 1819, and Henry Anderson, of Penshaw, executed for a rape in 1822.

Many executions captured the public imagination, such as that of Thomas Clarke of Hallgarth Mill, near Pittington, on February 28, 1831.

Clarke had murdered a 17- year-old maid at the mill.

About 15,000 people are thought to have turned up for this execution, perhaps because it was unusual to have such a high-profile case so local to Durham City.

Clarke pleaded his innocence in front of the crowd before departing from the world.

Another well-known execution was that of William Jobling, a South Shields miner, who was executed on August 3, 1832, for the murder of a 71-year-old magistrate called Nicholas Fairles at Jarrow.

Jobling had been striking in protest over conditions at a local workhouse when the incident took place. It seems that Jobling was present at the murder but evidence suggests that a colleague called Ralph Armstrong committed the actual crime. About 100 soldiers, some mounted, were present at Jobling's execution outside Durham courthouse.

Jobling intended to address the crowd but words failed him at the last minute.

Just as the final bolt was to be withdrawn to release the rope, a person near the scaffold shouted "farewell Jobling", causing him to turn his head.

This displaced the cord and protracted his sufferings that continued for some minutes.

After the execution was complete, the body was hung for an hour and then taken into the jail where it was tarred with pitch.

The soldiers escorted the body to Jarrow Slake where it was hung in a cage 21 feet high in a gruesome practice known as gibbeting.

Here the body remained until it was stolen on the night of August 31.

It was never seen again.

Gibbeting was outlawed in 1834 and by 1868, public hangings had also been abolished.

The last public execution at Durham was on March 16, 1865, when Matthew Atkinson was hanged outside the courthouse for the murder of his wife at Winlaton.

After 1868, all executions at Durham took place behind closed doors within the grounds of Durham prison.

These included Durham's most famous execution, that of Mary Ann Cotton. Mary, who was responsible for perhaps as many as 21 murders, was executed at 8am on the morning of March 24, 1873.

Her executors were Thomas Askern and William Calcraft.

Had this execution taken place in public, it would have surely attracted unprecedented crowds.

It might be thought that the 19th century authorities were more determined to enforce the death penalty than those of the 20th century but remarkably only about 36 executions took place at Durham Courthouse and Jail between 1816 and 1899, compared to 55 from 1900 to 1958.

This may have been due to a preference for transportation in the 19th century.

Transportation to Australia was often considered an alternative punishment, even for very serious crimes.

In about 1890, an execution shed was erected in the prison grounds to enclose the pit, or drop, over which the Durham gallows were erected.

It was superseded in 1925 by a specially-built execution block - again with a pit.

The last execution at Durham Prison took place on December 17, 1958, when soldier Brian Chandler was hanged for the murder of 83- year-old Martha Dodd at Darlington.

The death penalty in Britain was abolished by Act of Parliament on November 8, 1965, and the last ever hangings in Britain took place simultaneously on August 13, 1964, at prisons in Liverpool and Manchester.

The story of Durhamn Prison continues next week.