Execution of William McHugh, the Barnard Castle Whiskey Drinker

After Lizzie Pearson, the Gainford Poisoner, had been despatched came...

The Bridgegate area of Barnard Castle seen from the Startforth side of the Tees, showing the carpet factories and mills, as well as cramped houses, which crowded the riverbank. Banner's Mill, which still stands, is second from the left with a rampWilliam McHugh, the Barnard Castle whisky drinker

ON THE night of April 10, 1875, at least seven people were drinking whisky in an upstairs room in the crowded hovels of Barnard Castle’s notorious Bridgegate, down by the river.

Today, the approach to the County Bridge is a fascinating jumble of properties, of post-war houses built on the site of the hovels around the remains of a carpet mill, of green space rolling to the riverside.

READ PART 1: THE STORY OF LIZZIE PEARSON, THE GAINFORD POISONER

But 150 years ago Bridgegate was all mills on the river’s edge, with crammed yards around them for the workers to live in. These tight conditions had made the street the seat of the cholera epidemic 25 years earlier in which more than 100 people had died.

A 1908 postcard showing the hotch-potch of yards, tenements and factories in Bridgegate, Barnard Castle, where the murder took place in 1875In Fryer's Yard that night, the whisky drinkers – at least five of whom were Irish rovers – were in a room that was 15ft by 13ft 8ins with a small closet attached. The room was rented by William Gallagher, 35, a labourer, who shared it with his daughter Margaret, "a girl of about 13".

Margaret was the only sober witness to the proceedings, although for much of the night she was in bed in the closet – a hole in the wall allowed her to see and hear what was going on.

There were also "three little children" asleep with her in that closet. Their mother was said to be dead.

As the night turned into morning the whisky drinkers became aggressive. A glass broke; Teddy Keenan sustained a cut to the eye and Thomas Brannen stripped to the waist in readiness for a fight.

A postcard of Bridgegate, Barnard Castle, with the castle high above, showing the cramped conditions of the street before it was cleared Keenan, who lived and worked at Mortham Hall, between Barnard Castle and Greta Bridge, had arrived from Ireland just 40 days earlier with a reputation.

Brannen was described in court as "a roving man". He too worked at Mortham Hall, and had been "coming and going to Barnard Castle for 20 years". He had a wife back in Ireland.

After the glass broke, Keenan and Brannen left the upstairs room to continue their quarrel outside. It was about 1.30am.

Remaining drinking in the room were the tenant Gallagher and two men whose lives would effectively end that night: William McHugh and Thomas Mooney.

McHugh was a 36-year-old hawker. His mother ran a little shop in Barney.

Mooney was working with the drainers at Staindrop, presumably clearing out the gullies. His mother had lived elsewhere in Bridgegate for about seven years, and his wife was in Northallerton jail.

The cool, clear night air had a sobering effect on Keenan and Brannen. Instead of fighting one another they watched what their drinking companions were up to.

They saw Gallagher and McHugh carry Mooney downstairs into the yard. Mooney was not moving. He may have passed out through drink. He may already have been dead.

Bridgegate, Barnard Castle, from the Startforth side. Banner's Mill is the one mill still standing, recently converted into four dwellings. Mooney went into the river here and his body was found the next morning hereKeenan and Brannen saw Gallagher and McHugh lean Mooney on top of the waist-high wall which kept the river out of the yard. “Is that the water?” McHugh asked. “Throw him in.”

At this point, said the witnesses, Gallagher got cold feet. He said something like "by God Almighty, I will not" and turned away.

"McHugh then threw the body over into the river, " said Keenan from the witness box.

All quickly quit the scene. No one, not even the watchers, bothered to see if Mooney could be assisted.

Bridgegate from the river in 1935 with the mills and tenements crammed right to the water's edgeHis body was fished out of the shallow Tees by carpet weavers the following afternoon. It had drifted barely ten yards from the end of Fryer’s Yard.

It was taken to Mooney's mother's house in Bridgegate. An inspector found an empty purse in a pocket which Mrs Mooney said had been full of money which he had borrowed from his employer.

A doctor noted that there were fresh, but not fatal, injuries on the body. He noted there were no signs of a struggle and so concluded Mooney must have been unconscious when he entered the water, and said the cause of death was drowning.

All four of the whisky drinkers were arrested. In Dobson’s beer house, Gallagher was heard advising McHugh: “Confess and hang Teddy. If thou doesn’t hang Terry, thou’ll be transported for life.”

Blood was found on the upstairs room's floorboards, suggesting that someone had inflicted a wound upon Mooney, but Gallagher explained that his family had dined on a sheep's head that weekend.

Still, Gallagher and McHugh were charged with murder; Keenan and Brannen were called as the only witnesses to the drowning.

The jury deliberated for more than two hours before the foreman returned with the verdict. "We consider that Gallagher repented at the last moment and left McHugh to himself," he said. "We find McHugh guilty but with a strong recommendation for mercy on account of his previous good character.”

Banner's Mill House, which probably belonged to the millowner, with Banner's Mill stretching behind. These are mid-18th Century buildings and were originally a carpet mill.McHugh railed from the dock: "All I have to say is that I will be cleared before God and man, and that I am as innocent of the charge as the child unborn; and it is very hard to be sentenced to death for a murder that Brannen and Teddy Keenan are guilty of. I am not frightened of it in my mind, nor should I regret meeting my end if it were not for my wife and children."

Mr Justice Archibald donned his dreadful black cap.

"You have been found guilty of the most cold-blooded murder, " he said. "You have dragged a poor man in a state of drunkenness down that yard to the wall, and then plunged him, without the slightest remorse, into the river...

"The jury have recommended you to mercy, but I can only recommend you not to place too much reliance upon that, but prepare for the next world. It only remains for me to pass upon you the dreadful sentence of the law."

The Northern Echo of July 14, 1875 as McHugh is sentenced to death The Northern Echo said: "McHugh clutched the rails in front of the dock and was removed below. As he turned round he gazed upward towards the place allotted for the public and paused for a few seconds as if looking for someone, but was then taken to the cells."

The sentence was passed on July 13, 1875. Within three weeks, McHugh would be executed alongside the Gainford poisoner, Lizzie Pearson, and one other convicted murderer...