The Bilstone Gibbet Post - Gibbet Lane - Bilstone, Leicestershire
Posted by: 
SMacB
N 52° 38.230 W 001° 28.030
30U E 603725 N 5833012
Gibbet post - 1801. A square sectioned wooden post fixed in the ground, erected a ½ of a mile from the scene of a murder committed by John Massey February, 1800
Waymark Code: WMRD3T
Location: East Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/11/2016
Views: 2
"Erected in March 1801 to hold the corpse of John Massey, who was executed at Red Hill at Birstall, outside Leicester, on 23 March that year.
John, a farm labourer, was also a famous local wrestler and known to drink heavily. He had brutally assaulted his wife, Lydia, during a violent argument, and pushed her and his stepdaughter into a nearby mill stream. Lydia died but the girl survived and testified against him.
The body was brought to Bilstone the day after the execution and then wrapped round with chains and hung from a metal ring fixed to the top of the post. And there it stayed, as an awful warning to local people and the few passers-by who saw it. And it stayed... and it stayed... year after year. As late as 1818, 17 years on from the execution, the skeleton of John Massey was still there."
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There is a roumour that the skull was removed some years later and ended up at a nearby pub, where it had been lined with silver and used as a punch bowl.