BleakChesneyWold

            ' Peppermint Billy  William Brown and the Tollgate Murders of 1856'    By Joanne Vigor Mungovin                                                                          A few months ago,t he Leicester Museum service website announced : On July 14, 2023, The Guildhall in Leicester will recreate the trial of William 'Peppermint Billy' Brown - 167 years to the day after he was convicted of the murder of Edward and James Woodcock in Melton Mowbray. Peppermint Billy was the last man publicly hanged in Leicester in 1856. His conviction has always been questioned and shrouded in mystery. In order to make this event more memorable, we have found descendants of the witnesses to read the words of their ancestors during the trial. The trial is then recrea...

    James Pratt and John Smith -executed at Newgate 1835 for  Sodomy "their doom was sealed... they well knew that for them, there was no hope in this world."- Charles Dickens            On 20th October 2019 I went to see local folk band Bird in the Belly perform live at The Ropetackle Centre,  Shoreham by Sea. The group were celebrating the release of their second album 'Neighbours and Sisters'. And this was the first time I heard their track '45 George Street'. Bird in the Belly are certainly very accomplished and admired in their field. Part of their appeal is that they track down little known songs or construct their own tracks, based on lesser known scenes from 'People's History', anything from beekeeping through to highwaymen.  '45 George Street' is not typical of the band's music and concerns the wretched plight of James Pratt (30) and John Smith (40), the last two men to be hanged in Britain after being found guilty of commi...