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I would be very interested to find out more about the story i heard about a relation that was the last person in wales to be hanged for sheep stealing. My mother told me about it and i have been told that it is true by another GR member, although that was a while ago and i have mislaid the info they gave me,they basically confirmed that they had heard the tale as well. I know that the unfortunate chap was hanged in the Skirrid Inn near Abergavenny and i think it was in oliver cromwell time, i have been to the Inn to see for myself, you can actually see the beam and the chaffing marks where the rope was used. If any of you out there have a bit more to add i would be pleased to hear from you. Thanks
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hi dont know what info your after lots if you google
The Skirrid Mountain Inn
Abergavenny
HISTORY:
The Skirrid Mountain Inn is believed to be the oldest pub in Wales which began in 1110.
It is said Owain Glyndwr gathered his men in the courtyard of the Inn before leaving for Pontrilas. Many Kings of England are also believed to have used the courtyard.
The oak- beams situated inside the Inn are believed to originate from ships timbers, which have the original peg holes. Some of the windows are also said to be the original along with one of the doorways. The Dining Room panelling comes from the 16 th century.
Between 1100-1485 the Inn was used as Memorial Courts, with Church Courts, Assize Courts and in later centuries it is thought the Skenfrith Petty Sessions Court.
It is believed around 182 people were hanged during the 12 th -17 th centuries.
One story of the hangings relates to two brothers, James and John Crowther.
The two brothers stood trial before a court in the Milbrook Inn, which is situated down the road from the Skirrid, where James was sentenced to nine months for robberies with violence, while John was sentenced to be hanged from a beam in the Inn for the crime of ‘sheep stealing'. John Crowther is reported to have been the last man hanged at the Inn.
It is believed the first floor of the Inn was the area used as a court room, with a cell in an area halfway up the stairs, being used to house prisoners before and after their trial. This cell now being used as a store room.
The beam where the hangings are said to have taken place is situated across the joist of the staircase, where it has been reported the rope marks are preserved in the beam.
The slab on which the dead bodies was placed can still be seen at the foot of the stairs.
The sentences were on the orders given by the infamous Judge Jeffries, who was Recorder of London and in 1683 became Lord Chief Justice.
During the 1530's the Inn belonged to the Baron of Abergavenny conferred on Edward Nevyle . Although it had been lost, it was returned to the family by an Act of Parliament.
On the death of George Nevyle in 1535, the third Baron of Abergavenny, the ownership of land went to his successors where it continued to remain in the family until 1900, when the most Honourable William Marquess of Abergavenny sold the property to a professional Innkeeper by the name of David Lewis.
Another owner during the mid 18 th century is reported to be Harry Price.
HAUNTINGS:
‘Judge Jeffries' is said to still linger in the upper floors of the Inn, along with ‘John Crowther' who is reported to be very active throughout the building.
‘Father Henry Vaughn‘, thought to have been from a local church, is said to be a good soul who is grounded and has no intention of leaving the Inn.
Another spirit who is said to be ‘active' throughout the building is ‘Fanny Price', who's husband is reported to have owned the Inn during the mid 18 th century. Fanny is said to have worked at the Inn and originally lived in the village. It is thought she died of consumption at the age of 35 years in 1873. It is thought she is most active in room 3.
A malevolent spirit thought to be the hangman is said to be present on the stairs, along with some of his victims.
The ghost of a ‘White Lady' has been witnessed wandering around the Inn.
Other reports include soldiers which have been heard in the courtyard, the strong smell of a lady's perfume, the rustling noise of a lady's dress, glasses which have been seen to fly off the bar for no apparent reason, and a £10 note which had 3 coins on top has been witnessed travelling across the bar.
Visitors, some of whom have not known the history of the Inn, have reported the feeling of being strangled where rope burns have appeared on their neck, dizzy feelings have been experienced whilst on the stairs, the feeling of invisible presence passing people on the stairs and feelings of sickness and fear have also been felt on the stairs. Reports of pain in the stomach experienced whilst in room 2 along with the feeling of a foot on the chest, the sound of laughter has also been witnessed outside this room..
Unexplained knocking sounds, doors slamming shut on their own, doors shaking before opening by themselves, alarms going off with no cause found, footsteps heard and cold spots felt.
There have also been reports regarding room 3, where it was felt a doctor may have performed experiments in this room, with a feeling of body parts placed in a jar.
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The last person to be executed at the pub, in Llanfihangel Crucorney, near Abergavenny, was hanged on the orders of revolutionary leader Oliver Cromwell for stealing sheep. The hangings were carried out from a beam across the joist of the pub’s staircase and the slab on which the bodies were placed remains at the well of the stairs.
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sounds just the kind of place to go for a nice roast lamb meal with mint sauce!!! Have passed the place many times actually but never been in - shall make a point of visiting next time I'm in the vicinity
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The story of the Skirrid Mountain Inn.
Skirrid Mountain Inn is located in the village of Llanvihangel Crucorney at the base of Skirrid Mountain, which is also known as the Holy Mountain. The Holy Mountain as the legend goes was split into at the crucifixion of Christ, which created the shape of the mountain today.
Around the year 1110, the Skirrid Mountain Inn was built, which makes it the oldest public house in the Principality of Wales. Just outside the inn in the courtyard is where Owain Glyndwr gathered his troops prior to marching on to Pontrilas to fight off the English. Inside is where the tale becomes quite gruesome. The Skirrid Inn was the favorite and best location for judges to stay while they traveled their circuits around the country. If you travel up the staircase to what is now a bathroom you will visit the holding cell where several prisoners awaited their sentencing. Here in this tiny room prisoners were left until the time of their sentencing, if they could bare the wait. One such prisoner that haunts this small room is one that could not bare the sentencing of death by hanging and split his own throat before the judge announced sentence.
What was the courtroom at the time is on up the stairs. This is the room in which Bloody Judge Jefferies gave sentence to each and every prisoner. His name of course is from the many people he sentenced to death by hanging. Not only did he sentence these men to death by hanging, but also the hangings were actually carried out from a beam that was placed across the joist of the staircase. Once the person was pronounced dead, they would be laid upon the stone slab at the bottom of the stairs. This slab is still there today telling the tale of the 183 bodies that were laid to rest here until the time of burial.
Throughout the inn, visitors have complained of lights being turned on and off, televisions being turned off, orbs floating through the air, and power cuts. No one has actually seen any of ghosts that haunt Skirrid Inn, but their presence is felt and seen through orbs and other ghostly apparitions
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Potted History
The Skirrid Mountain Inn stands in the shadow of the Skirrid Mountain, sometimes called the Holy Mountain, which, according to legend , broke in two at the time of the crucifixion of Christ during a violent storm.
In the forecourt of the Inn Owen Glendower rallied his troops before marching on to Pontrilas.
Owen Glendower
Halfway up the magnificent square spiral staircase stands the cell, now used as a store room, where many a prisoner spent his last night before being sentenced to death by Bloody Judge Jefferies.
The hanging was carried out from a beam placed across the joist of the staircase and the slab on which the bodies were placed may still be seen at the well of the stairs.
The Skirrid Inn claims to have some of the finest oak beams in the country, made from ship's timbers and containing the original peg holes.
The stone structure is original as also are some of the windows and a door-way.
The old mounting-stone, standing in the forecourt, has been used by many of England's past Kings.
The last person to be executed here was hanged on the instructions of Oliver Cromwell; the crime - sheep stealing.
The skirrid Inn is the oldest Public house within the borders of the Principality of Wales and among the foremost claimants to the title of the oldest Public House in Great Britain. Many of the contenders listed in the Guinness Book of Records are not original structures, being newer buildings on old foundations or have been extended or restored over the centuries. The Skirrid Inn however has stood for nine centuries.
The main rivals for the title of the Oldest Inn in Great Britain are Nottingham's "Trip to Jerusalem" ( 1070), the "Fighting Cocks" at St. Albans (11th century structure on an 8th century site), the "Godbegot" at Winchester (1002). The "Bingley Arms", Bardsay near Leeds is recorded as the Priests Inn (AD 905), while "Ye Old Ferry Boat Inn" at Holywell Cambridgeshire claims an origin as early as AD 560.
More Historical Facts about The Skirrid Mountain Inn
Fifty years after the Norman Conquest of Britain, two men stood trial before a court assembled in the main room of a new alehouse on a dusty road below the Skirrid Mountain.
The alehouse was called "Millbrook" and the men were brothers, James and John Crowther. James was sentenced to nine months for robberies with violence and John ended his days swinging from an inn beam - his crime? - Sheep stealing.
Thus in 1110 is first recorded the existence of the inn known for centuries as "The Skirrid".
The Devil rode abroad in these early days of ignorance and as the night wins howled in the black night, inside the walls of the Inn, the Innkeeper solemnly poured out a pot of "Devils Brew" for His Satanic majesty - and placed it upon the shelf above the fireplace hence "to sip with the Devil"
The Innkeeper may have also left a jug of "pwcca" on the Skirrid doorstep when the last of his customers disappeared into the night, to appease the evil or mischievous spirits of the darkness.
Shakespeare is thought to have got his idea for Puck of Mid Summer Nights Dream from "y pwcca".
The mists of time shroud the early centuries of the Inns existence, but occasionally out of the pages of history steps a legend like Owain Glyndwr (1359 - 1416), who is said to have rallied his troops in the cobbled forecourt of the Skirrid before climbing onto the Mounting Stone and riding at their head in the march on Pontrilas.
This now ancient stone is believed to have been used not only by the Welsh King, but by many of the succeeding Princes of Wales and Kings of England.
As far as can be ascertained the stone structure is original and that somewhere behind the first Elizabethan plasterwork is the inscription "JHT 1306" recording the new additional to the early structure.
The main doorway and many of the windows are medieval. The oak beams made from ships timbers and containing the original markings and peg-holes, are amongst the finest in Britain.
The panelling in the dining room is said to be from a British man o' war of the age when Drake and Raleigh prowled the Spanish Main.
It is likely that both beams and panelling were salvaged when one of the Royal Navy's fighting ships was being broken up, perhaps in Bristol.
The Skirrid belonged to the Barony of Abergavenny conferred on Edward Nevyle in c. 1530, it was lost and then restored to the family by an Act of Parliament in the third year of the reign of Mary Tudor.
In 1535 on the death of George Neville, 3rd Baron of Abergavenny, the ownership of the land was willed to all his successors and remained in the family until 1900 when the Most honourable William, Marquis of Abergavenny sold the property to David Lewis, a professional Innkeeper.
From earliest times the Skirrid was a public meeting house as well as an alehouse and courts were held within its walls.
Between 1100 and 1485 Manorial Courts could have been staged, with Church Courts, Assize Courts and possibly the Skenfrith Petty Sessions in later centuries. It is assumed that the first floor was a court room, complete with a Judges retiring room.
A "mesne" floor halfway up the stairs to the courtroom was used to house the prisoners, both before and after their trials, and it was here that many common criminals - foot-pad, highwayman, robber, thief or cheat spent his last miserable night listening to the sound of a low alehouse below.
It is at the bottom of the stairs where many of them are thought to have met their end, hanging from a beam, upon which scorch and drag marks of the rope can still be seen.
Although no exact or positive records exist, local legend that passes from generation to generation by word of mouth suggests that upwards of 180 persons were hanged at the Skirrid Inn between the 12th and 17th centuries - the last, as was the first, for sheep stealing in the time of Oliver Cromwell. The hanging cycle had come full circle.
Did the bloody hand of the Hanging Judge brush the Skirrid? Did the Master Hangman Bloody Judge Jeffreys (1644 - 1689) sit in judgement in the Skirrid's courtroom? There is a widespread belief that Jeffreys may have been the Kings reaper in dealing with the localised Papish plot scare of about 1679 in Monmouthshire. he certainly played a grim part in suppressing Monmouth's rebellion 15 years later, but this was James, Duke of Monmouth, nothing to do with the County of Monmouth.
It is possible however, that during the supposed Papish plot the fervent anti-catholic occupant of Llanviangle Court, Squire Arnold, may have prosecuted local Catholics and tried them in his Courthouse - the Skirrid - and that Judge Jeffreys, a son of the Marches might have been ordered from London to put down murder and violence.
Jeffreys at this time was Recorder of London under Lord Chief Justice Scrogs.
It can be supposed that a brief bloody taste of power over life or death dealing with an anti catholic backlash in the Marchland backwater, may have helped him towards his post of Lost Chief Justice (1683) and to prepare him for the red-harvest in Somerset - the Bloody Assize in 1685
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Skirrid Mountain Inn [1] is a public house in the small village of Llanfihangel Crucorney, just a few miles north of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire. Perhaps the oldest pub in Wales, listed in chronicles from 1100.[1] Owain Glyndŵr is said to have rallied his forces in the cobbled courtyard in the early 1400s before raiding nearby settlements sympathetic to the English king, Henry IV.
The first floor of the inn was reputedly used as a Courtroom where capital punishment was imposed for certain offences, including sheep stealing. Local legend has it that as many as 180 convicted felons were hanged, some possibly from an oak beam over the well of the staircase outside of the Courtroom. Markings, possibly from rope marks, still exist on the staircase wood.
[edit] Claims to fame
The Skirrid Mountain Inn is one of the oldest pubs in Wales with a history dating back over 900 years.[2]
Legend has it that the inn was used as a rallying point for local supporters of the Welsh Revolt against the rule of Henry IV, the uprising being led by Owain Glyndwr. In the early 1400s he is said to have personally rallied his troops in the cobbled courtyard before raiding nearby settlements sympathetic to the English.
It is believed that the first floor of the inn was once used as a Court of Law and over the period of a great many years, as many as 180 prisoners were adjudged guilty of crimes serious enough to warrant the sentence of death by hanging, a sentence that was carried out at the inn itself, the last case of capital punishment purportedly taking place sometime prior to the death of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658).
It also claims to be the home of several ghosts or spirits as well as the scene of numerous supernatural occurrences or paranormal activities. Indeed the reputation of the inn is such that it has merited the attendance of a number of paranormal investigators over the years, including the Midlands' Ghost Hunt company, Eerie Evenings, who have gone on record in the past to say that it is one of the most paranormally active venues they have ever investigated.
The inn has been featured on TV's Extreme Ghost Stories and Most Haunted with Yvette Fielding. Possibly as the result of comments made by Derek Acorah, a former star of the show and a professed Medium, whilst filming was taking place at the inn, a popular belief has arisen that the infamous Judge Jeffreys heard cases at the Court.
There is no readily available documentary evidence to show that Jeffreys ever sat in judgement at the inn, however, during his career he did deal with cases in the area from Chester to as far south as Montgomeryshire (now part of Powys) and within a few short years then dealt with cases on the Western Circuit including the county of Somerset. Both territories being within relatively close proximity to Monmouthshire, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that on his travels he may have stopped at the inn or may even have heard isolated cases at the inn if conditions so dictated.
However, when considering his reputation as a 'Hanging Judge', if the last execution at the inn puportedly took place during Cromwells' time, then Judge Jeffreys would have been no more than a young lad nearing his 14th birthday at the time of Cromwells' death.
The events for which Jeffreys is most famous are the Bloody Assizes. This term was given to a number of trials held by five judges led by Jeffreys, following the rounding up and capture of a large number of rebels involved in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow James II in 1685. This revolt became known as the Monmouth Rebellion, named so after the leader, the Duke of Monmouth, but had little if any connection with Monmouthshire where the inn is located. Otherwise known as James Scott, the Duke was given the title, being an illegitimate son of Charles II. Having spent much time in The Netherlands he landed on the coast of Dorset with a small band of men and rallied together a large group of poorly trained and badly armed supporters as he made his way through Dorset and Somerset. A battle subsequently took place against the King's army, at Sedgemoor near Bridgwater in Somerset. The captured rebels, including some sympathisers, were tried at Winchester and other towns in the south west of England. The majority of those found guilty were transported to Barbados as plantation workers. Of the remainder, some died whilst awaiting trial and possibly as many as 200 were executed in Somerset. Importantly there would appear to be no record of any of the trials or executions having occurred at the inn.
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