William Deighton Stone, Brearley, a Barbarous, Bloody and Inhuman Murder.

 

Passing through Brearley, a small village between Luddendenfoot and Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire on the Route 66 of the national cycle network you come to memorial stone inscribed with A Full and True Account of a Barbarous, Bloody and Inhuman Murder. The memorial was constructed to remind people of the sad death of William Deighton who was the Supervisor of Taxes and Excise for the Halifax area.

William Deighton was born in the south of England in 1717, he arrived in Halifax in April 1759 and in his duties as the supervisor of taxes he had a responsibility for collected taxes on cloth and beer. He became aware of the notorious Cragg Vale Coiners, who had become well known for clipping and debasing coinage.

By November 1769 several members of the Coiners Gang had been arrested and the remaining members led by "King" David Hartley came up with a plan to murder William Deighton.

On the 9th November 1769 William Deighton was conducting business at an inn near to his home in Swires Road, Halifax, after concluding his talks with local attorney Thomas Sayer, he left for home and somewhere along the route was shot, trampled and robbed by Mathew Normington and Robert Thomas with Thomas Clayton involved as a lookout. He was buried with his Daughter Penelope on the 11th November 1769 at Halifax Parish Church. The grave records his name as William Dighton.

Thomas Clayton always claimed to accompanied Normington and Thomas to William Deighton's murder and his evidence saw the other 2 eventually convicted of Highway Robbery after being acquitted of the murder of William. Clayton was arrested for a few offences linked to the coiners activities over the next few and then disappeared to history. Normington and Thomas were eventually tried for the robbery of William Deighton and found guilty. Robert Thomas was executed on the 6th August 1774 at Tyburn, York his body was displayed at Beacon Hill, Halifax. Matthew Normington suffered the same fate on the 15th April 1775. Both bodies were displayed with an arm pointing in the direction of the scene of the murder.

I have passed the stone many times and often wondered what it referred to, so eventually took the time to try and find out. I have been unable to find when and who put the stone there and why it was located at Brearley, as the murder took place in Halifax and the coiners had links to Cragg Vale.

The 2 pictures below were taken with a Samsung Galaxy Tablet in November 2013.

The following picture was taken with a Nikon d3300 in 2017.

I took the picture below in 2014 with a Polaroid is2132.

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The Ruins of the Church of St Thomas a' Becket

 Built sometime in late 12th - early 13th Century, the Heptonstall Parish Church was known as the Church of St Thomas a' Becket. It was also known as the chapel The Chapel of St Thomas the Martyr. It was built to serve the communities of Heptonstall, Erringden, Langfield, Stansfield and Wadsworth. The Priests were appointed and paid for by the Vicar of Halifax as the church was to serve the people to the west of Halifax.

The church was closed for a time around the turn of the 16th Century due to the murder of a priest, it was said he had performed an illicit marriage ceremony. The church underwent renovations in the 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, and a new clock was installed in 1810. This was moved to the new church.

The church was damaged by a storm in 1847 which tore off the roof, damaged the tower and caused considerable damage to the churchyard. The church rate, a tax payable by all parishioners to support the parish church was insufficient to repair the damage. A new church was built in the same churchyard funded by voluntary subscription and this opened in 1854.

The church ruins still stand to this day and occasionally outdoor services are conducted in the remains of the St Thomas a' Becket. I took these pictures on the 19th November 2016 with a Nikon d3300, they can also be seen un-watermarked and higher resolution on Clickasnap. Click any image and a link will open in another window.

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Halifax Pubs Volume 4

Batch number 4 is another set of 6 pubs / clubs from the centre of Halifax, West Yorkshire. All were taken in May 2018 using a Nikon d3300 SLR camera.

Atik & Vinyl

Starting life in 1913 as the The Picture House until 1960, when it was closed for 2 years before becoming a bingo hall. Opened again as a cinema in 1973 it continued until closure in 1982. Again the building was unused for a few years before becoming the Coliseum Nightclub and Maine Street bar in 1987. In recent years it has been known as Liquid, Atik and Maine Street has become Vinyl. The building is Grade II listed.

Bar Rouge

There are actually 3 different pubs/clubs housed in this building, Bar Rouge, Fusion and Panacea. Originally the site of the Globe public house the building was the head office of the Halifax Equitable Bank until it was taken over by Martins Bank in 1927. It then became a branch of Barclays Bank in 1969 until closure in 1985. In the early 1990's the building was converted at great cost by Mansfield Brewery in to the Coiners Bar. It has since had a number of names and owners and is currently up for sale.

Cat & Fiddle

Originally the Golden Lion housed in the all white washed building next to Bon Marche, the pub extended in to the nearer building in 1987. It adopted it's popular nickname the Brass Cat in 1981 and has been known as the Cat & Fiddle in 2014.

The Plummet Line


Built in 1897 as a replacement for the earlier Plummet Line Hotel which was to be demolished during the Bull Green redevelopment. Both were open alongside each other until 1898 as it is said there must always be a Plummet Line in this area of Halifax. I was once told that this was were Halifax RLFC's coaching team and senior players mapped out the tactics for their successful 1987 Challenge Cup run which resulted in Halifax beating St Helens 19-18 in the final at Wembley. Apparently the get togethers were known as the Monday night club.

Railway Hotel


The Railway is a former Ramsden Brewery pub within site of Halifax Railway Station. The hotel was the place where Janet Currie spent the night before drowning her child in the Calder & Hebble Navigation Canal. Despite people seeing her throw a bundle in to the canal, a child's body being found and being charged with the killing of a child on a couple of other occasions, the jury found her not guilty.

The Courtyard


Built in 1755 as Holly House it did not become a pub until the 1980's when it opened as Carrington's. It's most popular era was the 1990's through to early 2000's when it was known as the Bass House.

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