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Execution site

The Halifax Gibbet

Gibbet Street, Halifax, West Yorkshire

An early guillotine, used long before the French Revolution.

Halifax had its own law: anyone caught stealing goods worth 13½ pence or more could be beheaded. Executions were carried out on a gibbet with a heavy axe blade that dropped between two posts, an early form of guillotine.

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When
Used until 1650
Where
53.7220, -1.8660
Group
Gibbets & executions

Visiting

Free to see on Gibbet Street. The original blade is in Bankfield Museum.

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