Horsham

Although the town of Horsham is not mentioned in the doomsday book of 1086, It was mentioned in a Saxon charter of 947, At that time Horsham was just a small village it was thought that the town started from the carfax, Then grew in the 11th century down to St Mary's church at the end of the causeway along to bishopric in the west and as far east as queensway then to the north as far as north street.

The name Horsham or Horsam as it was known in the 14th to 16th century means a place to keep horses, Or is it named after a Saxon lord called horsa, The carfax was then mentioned in 1340 when it was called scarfolkes or Scarfax (where four roads meet).

South of the carfax is the causeway that gets its name from a raised walkway on wooden posts surrounded by river marshes, It was here at the end of the causeway that the church of St Mary's stands, built in the 12th century by William de braose's son Philip but then in the 13th century nuns from rusper priory pulled the church down and built one of their own the one you can see today, but if it had not been for workmen in 1864 the church would not be there, You see in 1863 the pillars inside the middle of the church were leaning so bad that it would have fallen in on itself.

If you look in the graveyard of St Mary's you will see a grave that faces north south rather than the usual east west ? for this is the grave of a Persian princess who died in 1854 her name was Helena Bennett she had adopted a roman catholic faith when she married an Englishman but being a Moslem she was buried facing Mecca ?, But given a Christian burial but not facing east west ?.

There is another grave in the church yard that is if you can find it?, Is the grave of a local butler who died in the 19th century , The story goes that when the butler died the master of the house went along to a local stone mason to have put on the gravestone (He was a loyal and devoted servant)but later the master found out that the butler was not all goodness and light and not as honest as he thought ?,So he had the stone mason stop carving the gravestone but the stone mason had already carved (HE WAS) so the master left it at that thinking this was a fitting epitaph to the butler with ( no name or date !.)

On a night during the 19th century four boys decided to play a joke on the local village idiot ,They all donned white sheets and hid in St Mary's graveyard one boy climbed on top of a box tomb and the others hid amongst the other gravestones in the graveyard and as the village idiot walked past the boy lying down on the box tomb sat up and said " let me back in ! Let me back in !" to which the idiot picked up the sexton's spade that was lying nearby and hit the boy over the head and said "you silly little bar steward you should never have come out in the first place !,"

In the carfax is the Kings head that was built in 1401it was said that henry the VIII stayed the night , Between 1855 to 1881 the king's head was the inland revenue office for Horsham the inland revenue officer name was a Mr thrift !.

Another thing that horsham had to put up with was smuggling like any other town or village in the 18th and 19th century's, Smugglers would use the public houses in horsham as meeting place' s such as the prince of Wales in west street where it was said that a secret panel between the house next door and the pub, So that smugglers could get away in a hurry, There were similar stories from other pub's in horsham with secret panel's that smugglers would have used, Then there is this story of the Allen's malthouse in Springfield road that was used to store malt where the duty had not been paid, There was also said to have been tunnel's that ran under Springfield road to fields on the other side of Springfield road and that smugglers would put sacking on the hoof's of the horses as well as the wheel's of cart to muffle the sound as they transported the illegal malt out of horsham, Some time later when the old gas works were being demolished workmen found one of the tunnel's leading from one of the cellar's of the old malthouse, There was also other stories that there are other tunnel's round the area of Springfield road but these stories are unsubstantiated.

To the east of the town of Horsham stand's St Leonard's forest that was used by smugglers as a meeting place, There were many ghost stories put about by smugglers to keep people away not just in St Leonard's forest but in pubs of the village or town, One such story that was put about was the story of a headless ghost it was said that it was the ghost of a squire powlett who would leap on the back of your horse if you were unwise enough to travel in St Leonard's forest after dark ?, It is said that this is really a ghost and not a ghost story put about by smugglers, Another thing that smugglers did was when they grew to old to carry on smuggling that they would draw a pension in return for donning white sheets as the sun set and playing the part of respectable ghosts to keep people away from the forest, The story of the headless ghost squire powlett is still told today for it was said that in 1970 a man was walking through the forest near the hammer pond when he saw the headless phantom on the other side of the pond, And then there is the story of four senior boys from a horsham school back in 1977 asked permission to spend the night in the forest with them they had camera's trip wires as well as other technical equipment, To see if the story of the headless ghost was true, And then just before midnight they heard the sound of horses hoofs as well as men talking, the boys then got up and looked round them but did not see a thing, The boys were so disturbed at what had happened that they ran out the forest in a great hurry that they left their equipment behind, It was not until about three to four days later that they had the nerve to walk back into the forest and pick up their camera's and other equipment !.

It is said that a monk haunts the causeway down by the church the last person who saw the ghost was in 1940, There is also said to be a ghost at pump alley and the town hall the ghosts that haunt the town hall are said to be prisoners that were once locked up in the cellars below ?, There is a house in the causeway that has a ghost that haunts the staircase?, Also its said that the carfax is haunted could it be the ghost of John weekes who was pressed to death in the carfax in 1735?, Another ghost story this time in Springfield road a person tells of a poltergeist that haunts the old catholic church in the road well its not the church but the house that is behind it, The story goes that when the house was a youth club the noise in one of the rooms got so bad that it was locked up and never used, As well as this there were the sound of footsteps in one of the rooms upstairs along with rapping on the walls, Then the front door bell would ring when there was no one there !, A local priest at the time thought it was boys playing (ring and run) then it was thought that it might be rats ? but the priest thought it was boys playing about and so did the police, So one night they would catch the boys at it ? so the priest stood by the door and the policeman went on the outside and crept up to the door, And as the door bell rang the priest quickly pulled the door open only to find the policeman standing there who had just got there but had not seen no one ? and there was no way that anyone could have got between the policeman and the door when the door bell rang !.

Another ghost story that comes to mind is the one at chesworth house with its bells that would ring when there was no-one there ?as well as the ghostly shrieks and the bloodstains on the stones round the house that with no amount of cleaning would remove the blood so in the end the stones were removed !, Knepp castle near horsham is said to be haunted by a white doe (deer) that s said to be the spirit of a young girl that was bewitched in the 13th century, Kings road is said to be haunted along with Cambridge road then near roffey corner there is said to be a ghost of a old woman some say it was a witch ! the only way to find out if it was a old woman is to stay the night in the cottage ?, There is another ghost story this time on the Worthing road just outside horsham going south, The story goes one night a man was driving near horsham when he picked up a hitch hiker he then asked the girl where she wanted( it was a female hitch hiker) to go she did not reply but just pointed in the direction of horsham so the man thought that she must want to go to horsham, As he got to horsham he stopped to get a cup of coffee he asked the girl if she would like to come into the cafe for a coffee but the girl said nothing thinking that she did not went into the cafe alone, When the man came out of the cafe the girl had gone so he asked people near by if they had seen the girl only to be told that no-one had seen her, Worried by this the man phoned her parents (she had told the man where she lived) only to be told to his horror that the girl was their only daughter and that she had been killed about three years ago while hitch hiking outside a horsham cafe !.

It was in 1735 that john weekes was the last person to be pressed to death in Horsham for the murder of Elizabeth Symonds there were three men and a boy, The crime took place in a small cottage about three miles from petworth where the young Elizabeth Symonds lived with her mother who was a nurse, It was said that the boy was put through the window where he then opened the door of the cottage the mother was a way at the time Elizabeth heard the noise and ran to the cottage door where john weekes and the other two men grabbed hold of the girl and then murdered her, And then ransacked the cottage, Later john weekes was arrested and charged at Lewes, It was said that john weekes was known as the dumb man, Part of the evidence given said that one of the men talked to the boy that was said to have been john weekes, But in court he would not speak pretending to be dumb ?, Witnesses said that they heard him speak, But in court would not say a word, The three men and the boy were all found guilty for the murder of Elizabeth Symonds, The boy then turned kings evidence and discharged the other two men were hung on horsham common, While john weekes was pressed to death it was in the yard of the carfax gaol that iron and stone were placed on the body of john weekes until in the end he died, It was said that the executioner had to jump on the pile of stone and iron to deliver the final blow, A large crowd of onlookers had come to see the execution of john weekes as he lay on the ground and was unceremoniously crushed to death, Later that day after the execution, It was said that as the executioner was bringing the crushed body of John weekes to the graveyard that the body fell off the barrow and so the executioner picked up the body and then continued to the graveyard come the next morning the executioner fell down dead where the body fell off from the night before , Another story to this is that the landlord from the crown in the carfax called the executioner over and said to him fancy a drink? So the executioner tipped the body off the barrow and went into the pub and had a drink or two later on he picked up the body of John weekes and continued down to the graveyard once again come the next day the executioner dropped down dead on the spot where he tipped the body out of the barrow?

There were five cases of witchcraft in Horsham, The first one was in 1572, Joan usbarne a spinster was found guilty and hanged on Horsham common the same happened to Margaret cooper in 1575, Then in 1577 Alice casslowe was found guilty for bewitching an ox value £4 that belonged to magin fowle and two pigs that belonged to Richard roose value 10 shillings (50P) all the above animals died so Alice casslowe was sent to prison and later that year died in a Horsham gaol, In 1591 Agnes mowser received a year's gaol sentence the verdict was that she had bewitched a cow so that it later died, The last case of witchcraft in Horsham was in 1680 that of Alice nash she was found guilty but later aquitted, In 1747 all laws against witchcraft were dropped, Although the belief in witchcraft was to remain in the minds of people in the town of horsham well into the 20th century, Another story in horsham tells of a witch that when a group of mourners were carrying a coffin to a horsham graveyard the witch who was walking next to the mourners was heard to have said that she would take a short cut through the churchyard, she then appeared to vanish only to reappear when the mourners reached the other end of the graveyard, It was said that all the mourners would seem to agree that when the old lady seemed to disappear the coffin became heavier ? and became lighter again when the mourners reached the other end of the graveyard, proving that she had made herself invisible so that she could get a free ride on the coffin, There were many stories like this in and around horsham about witches.

Horsham in its time has had four gaol's, the first one was by the sun alliance building on the right hand side of albion way this would have been about 1536, It was said that the first gaol was linked with butler's or boteler's chantry that was founded in 1447 and later was converted into the county gaol after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry the VIII in 1536, The first goal was in use up until 1600 it was said that the prisoners in the first goal were entirely at the will of the gaoler and that the system for keeping prisoners was based on a `fee` the more the prisoner could pay the better his or her cell would have been !, From the purchase of extra food or better food ! or the hire of more straw for the bed (the bed would have been a pile of straw in the corner of the cell) it was also said that the gaoler could earn more money by the sale of beer to the prisoners from a `tap` near the gaol that was next to a local inn (pub), Prisoners in these sort of gaol's were lucky if the gaoler was a kind and not a cruel and extortionate person as the system at that time encouraged that type of gaoler, The site for the second gaol in use from 1600 to 1640 was on the left hand side of albion way closer to the carfax or on the corner of the carfax and north street, It was said that in 1620 prisoners complained about he quality and price of the beer ! and did you know the complaint was treated seriously !, The site for the third gaol from 1640 to 1779 was in the carfax by the post office, By the year 1640 parliament had made new regulations on gaols in towns of Sussex one of these was Horsham, So that by 1640 a new gaol was built where the post office in the carfax is today so the authorities bought a burgage property (like a farm building) that was known as `ockladens` on the north side of the carfax , Shortly after the purchase of this building workmen started work on the new gaol, This gaol would have been two common vaults a felon inner ward as well as a debtors ward and a debtors hall most probably the same room, Along a smugglers ward a woman's ward a guard room and a club room, But it was not until the building of the forth gaol in 1779 that a felon would have a separate cell as felons in the carfax gaol were more than six to a cell.

It was in 1643 that a gaoler known as Richard luckins was to become the gaoler for the carfax gaol, Before this he was a shoemaker you see gaoler luckins was ranked one of the lowest of the lowest when it came to gaolers, He was always drinking as well as a frequent quarreller and fighter along with disturbing the peace and letting prisoners escape because he was so drunk !, Spending the day in London at a noted whore house when he should have been in Horsham also sending his servants to deal with people who were suspected of witchcraft using people to receive and bring in stolen goods and to say that he would support the king or anyone else for that matter which ever brought the most money ?, Richard luckins was charged with misconduct although ten prisoners did give testimony in his favour but they were not prepared to dispute the overall charges against gaoler luckins.

Horsham continued to hold its court leet until its death in 1834 as offenders usually fined although more persistent offenders ran the risk of being sentenced to a whipping or a time in the town stocks or on the town' s ducking stool, For those who failed to turn up at court were fined two pence or four pence ?, Some of these offences were selling beer or bread that was below standard failing to keep the front of a house in a clear state obstructing the kings highway in the front of your house and last but not least bleeding in the street was an offence !!.

It was in the third gaol that many of the assizes cases were heard, From that of in 1752 the case of Ann whale and her cousin Sarah pledge, It was said that in 1750 the whale and pledge family rented corslett's farm house in broadbridge heath near horsham and that Mr whale barred Mrs pledge from entering the house as well as reading the riot act over relationships you might be able to see from this that James whale and Sarah pledge were the best of enemies in the honoured tradition of hate thy neighbour !,So one day Sarah pledge walked through the back door while James whale was working and suggested to Ann whale that they should solve the problem of her hubby by killing him !, On this first night Ann whale cooked a hefty pudding that was full of spiders but this did not kill James whale just made the pie more crunchy !, So on the second night Sarah pledge put spiders in his bottle's of beer bur he spotted this other attempt's were made but none of these worked until the night when Ann cooked James a pie with white mercury (poison) that was bought for a horsham chemist, It was said that after Mr whale had eaten the pudding he was not immediately affected and went to see his landlord at the pub that was close to corslett's farm house for a drink or two and pay the rent a little while later he started to complain about stomach pains so he said to the landlord I am going home to sleep it off as he got home he started to vomit and as the evening went on he got worse he vomited more frequently, That night he spent the last hours of his life in unthinkable agony and by 7.00am the next morning he died, It was said that before Ann and James whale moved to corslett' s farm in broadbridge heath the young couple lived in west chiltington and then pulborough all was well they had a young child and what\'s more Ann whale would have received £380 from a legacy when an uncle of Ann's died and would get the money when she reached 21, It was not until 1750 that the couple moved to the farm house where Sarah and James pledge lived, you see the house was split in two and the couple lived in one part and the Pledge's lived in the other the building was owned by a Mr john agate to whom the four people paid the rent to, It was when Sarah found out about the money that the trouble started what lead to James whale being poisoned, Ann whale had said to James that she needed some poison for the rats in the farm house but this attempt failed when Ann felt guilty about the fact that this poison was meant for her husband but the second time round it worked so off went Ann and Sarah to get the poison.

It was then that the two woman thought that they had committed the perfect crime but their undoing was to come for it was a chance meeting between the landlord of the farm house and the chemist of harfey's in horsham the chemist asked john agate if the rat poison had worked to which he said that there are no rats in corslett's farm house it was then that the chemist had seen Sarah pledge buy some poison for the rats in the house it was here that the landlord suspicions were aroused that led to the assizes case of Ann whale and Sarah and James pledge to stand for the murder of James whale , On the 10th of July 1752 James whale was discharged by proclamation but it was not until the 20th July that Ann and Sarah were found guilty for the murder of James whale the sentenced to death, Ann who was found guilty of treason and Sarah as an accessory Ann whale was to be dragged on a hurdle from the carfax gaol to broadbridge heath common where she was to be burned until she was dead (tied to the stake and burned to death) Sarah pledge was taken from the prison to the common at broadbridge heath where she was hanged and her body was to be given to be dissected and anatomised, The sentences were to be carried out on the 24th of July 1752 but was postponed until the 7th of august it was said while Ann was in the carfax gaol she seems to have resigned herself but this can not be said for Sarah pledge who was heard to have said `that she would like to see the young bitch burn` before her own death also apart from this she said that she would rather hang in the nude than to allow the executioner her clothes, despite this it was said that the two woman were said to have been reconciled when they were receiving the last sacrament in the carfax gaol on the afternoon of the 7th of august , And at 3.30pm Sarah and Ann died as was said Sarah was hung and Ann was burnt at the stake, A large crowd had gathered to see the execution of Ann whale it was said that it was the largest crowd ever to gather for such an occasion, Ann was only 21 when she died and that the body was reduced to ashes in only 5 minutes along with this the screams of the young girl could be heard from cindermill farm warnham (that's about 3 miles away), It is thought that the ghost of Ann whale haunts the common and on some nights you can hear the screams that Ann whale made just before she died !.

The other assizes cases in horsham during the 1770's were in 1772 a man called pinfold was found guilty for stealing seven yards of cloth he was later acquitted, Then in the same year Thomas wilson was found guilty for stealing 24 pairs of shoe buckles from a local cobbler value of these buckles was four shillings (20p) for this the sentence was to be tied to the whipping post outside the carfax gaol and receive 24 lashes for each buckle he was then discharged the whipping of Thomas wilson was the last of its kind in a horsham gaol, Later in 1772 a woman called Jeffeys was found guilty for stealing a silver spoon from the dog and bacon inn in warnham road but later was discharged, In 1760 Ralph jones appeared at the assizes his crime was that he had put up a fence to keep pigs, It was said that the fence was to high ! and that it obstructed the kings highway as well as dumping a cart load of mortar and rubbish on the highway for this he was found guilty but later was discharged, Then in 1766 henry waller who was a butcher was found guilty for keeping forty pigs near public streets and feeding them the entrails of other animals and that the smell was unwholesome and hurtful ! to the people of horsham henry waller was later discharged, Allot of the prisoners that were found guilty at the assizes in horsham in 1773 were usually hanged in multiples of three or four in that year three man were found guilty these were William stamp who was a cruel road inspector the second was a teenager called Richard bridger who had stolen £100 from Chichester the last person to be hanged that day was a member of a smuggling gang called ambrose cannon it was said that ambrose had killed a solder in a brawl back in 1757 in Arundel but had since gone straight and was now married and lived an up right life, It was said that the people of horsham had drawn up a petition to save the life of the reformed smuggler but the idea of the petition for ambrose cannon was later abandoned, The teenager smuggler and road inspector were all hanged near champions mill on horsham common, It was said that public sympathy was so great for the reformed smuggler that enough money was raised on horsham common for the wife of ambrose cannon after she had said goodbye to her husband at the carfax gaol.

It was in 1776 that the last execution of being burned to death took place, Ann cruttenden was found guilty of killing her husband, It was said that after she had murdering her husband she set about mutilating the body of the dead man, At the trial of the widow cruttenden it was said that she pleaded that she was insane and had no idea of what she was doing, But nevertheless she was found guilty of treason and on the 8th of august 1776 she was taken from the carfax gaol to horsham park where she was first hung then taken down and burnt ! at the stake !, The crowd at Ann cruttenden execution was so large and that Ann was so small that allot of people could not see the execution, Allot of people at the time were glad to see the passing of the old woman and that quite allot of folk were saying that they were glad the old hag got her just deserts, Many of the assizes cases that were heard at the carfax gaol usually carried the death sentence and that upto four people were hung at a time which lead to the horsham hang fairs ?.

A Thomas Henshaw from billingshurst who was the under sheriff to the village of Horsham, As well as being a member of the trustees was also responsible for the construction of the new gaol it seems that the first few years of this gaol had its problem's, first of all there was the lack of money as the county had a considerable financial problem ! second was the inception of builders and to call them `Jerry builders` was being kind ! with the obvious results so that with no money and so called builders it was quite something that this gaol could hold anyone ?, So that by 1649 it was reported that the common gaol at horsham is not of sufficient strength to hold prisoners as it seems that many a felon made an escape from this gaol, So an order was made for the said gaol to be strengthened so the sum of £100 was raised and paid to yates and michell esquire so that the work on the gaol could be speedily carried out, But the sum of £100 seemed to be a wild under estimation of work needed on this gaol, For yates and michell would ask for another £320 about a couple of years later and still the work on the gaol was not right as felon's were still getting out !, And then in1658 a further £50 was asked for this again was for repairs to be carried out by yates and michell , Henry yates and not Richard yates was to partner Edward michell this time, Then again in October of the same year Henry onslowe George husse and Edward michell along with William freeman were ordered to `view the defects at the carfax gaol` and were asked to call some able bodied workmen to do the work ?, It seems that the phrase able bodied workmen seems to be an apt one !, For it seems that the whole story of the building of the carfax gaol appears to be a farce from the haphazard form of mismanagement and not to mention skimping by workmen, Apart from this there seems to be no mention of a professional architect as well as a surveyor for the building of the 3rd gaol, As well as this at the time the sight of workmen at the gaol was some sort of joke to local inhabitants and caused quite a few comments about the work going on at that time on the carfax gaol.

Apart from the county gaol in Horsham the place also had a house of correction or bridewells as they were known, Established in 1576 by an act of parliament for the correction of minors and minor offenders as well as troublesome visitors to the town, A bridewell or a house of correction were smaller than the gaols, As well as being the responsibility of the local justices of the peace, Although at times the bridewells did fall under the hands of the gaoler who was the master of the house of correction by the agreement with the local authorities at the time, There is a mention of Horsham bridewell in 1617 when a Quaker session, £8 was ordered to be paid by the treasurer for charitable uses for use of bramber rape unto the master of the house of correction at Horsham, The £8 was to be paid quarterly this was for better upkeep of the bridewell, But there is no mention of the bridewell in 1611 and again in 1650 and 1723 Although in 1770 there is a mention of the house, The bridewell or house of correction was on the south side of London road that was part of a property called the old barn house where the church is today.

By 1779 the new gaol had been built in east street by the railway bridge on the left hand side, It was here for the first time that prisoners had a separate cell the gaol its self measured 126 feet in length 32 feet wide the outer walls of the gaol was 20 feet high by 18 inches thick, Each cell in the new gaol in east street measured 10 foot by 7 foot along with two doors one of which was latticed, It was said that when the gaol was finished it was one of the finest in the county with this new gaol there were new rules for the prisoners, First the gaoler should be paid a £100 per annum together with a house and a garden second that the gaoler is not to be directly or indirectly the seller of beer or spirits to the prisoners and so on and so on, Until 1844 the gates of the east street gaol would open to let out condemned prisoners on their journey to the scaffold (gallows) on what is now sanderman way it was known as `the hanging plait` Between the years of 1810 to 1819 the assizes cases that came forward were for transportation and that there was only one hanging, But in the spring of 1819 the assizes at horsham were to see four people hang, The first was James gibbs he was found guilty for attempted murder of a man in storrington , The second case was on the 11th of august of the same year Edward broadbent who was a private in the 90th foot in horsham had murdered a bullying sergeant for this he was hung, At the hanging it was said that a inexperienced hangman was unable to gauge the right size of rope so that when the signal was given and the wagon that Edward broadbent was standing on moved out the way nothing happened ?, It was then that Edward jumped from the wagon but his feet touched the ground before the rope could be tightened round his neck properly it was then that a pit had to be dug beneath the feet of broadbent so that he could swing freely , The third was john piper who was a burglar for this he was found guilty and hung in august 1819, And the forth was john lulham who was a sheep stealer again he was found guilty and hung in the same month, It was then on 19th of august 1820 that the last man was hung on horsham common Daniel hartford a horse thief was found guilty and hung it was said that the smallest crowd had gathered to the horse thief hang the reason was that most people thought that Daniel hartford was going to hang on the new hanging platform known as the `newgate drop` that the authorities had just purchased but it was not used after this the hanging platform was always used, It was on the 24th of august 1822 a crowd had gathered in their thousands to see the new device work two man were found guilty one for burglary and the other for assault both were hung on the newgate drop outside the east street gaol later in the same week David barnett was hung for burglary, The next assizes case that was heard was in Lewes in 1826 it was the case of a young boy called leney along with a woman called Hannah russell both were found guilty for the murder of Hannah' s husband both the boy and the woman were sentenced to be hanged, But it was found that the evidence given was purely circumstantial and that the boy leney had paid with his life when he was hung for a crime that he did not commit, However the lawyers for Hannah russell were able to prove that Hannah's husband had died from natural causes Hannah was discharged later, The next case was in 1827 that William burt was hung for the murder of his child while he was drunk, Then in 1831 William holloway was hung for the murder of his wife, There was another case in the same year Edmund bushby and Thomas bufford were both hung for Rick firing? (Setting hay on fire or a cart of hay on fire) the same happened in 1832 for Samuel thorncroft was hung for Rick firing, There was another case of Rick firing in 1833 and again in 1834 two men were found guilty and hanged outside the east street gaol these were George wren and William godsell, It was found in 1833 that George wren was wrongfully hung for Rick firing, George wren first appeared at the horsham assizes in 1830 for sheep stealing at the time he was only 17 for this he was aquitted but the taint of suspicion after this case made people aware of him in uckfield, It was said that wren was born in a uckfield workhouse where he was a workhouse child, It was then in 1832 that George wren appeared again in the dock this time in Lewes the charge was that he had fired a Rick (put a cart of hay on fire next to a building) in uckfield, wren was in the workhouse where he had removed his boots ready for bed, The estimates that the witnesses gave varied by at least 45 minutes it was said that once the alarm was raised wren was seen to have been fighting the fire, No one said that they had seen wren near the Rick (hay cart) before the fire also the time of when wren returned to the workhouse was in doubt, But a boot print had been found near the scene of the fire that corresponded with wren' s boots, After all this the jury returned to find George wren guilty of firing a Rick it was then that the judge raised some hopes for the young lad by delaying the sentence, But this was to no avail for in the end George wren was sentenced to death, Public sympathy was on the side of wren but it was of no use for on the 5th January 1833 with the flimsiest of evidence that wren went to the gallows outside the east street gaol, A huge crowd had gathered with the hope that something would save the youth, Even to the fact if someone given the lead in a rescue attempt that more would have followed despite the special constables that were there as well as the troops next to the gallows, Wren protested his innocence before he was hung, Then some time later as the body of wren was hanging for the customary hour that a robin landed on the shoulder of wren it was then driven off but it soon returned to many superstitious watchers this was more proof that George wren was innocent, It was some year's later from a deathbed confession from a man said that he had stolen wren's boots to fire the Rick so after all George wren was actually innocent.

It was then in 1835 that three more men were executed, First was Richard shepherd who was a burglar and was said to have been the last person to escape from a horsham gaol but shepherd did not get very far so it was pointless to do it in the first place ?, Richard shepherd and john sparshatt another burglar were both hung together and the last person also a burglar was hung on horsham common in the same year.

It was in the gaol in east street in 1844 that the last hanging in Horsham took place for John lawerance was going to hang for the murder of a Brighton police superintendent he hit the superintendent with a poker, The story goes that john Lawrence was arrested in march 1844 for stealing a roll of carpet from a store in St James street Brighton, He was then taken to a Brighton police station where during a break in interrogation by superintendent Solomon Lawrence picked up a poker from the fireplace and hit the superintendent over the head and killed him, At the trial of john Lawrence in Lewes three witnesses gave evidence in court to the murder of the police chief it did not take long for the jury to find john Lawrence guilty, Then from Lewes john Lawrence was taken to the east street gaol in horsham to the condemned cell, It was then on the 6th of April 1844 john Lawrence was led out of the east street gaol to the gallows that was on the west front of the gaol (the gallows stood just east of the railway bridge today), It was said that crowd of 3000 people came to watch john Lawrence hang among these people was said to have been john Lawrence's brother was drunk ! and that he admitted he was a greater scoundrel than his brother was, Amongst this crowd there were people selling oranges as well as gingerbread and that a landlord of a local inn next to the gaol was doing a roaring trade selling beer to the crowd ! and the landlord said that he wished that there was a hanging ever day, Plus there were peddlers walking round the crowd selling copies of Lawrence' s last confession for a penny ! it went (John Lawrence is my name , to grief and shame , I brought myself the world to see, young men a warning take by me , At Horsham on a fatal tree, Alas I am doomed to die), It was said that boys from a local grammar school in horsham as well as other school' s were brought by their teachers but the curate of St Mary' s church in the causeway managed to persuade the masters to take them some way into denne park so that they would miss the execution, But some boys managed to slip away and join the noisy crowd and then at 12 o'clock john Lawrence was led up the stair' s of the gallows where the rope was put round his neck and a white hood was put over his head, Then the crowd was hushed as the chaplain said a few words to which Lawrence said `god be merciful to me a sinner` and then as the bells of St Mary' s rang out the bolt on the gallows was pulled back and the last man in horsham to be executed went to his death, It was then said that the crowd of 3000 that had come to see Lawrence hang dispersed within an hour and that the people of queens street went about their normal business, The body of john Lawrence was buried in side the gaol on the sit of the of the old chapel in park terrace east, But the body of Lawrence was exhumed shortly afterwards when the east street gaol was demolished in 1845, After the demolish of the county gaol in horsham it moved to where it is today at Lewes, It was then that the body of john Lawrence was taken to the queens head stables where it was lodged for a short time where it was said that people paid 2d each to see the corpse before the body was taken to the south west corner of an old churchyard in horsham.

It was said that many a horsham judge would sentence anyone for anything along with execution in the 18th and 19th century's, For a man in 1817 said that ` the laws of England were written in blood` and that half the prisoners that were brought before the horsham court' s were executed, Like in 1805 15 out of 29 were executed and then in 1814 out of 20 ten were executed, A horsham judge would have hung anyone regardless of age like Richard bridger who was only 13 at the time when he was hung !.

Up until 1820 executions took place at midday on a Saturday !on Horsham common sanderman way before it was built up along with denne park and the carfax, But in 1820 that a hanging platform was introduced called a"newgate drop! " could be used outside the gaol instead of the common, The horsham hang fairs as they were known attracted a large crowd that would follow the condemned person to the gallows most of the time the crowd would number in their thousands, Those that made the journey from the gaol to the common would go in a horse and cart escorted by the sheriff or the under sheriff that was usually accompanied by the chaplain the gaoler and the executioner and sometimes a guard of troops behind this lot went the crowd if the person who was going to hang was important the crowd numbered in their several thousands rather than thousands !, It was then said that the condemned person made a final speech to the crowd before they were hung in some cases the prisoner or prisoners would be executed at the same time say about four in one go the prisoners would stand on the cart with a hat or a bandage covering his or her eyes a rope would then hang from a beam above the cart down to the necks of the prisoners and then the chaplain gaoler executioner and even the crowd would hush in silence and then a signal was given by the gaoler or victim and then the cart was kicked out the way ! and then there was a gasp from the crowd as the body or body' s would jerk at the ropes end the body' s would be left hanging for about an hour before they were cut down and removed one of the reasons why the bodies were hanging for an hour was to let the crowd disappear the other was to let the people known that if you do this to other people we will do this to you !.

There were four ways of disposing of the bodies of the prisoners that had just been hung, The first was to let the relatives claim the body that could afford a coffin and transport the body to their native town or village for burial, And second was to have the body of the prisoner buried in the south west corner of an old graveyard the people of the town or village did not like the fact that a prisoner was to be buried in their churchyard so the grave was not usually marked but this would have been the exception more than the rule, The third way was to have the body of the prisoner chained and hung from a gibbet (gallows) near the scene of the crime this was usually done to mail robbers and murders particularly if the crime was violent and horrifying it was said that the body or body' s would be left on the gibbet for about a week or more !, The forth and the last was to have the bodies of murderers given to doctors for dissection this would have been from 1752 to 1832, Around about this time there was a strange custom that went with the bodies hanging on the gallows for it was said that woman suffering from a cyst or mole on them believed that there was a cure if they had the hand of a corpse stroke them across the neck or where the mole or cyst was (this was done by the executioner) while the body was hanging on the gibbet this was done during the hour before the body was cut down, Remember this was not only a harsh time but a very superstitious one as you can see by what went on !.

There is this case of a new executioner or novice who got the length of the rope wrong ! so that when the door of the hanging platform dropped the felon thought he was free so started to run , The executioner thinking I am not letting this felon get away with it, So started to dig a hole under felon' s feet until the hole was deep enough to hang him.