The Noose & Gibbet Inn: Grisly true story behind macabre memorial at pub in Attercliffe, Sheffield

But the Noose & Gibbet Inn on Broughton Lane in Attercliffe, Sheffield – across the road from Utilita Arena Sheffield – is actually one of the city’s most popular pubs. The 18th century watering hole, which is also a bed and breakfast, boasts an impressive 4.3 stars out of five on Google reviews with lots of praise for the 'brilliant atmosphere’ and ‘friendly staff’.

The man hanging outside, looking down at passersby with a mournful expression on his pale, lifeless face, is the notorious highwayman Spence Broughton. He was sentenced to death in 1792 after robbing a mail boy delivering the post to Sheffield and Rotherham. A judge, wishing to make an example of him, ordered that his body be hanged on a gibbet on Attercliffe Common and left on display there as a macabre warning to others.

Why was Spence Broughton’s body left hanging from a gibbet on Attercliffe Common?

His corpse was left to decompose within a cage and it became a ghoulish visitor attraction, reportedly drawing 40,000 people within the first few days of its appearance close to the road between Sheffield and Rotherham. There it would remain for more than 35 years until the gibbet was taken down in 1827 and Broughton’s remains were buried in a churchyard in Darnall. The metal shackles and belt believed to part of his gibbet chains would many years later go on display at Weston Park Museum.

Broughton and his accomplice John Oxley had stopped a post boy one night in early 1791 at Ickles, on the Rotherham edge of Attercliffe Common, and robbed him of the mail bag. The post boy was reportedly dragged from his horse before his hands and feet were bound and a handkerchief was tied around his eyes. Broughton and Oxley fled towards Mansfield but when they examined the contents of the bag they were disappointed to find that the only item of significant value was a French bill of exchange worth £123, which Oxley headed to London to cash.

Oxley was later that year caught after robbing a mail boy in Cambridge and admitted to two more robberies, including the one between Sheffield and Rotherham. He implicated Spence Broughton and Thomas Shaw in the crimes, and all three were arrested.

Who was Spence Broughton and how did he end up choosing a life of crime?

Shaw testified against his accomplices at court in London, playing down his own role in order to avoid conviction, while Oxley managed to escape from prison before trial, leaving Broughton to face justice alone at York Castle in 1792, with Shaw as a witness for the prosecution. Broughton was found guilty of highway robbery, sentenced to death, and executed in April that year.

A mural on the wall of The Noose & Gibbet Inn describes Broughton as a ‘gentleman farmer’ from Lincoln, who it says ‘married well and received a handsome dowry’ – only to squander their money through his love of gambling at cock fights. It was to recoup his losses that he turned to crime, the mural says, becoming a member of the ‘Hatters Club’ – a local band of Attercliffe villains.