Above: In time-honoured fashion, the judge would have placed a black cloth over his wig when announcing the sentence of death on Dale. From the newspaper reports, he was obviously in a very poor health. And even in those far harsher times, there was a great deal of...
Above: Dale was tried in the courtrooms at Chester Castle, a forbidding mass of grey stone buildings squatting beside the River Dee. The castle still houses the Crown Courts, accessed though the impressive portico, which Dale would probably have passed through...
Above: Macclesfield Bank stood at the junction of Chestergate and Market Place. It was here that money stolen during William Wood’s brutal murder eventually ended up. Further testimony from the trial of Joseph Dale for the murder of William Wood. The...
Above: The conditions for prisoners at Chester Castle, where Joseph Dale stood trial for the murder of William Wood, were said to be extremely harsh. The trial of Joseph Dale for the murder of William Wood took place at Chester Castle. One of his co-accused,...
Above: Both suspects were incarcerated within the grim walls of Manchester’s New Bailey Prison. The previous post covered the arrest of one of the murder suspects, 17-year-old Charles Taylor, in a Manchester pub. And the escape of his two co-accused,...
Above: The poignant remains of a training aircraft that crashed close to Shining Tor in 1944. It’s said that the three crew survived – only to die of exposure some days later. Above: The first part of the plane I came across was this metal casing (click to...
Above: Chestergate is one of Macclesfield’s oldest streets. It was here that witnesses reported seeing the youngest of the three accused purchasing ‘three complete suits of cloathes’. Before moving on to buy ‘shoes &c’ from Mr....
Above: William’s body was taken on the back of a cart to The Cock public house. And this is where the inquest was held, just three days later. By the time this photo was taken it had been renamed The Jodrell Arms. The pub has been in a very sorry state...
Above: Public executions once attracted huge crowds of ghoulish spectators. The last one in England took place in 1868, some 45 years after 17-year-old Joseph Dale met such a fate. Following on from the recent post about the Murder Stone lying beside the back road...
Above: Another image from the Whaley Bridge Photos website showing the bridge over the Goyt at Taxal. Judging by the hand colouring, and the ladies’ clothes, I’d have guessed it was taken in the early 1900s. But the bicycle looks closer to the 1930s....
