Welsh Journals

THE SITES OF SOME MEDIEVAL GALLOWS BY G. MELVILLE RICHARDS, PH.D., F.S.A., f.r.hist.s. HOMICIDE was a crime which was punished by the payment of galanas in the Welsh Laws, and not by execution. There were, however, some crimes, including certain kinds of theft, for which the penalty was death by hanging. It may be assumed therefore that gallows and gibbets were not unknown in Wales before the Norman Conquest and the introduction of the English criminal code. There is a well known passage in the Third Branch of the Mabinogi in which Manawydan prepares to hang a mouse which had stolen his wheat Thieving I caught it, and the law concerning a thief will I execute upon it to hang it (Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones, The Mabinogion [Everyman] p. 51). There might be some value in listing sites of gallows from the evidence of place-names, for many of them are obviously adjuncts of the towns and boroughs established by the Normans. The following list is certainly not complete, since it depends almost entirely on onomastic evidence. The problem of dating the sites must remain an open one in many cases. Two early English terms which appear in Wales are representatives of OE galga, gealga gallows and OE wearg felon, criminal, outlaw For examples of these and their compounds in England see A. H. Smith, English Place-Name Elements, s.vv. B. G. Charles has recorded most of the examples in Wales in Non-Celtic Place-Names in Wales. Galga must have entered Wales at a time when -Ig- had become -Ich-, and this pronunciation survived as galch as opposed to English gallow(s). So in Denbigh GALCH HILL, half a mile south-west of the town. 1334 le Galghull. 1360 Galghehull. 1404 Galgheull. 1499 Gaulghill. 1549 Galgehill. Charles, op. cit., p. 224. to which add c 1637 Galch Hill Park. Chirk Castle Deeds [N.L.W.] 1668 Galchhill. Myddelton, Chirk Castle Accounts, II, p. 29.