William Dargue - A History of Birmingham Places & Placenames . . .  from A to Y

Gibbett Hill

Gibbet Hill B73 - Grid reference SP102943

Use the grid reference on the Ordnance Survey website - Get-a-map.

Gibbet Hill lies  at New Oscott opposite Oscott College on the Chester Road in the Antrobus Road area. During the 18th century highwaymen were always a danger for travellers. And the Warwick Road, the Coventry Road and the Chester Road, especially in the waste around Sutton Chase, were notoriously dangerous. The infamous Dick Turpin is said to have worked in league with a Sutton highwayman namewd King who was born somewhere between Sutton and Stonnall. Turpin was hanged in 1739, and King was popularly believed also to have been caught and then burned to death in Sutton Park.

During the 18th century people and property in outlying areas were also vulnerable to armed attack by criminal gangs from Birmingham. Associations for the prosecution of felons were formed in a number of rural districts including in the manor of Perry Barr at the edge of which is Gibbett Hill. This prominent hill overlooking the main road was the site of a public gallows set up by the Georgian justices as a warning and deterrent.

See also The Tyburn.

William Dargue 24.02.09

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For 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps of Birmingham go to British History Online - Maps.