The Cheshire
Sandstone Ridge

• The shades of evening were quickly spreading round us. As we came along I could almost fancy the form of Old Lowndes rocking to and fro in the distance.i
• about 35 or 36 years of age, five feet eight or nine inches high, stout made, of a dark complexion, has remarkable good black hair which he lately wore tied behind, has a florid complexion, large lips, is rather heavy limbed, and thick about the ankles... v
• Lowndes...the mail-robber, seeing (the guards) coming, said to the other prisoners,'Come my lads, the plot's discover'd; come down again;' which they accordingly did and were all secured. The debtors are suspected of aiding the attempt: under one of their beds were found, a canvas bag, containing 42 guineas, and other articles, the property of Lowndes.vi
• You have been convicted upon as clear a chain of evidence as ever appeared in a court of justice, and of a crime so dreadful in its consequences that the legislature has very wisely thought fit to punish it with loss of life. For if it were otherwise, there would be an end to all commerce. The property of individuals, as well as of the public, must be protected.vii
• as you regard your own souls , and eternal happiness , bring up your children to fear God , and keep his commandments , and then they will never be forsaken , or come to the shameful , ignominious end I am doomed to suffer ; learn them to shun evil , and do good... viii
• ...to prevent the body from being stolen by his friends, the upright baulk, 50 feet high, was thickly studded with iron spikes; and yet on the evening of the day that he attained so unenviable an elevation, his body was mysteriously taken away, how, or by whom, was never known. The gibbet irons were found some years after in a pit on the estate of Mr. Burgess, in the immediate neighbourhood. The socket hole of the gibbet is still visible on the rocky promontory of Helsby Hill.x
• Here his lifeless corse swung with the winds, a warning to all evil doers, who robbed the ... mails, until the farmers round about petitioned the authorities, and got the dangling body removed, for the wiseacres from Frodsham would not there buy their milk and butter, for old Lowndes tainted the neighbourhood. A blacksmith purchased the skullcap and fixing a handle thereto sold it to a dare-devil farmer, who used it for a broth-ladle.xi
• There are no contemporary records that can be considered to be wholly accurate. The most extensive of these is an anonymous pamphlet purporting to be an account of the trial together with the life and conduct of Lewin:
• There were many contemporary newspaper reports which have been summarised in a helpful article by Leslie Phillips for the Chesterfield & District Family History Magazine (No.94, March 2013, pp14-17)
• In 1867, many years after the death of Lewin, a letter appeared in the Chester Chronicle which offered some further details. In the same year, two articles in the Ashton Weekly Reporter, and Stalybridge and Duckinfield Chronicle added information which seems to stem from folk memory about the attack near Frodsham.
• An account from a possible family descendant of Lowndes is available on-line:
• "The Trial of William Lewins", Warrington Public Library. 1759-1791" CLICK HERE
• Another modern account can be found in: Yarwood, Derek, 1991, Outrages – Fatal & Other: A Chronicle of Cheshire Crime 1612-1912. Manchester: Didsbury Press. Chapter 4 part 1.

PHOTOGRAPHS AND IMAGES

It seems probable that the gibbet socket was where the trig-point is today on Helsby Hill. However, just in front, closer to the cliff edge, there is a possible post hole that has been packed with stones. Could this have been the site of the gibbet? Other images represent 'gibbeting', the process whereby the corpse of an executed individual is used as a deterrent to other potential offenders (click on images to enlarge)

My thanks to Sue Lorimer, Helsby local historian and Sandstone Ridge Volunteer, for helping to sew this remarkable tale together.

Peter Winn, Trustee

iAshton Weekly Reporter, and Stalybridge and Duckinfield Chronicle, 6/4/1867
iiDerby Mercury, 29/5/1788.
iiiIdentified in a letter to the Chester Chronicle, 19 Jan 1867
ivAshton Weekly Reporter, and Stalybridge and Duckinfield Chronicle, 30/3/1867
vNewcastle Courant, 10/7/1790
viCaledonian Mercury, 14/2/1791. The debtors referred to were presumably other prisoners. According to a letter to the Chester Chronicle, 19 /1/ 1867, the irons worn by Lewin "were suspended against the wall of the criminal ward, and there was a tradition that, loaded with these heavy irons, he had sprung to the top of the wall some 8 or 10 feet high, and they were there suspended as a memento of the astounding feat."
viiThe Trial of William Lewin... p.14
viiiThe Trial of William Lewin... p.24
ixDerby Mercury 5/5/179)
xChester Chronicle 19/1/1867
xiAshton Weekly Reporter, and Stalybridge and Duckinfield Chronicle, 30/3/1867