The Gateway Walk

These pages were contributed my Malcolm Hanson, who runs the Skipton Experience guided walks

Part 2

Manby's Corner & the Market Cross

We join the Historic Gateway Walk outside 'Jumpers', on a spot formally known as 'Manby's Corner', which is situated at the northern end of Middle Row, between the High Street and Sheep Street.

Just opposite here, in front of Barclays Bank, stood the Market Cross, the stocks and the pillory. The pillory stood here until 1770, and the stocks and cross survived until the late 1830s; both then being dismantled. I am not aware of what became of the stocks or the pillory; though the steps from the Market Cross are generally believed to form part of those which now front the entrance to the Banqueting Hall of Skipton Castle.

The Market Cross had several uses. Apart from it being a milepost (it might have shown the distance between this and the next Market Cross at Settle), it was also used as a place of punishment for cattle rustlers who would be tied to the cross; their backs duly whipped until their blood so ran". (it was not unknown for females to suffer the same punishment; no doubt attracting a large crowd of inquisitive men!)

However, the main use of the cross was to announce the starting and ending of trading on market day by use of a bell above which rested a square wooden canopy. This canopy has been described by historians as rather unique as there appear to be no other references to a cross being so adorned. This was also the point where all traders brought their produce to be weighed, (perhaps resting their sacks of butter and grain on the aforementioned steps) and it would be quite normal to see the poor of the town massing around the cross to witness the weighing. This was because the law decreed that should the produce turn out to be 'light' i.e., less than the trader claimed, then all was confiscated and given to the poor. Presumably, the stocks were kept in close proximity to the cross to remind the traders that further forms of punishment were available for regular transgressors.

For many years the town employed a beadle to patrol the High Street; it being his job to keep order among the beggars and miscreants that plagued the area, and in order to strike terror into the hearts of his 'clients' he wore a black cocked hat rimmed with gold braid, while he wielded a heavy staff upon which perched a trident ( fer proddin' an a 'pokin' all as bothered 'im"). The beadle was never short of work since, with the advent of the Dissolution of the Monasteries Act in 1539, life had become extremely hard for the very poor, who no longer able to obtain aims at the priory gate had no other course than to beg openly in the towns. Such unfortunates, driven by the cold and hunger, might descend on Skipton, and it was the beadle's job to drive these 'nonresident' or 'foreign' beggars out. Punishment was extremely cruel and unjust: whole families, small children included, might be tied naked to the backs of carts and whipped from one end of the High Street to the other until "....the skins on their backs be sorely reduced to red ribbon` Then, by order of the local magistrate, these same luckless derelicts would be despatched to another part of the county, where perhaps they might find themselves at the mercy of another beadle. Life for such unfortunates was a never-ending round of misery and indignity, on top of which the sufferings of the whip, and in some cases, the harsher extremities of the branding-iron, were yet further examples of cruelties to be endured.

Suffering the attentions of the beadle were not the only forms of punishment available to those willing to break the local laws. A 'court leet' held regular sessions in the Town Hall where sheep stealers and cattle rustlers would be tried. Existing financial accounts show the ordering of branding-irons by the Lord of the Honour of Skipton for use in cases of serious felony. In general however, only fines would be expected for common transgressions, and as all the money collected from the fines went to the castle, it was for the present incumbent - as Lord of the Honour of Skipton - to use the income for the good of the community. No doubt many did; but there were those that did not, and quite often the incumbent resided elsewhere; the money being used to prop up his estate there.

Leaving behind our beadle and his 'clients', we move along through history to the 'Manby's Corner' of the 1890's, where, perhaps on the dreariest of days, one might have laughed 'til the tears ran" at a spectacle guaranteed to raise the lowest of spirits.
Skipton was on several occasions visited by a native American Indian named Seequaw. It was this travelling 'medicine-man's' claim that by the use of ancient spells he could perform the painless extraction of teeth. Upon his arrival, (accompanied by his own 'band') - and with news travelling like wildfire throughout the surrounding streets - all human traffic would be drawn to a halt as the Indian whooped it up in front of an expectant crowd. Anyone daft enough to take up the offer of a painless tooth extraction would be charged a shilling; strapped into a chair, and be attacked by a pliers-wielding Seequaw! At the very moment the pliers took hold, the band would strike up a lusty tune (more than enough to drown out the agonizing howls coming from the chair), and much to the hilarious baying of the crowd, tooth would be parted from jaw. No doubt also a penny or two would be extracted from the appreciative onlookers. It had to be, since after the first 'go' it was highly unlikely there would be any other takers!

Before we leave 'Manby's Corner' we should just briefly glance up at the topmost windows of the building that houses 'Jumpers'; if the light is shining in the right direction we might just see ghost writing!

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