General Meeting: November 2024

Dave Brookes is a Derbyshire man, an ex-copper and one half of The Woolly Tellers, who with his colleague Mick Whysall perform story telling around the East Midlands.

Our talk was a potted version of a true story known as the Saville Murders which took place in Nottingham in 1844 and for which William Saville was hanged. William Saville was well known to the police as a violent drunkard and when his wife and three children were found with their throats cut, William was quickly arrested and charged with their murders. The jury took little time to find him guilty and he was condemned to be hanged soon after. Doubt still exists over the verdict and there is still a view that maybe the wrong man was convicted.

Public executions were a source of entertainment for the whole family and on this occasion a massive crowd of more than 10,000 people gathered at what is now the Museum of the Courts of Justice. The crowd became unruly and with little space and blocked exits many people were crushed to death or suffered devastating injuries.

This event, bad though it was led to changes in crowd control and policing methods . This was an interesting insight into the changes in attitudes and social behaviour as well as new methods for dealing with crime and crowd control.

Marianne White