Winters Gibbet

“Steng Cross”,the site of “Winters Gibbet”,stands at the highest point on a drovers road,towardsScots Gap mart.At the base of the gibbet lies the remains of a saxon cross marking “The High Point”
And so the story goes-----
On Monday night 29th August 1791 William Winter aided by two sisters Eleanor and Jane Clark,brutely and cruelly murdered a spinster Margaret Crozier.
The sisters,faws by trade ( sellers of crockery and tinware ) had previously sold Margaret some wares-and suspecting that she had “money”-they camped out in a sheep fold on whisker-shield common-and waited for their moment to do the deed with a tinker William Winter.
Boldly knocking at the door of “The Raw”,a fortified bastle house and pele tower,they attacked her in the upstairs room-they kicked ,punched and fractured her head—then coldly cut her throat !
Thinking that her body would not be found for days they,foolishly,stayed overnight in Elsdon village.However a young shepherd boy had spotted the three the day before-found the body and reported them-they were arrested.
The shepherd had noticed the unusual knife with which Winter peeled an apple –the murder weapon-and at the scene of the crime boot markings matched Winters ---and because of the strange settings of the hob nails and the knife they were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death !
All three were hung at Westgate in Newcastle –Upon- Tyne on 10 th August 1792—the sisters bodies were donated to medical science-Winters hung in chains at the gibbet-to remind people of the punishment dished out in the 18th century for murder !