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The Caxton Gibbet

The Caxton Gibbet stands on a small knoll a mile and a half from the village of Caxton,Cambridgeshire,on what was once common land near a crossroads. Here criminals were gibbeted — imprisoned in an iron cage hanging from a gibbet until they died from starvation or exposure. Their head would be clamped at the top and their body left to putrefy for several months as a warning to others.

The gibbet at Caxton today is a replica which was prob ably built using the timbers of a nearby cottage. The orig inal gibbet was blown down during a gale. Nearby there is a Chinese restaurant, formerly an inn called the Caxton Gibbet which catered for people who came to view the gibbeting. It was also the place where the bodies were laid out after they had been cut down.

The story runs that in the eighteenth century the landlord of the inn — or possibly his son — decided to rob three wealthy travellers who were staying there. After the men had spent the night drinking and had reeled off to bed, he went into their room and started to go through their belongings. One man woke up and, in a panic, the landlord killed him. Then, to pre vent the others from discovering the murder, he had to kill them too. He threw the bodies down the pub’s well. Nevertheless, the travellers were missed and the landlord eventually convicted of the murder. He was hung from the gibbet within sight of his own pub. Today the room in which the murder took place is said to be colder than the rest of the building.

Footsteps have been heard walking from that room down to the foot of the stairs, which is the site of the old well. The Caxton Gibbet is situated near the junction of the A14 and the A45, on the road from Cambridge to St Neots.