Is this the exact spot where Cov’s last public hanging took place?

IT MIGHT seem barbaric now but just a few generations ago public hangings were still taking place in the UK.

The last public hanging in Coventry took place on August 9, 1849 and it proved quite a spectacle - with an estimated 20,000 people turning out to watch.

Plenty is known about the event and who the convicted criminal who went to their death on the gallows was.

Her name was Mary Ball and she was sentenced to death for killing her husband.

The hanging took place in Cuckoo Lane outside what was the County Hall - it is now the Slug and Lettuce.

A plaque on the exterior wall of the pub tells a little of the history of County Hall and Coventry’s last public hanging.

But where did it take place precisely?

It is thought the wooden gallows was erected approximately equidistant between the old County Hall and Holy Trinity Church.

The photo (right) shows what is thought to be the spot a block-paved area to the side of the pub.

Who was Mary Ball and why was she sentenced to death?

It’s one of the most famous Coventry crime tales from yesteryear.

She became the last person to be publicly hanged in Coventry after being convicted of poisoning her husband at their home in Nuneaton.

It is estimated that around 20,000 watched as she was put to death in Cuckoo Lane, in the city centre, on August 9, 1849.

It was reported at the time that “large crowds of people were observed flocking in to Coventry from all directions” to witness her execution.

Ball’s crime was that she murdered her husband by “administering to him a quantity of arsenic”.

It was said that “during the trial and for some days afterwards she appeared to be indifferent to the awful situation in which she was placed”.

She even refused to speak to a reverend who visited her twice in the city gaol, but eventually stated she had “something to say” but would only speak to the governor, Mr Stanley.

He immediately visited her and he wrote the confession which she impressed upon him: “I told him (reverend) I knew nothing about it myself, but that is false.

“I put the arsenic on the mantle shelf and told him there was some salts on the shelf - he might take them, they would do him good; but I knew at the time it was not salts, but I thought if he taken it himself I should not get into any scrape about it, for the people would think he took it in mistake.”

The governor asked her why she had done it and Ball stated: “Why, my husband was in the habit of going with other women, and used me so ill; no one knows what I have suffered, but had I have known as much as I do now I would not have done it, for I would rather have left him and went to the workhouse; but I hope God will forgive me.”

Following her - and the city’s final - execution, Ball was buried under Coventry gaol, now Cathedral Lanes shopping centre, where it is believed her skeleton remains.

■■ This tale was put together with the help of Coventry History Centre, based at the Herbert Art Gallery.

Holy Trinity Church (above), next to the spot (left) where Coventry’s last public hanging took place in 1849 and (inset) the County Hall plaque which refers to the hanging in Cuckoo Street, attended by 20,000 people