‘It’s not a gallows, it’s a gantry, despite what people think’

COUNCILLORS locked horns during their recent meeting over the historic significance of the sign over St John Street that has always been referred to locally as “The Green Man Gallows”.

Discussing the issue of whether the Black’s Head and the gallows sign should be handed over to Ashbourne Town Council, independent councillor Clare Gamble referred to the night the head was taken down by locals, in response to the district council announcing it would be removed imminently.

She mentioned that the name for where the head had been fixed was the gallows, not a gantry, and that this is how it has been detailed in previous council reports.

Ashbourne Councillor Sue

Bull, who also sits on Ashbourne Town Council and was chairing the meeting, quickly interrupted Councillor Gamble to correct her.

She said: “It is not a gallows, it is a gantry. A gallows is somewhere where someone is hanged, and they’ve never been hanged from there, ever.

“It is a sign, for two public houses, I think you’ll find.”

After pointing out that it was her turn to speak, Cllr Gamble replied: “If it is not called a gallows then why on the day, quite clearly on any Youtube footage (of the head being removed in June 2020), did we hear [a joke]?

“I think that tells you what the people engaging in that act thought that head was.

“That is one of the most upsetting things I have ever heard in my life and it was a disgrace.

“For this council to be part of that by giving it back to a council which quite clearly by the wording here (of the proposal) to be legally displayed – I think we all know where this is leading, I think they want it to be displayed back on the gallows.”