More on the mystery carvings.

More on the carvings story first published on Thursday with a follow-up yesterday.

Geoff Farr has been in touch with AudlemOnline as he has seen the carvings in question, which are in the hayloft of a Shippon, or Cow House, at Pinnacles Farm off Coole Lane. The carvings are on a horizontal beam in a roof truss.

Geoff saw the carvings when the farm was run by John Beeston. The building has since been converted into a house. Geoff recalls one of the carvings showed a man hanging and was told that it commemorated the last hanging in Hankelow – although in fact the hangings took place in Chester, albeit the two condemned were residents of Hankelow.

Geoff added some interesting thoughts on Coole Lane saying that while there's a good number of farmhouses spread along the lane, there are no farm cottages. Apparently, all the farm workers on those farms lived in Hankelow and, at one stage, around one hundred farm workers walked from Hankelow to Coole Lane, crossing the River Weaver, of course, en route. This may also explain why a hanging of people from Hankelow should be recorded in Coole Lane in a hay loft.

Geoff added that he has spotted what was possibly the site of a farm cottage towards the northern end of Coole Lane. The clue was the remains of a well.

If you would like to know more about the case that led to the carvings, the full, if somewhat floury, description of the crime and trial can be read here.

Possibly a better account can be seen here.

Geoff Farr recalls that a decade or so ago, the Nantwich Players Theatre Group produced a play based on this case of murder and execution.

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