High upon the lonely Northumberland moors, just a few miles from Elsdon stands the Gibbet of the murderer William Winter.
William Winter murdered an old lady by the name of Margaret Crozier who lived at Raw Pele, her home a few miles outside Elsdon. She ran a retail business from her home, and because she was a thrifty woman, it was rumoured that she kept vast sums of money in the house.
When she was found with her throat cut Winter was immediatly arrested on suspicion and later admitted the robbery, but not to the murder of the old woman. However, evidence from a local farm boy soon put a noose around Winter’s neck and he was hanged at Newcastle. His body was then hung in chains on a gibbet and left to the mercy of the crows!
A model of his head still hangs today on the gibbet, and it is said… on a moonlit night the fearsome figure of William Winter can be seen leaving the old woman’s home with a bloodstained knife held in his hand.