One unusual form of transport which appears to have been employed by the British Judiciary for those sad women convicted of petty treason in the 17th and 18th century was the hurdle, to which they were ordered to be tied to and dragged to their execution and burned at the stake.
Still with transport as our theme in mind, I live less than a freight trains length from Southampton UK’s main railway station. Should I need to get to London I have a choice of a fast route to Waterloo or the much cheaper scenic route to London Victoria. When the need to get there quickly via Waterloo as my train leaves Winchester my head becomes filled with the high-pitched ungodly scream of a young girl, as my train emerges from the other side of the Andover Road Bridge the scream has stopped, not blocked by the bridge, but due the life that has been extinguished from that young girl as her flames raw on. The young girl in my head is, Mary Grote aged 16 was dragged tied to a hurdle to Gallows Hill which was at the time the execution site, for Winchester very close to what is now the Jolly Farmer Pub on the Andover Road, after being made to watch to men hanged, she was then burnt at the stake on Saturday 18th March 1738. We know very little about Mary, she may have been a mis treated angel, or an evil child who murdered her Mistress Justin Turner, but whatever she did not deserve this cruel evil death.
Should I wish to take the cheaper, but longer route offered but Southern Railway to London Victoria, on arrival in London I can take a number 2 or 13 bus to Marble Arch or follow the path of Catherine Hayes and get to Tyburn (now Marble Arch) via the Old Bailey, dragged there on a hurdle to be burnt at the stake. A fate that happened to her on Monday 9th May 1726.
I certainly cannot re-enact the horrible death of these two young women with the help of GIMP all I can do is take the ride on the Hurdle and thanks to the wonderful “StakeDamels” site arrive to find my other unfortunate sisters undergoing execution. We can only feel empathy for all who died as a result of often the mis -justice of days gone by, but who knows what draws so many of us to find the erotic fantasy side so stimulating.