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A look at the darker side of God's county

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date29 June 2022
Publication titleHuddersfield Daily Examiner
If nobody was interested in the dark side of humanity there would be no biographies, documentaries, dramas, nor feature films about terrible people

Yorkshire may be God's Own Country but it hasn't been free of sin since mankind first set foot here in prehistory. In our Dark Guide to Yorkshire, we reveal the locations associated with the county's nastiest pieces of work: serial killers, con artists, gangsters and the kind of people we're frankly, better off without.

David Hartley Turvin 'King' David as he was known, was the leader of the Cragg Vale Coiners, an 18th-century gang that clipped and produced counterfeit coins in the Calder Valley. What started as a way for destitute weavers to supplement their legitimate earnings became an organised criminal enterprise which almost caused the collapse of the whole British economy.

Hartley lived at the top of Cragg Vale in sizeable Bell House, off Cragg Lane, which stands today. The highest stretch of the main road into Cragg Vale is called Turvin Road.

As ruthless as any gang today, the Coiners intimidated and killed anybody who stood in their way. A public official William Dighton, who was investigating the gang, was ambushed and shot dead on Bull Close Lane, in Halifax. Dighton's informer Abraham Ingham was thrown in the fireplace and killed at the Union Cross Inn, Heptonstall.

As ruthless gang today, intimidated anybody their

Coincidentally, Hartley Turvin is buried a stone's throw away, between Heptonstall's old and new churches. Justice eventually caught up with the gang leader and he was hanged at Knavesmire, York.

Dick Turpin While the world's most famous highwayman committed his most serious crimes in Essex and London he was caught in the East Riding. On the run, Turpin is believed to have stayed at the Cowgate pub, Welton, which is now the Green Dragon. Unable to keep his head down, Turpin was arrested at the

Ferry Inn, Brough, after shooting a gamecock belonging to the landlord and threatening to shoot a bystander.

After a stint in Beverley House of Correction, which is today in the town's Guildhall, Turpin was transferred to York Gaol which is now part of York Castle Museum. You can visit the cell in...

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