Gallows Design and Construction

Dorchester gallows

The gallows in Durham Prison were constructed inside the exercise yard, where of simple construction and probably at ground level as it was constructed over a pre-built brick lined pit to accommodate the drop.  I studied lots of Images of gallows construction and from ancient times the base design really hasn’t changed. It makes sense that under the circumstances at Durham that the design will have had a plinth to construct the trapdoor into, to save on materials and labor and reduce the cost of the construction. It would not have been on a raised platform as this was not a stage being set for a public execution.

I decided that visually a raised platform would be more authentic for the audience, as it’s what you expect to see. This would give us better camera angles from ground level to capture all the action of Mary and the hangman plus the spectators in one shot. 

Example from the Web

CCAD had agreed to let us use some of the collapsible staging blocks from the Atrium and this made a quick, easy and cheap stage for the construction. I based my gallows design around Three sections of staging and one set of steps (the staging to be two deep)

Some sketching and development later I took a trip to Leaders to order some 4m long wooden joists. They had nothing long enough in stock, but they did have 10cm x 10cm 3m long fence posts and also by 2m. Many of the images that I had seen used square section wood and costs would be reduced if it was used.
I purchased 4 x 3m and 2 x 2m posts, I already knew I had extra bits at home. I also looked at thin ply to line the stage floor and render as wooden planks but the cost was prohibitive and another solution will have to be found. Wood costs for the gallows came to roughly £80 including screws.

The shorter lengths would be better for the shots but had compromised the design and so I designed an adaptable cage that used only four stage blocks, that could be stage for most shots but have a removable panel and a lower plinth to stand on for the end sequence.

Skiprat gold in the back of my car.

The outside of the stage needed a wooden plank surround. For several weeks  I kept an eye out for old pallets to strip for the short planks required until I noticed a skip full of them outside the Mecca Bingo in Hartlepool. After a quick chat to the manageress she agreed to us removing and striping them on site. Kyle came back over with me and after a couple of hours we had enough wood for the job.

My wood from Leaders arrived in time for the weekend and I set about making the construction. I have never made anything to this scale before and it was an experience. Whilst I have a decent working area outside at home the construction was too big for it, and also for me to be able to assemble it fully by myself.

The materials arrive

Everything needs to be level

I constructed the cross beam section first cutting joints into it and the vertical posts. The first leg was aligned screwed and fixed to the jib at a right angle and secured with a cross brace, before being deconstructed and the legs switched the jib turned and the process repeated.

Finishing after dark

Simple joints

In order to cut the wood and to align it for section assembly I had to make sure every piece was level with lots of chocks and a spirit level. Minor adjustments to get right angles at my joints involved going for a little run up to the other end of the post needing the adjustment and hitting it with a mallet, before walking back to the other end to check its square, and repeat until it is. I was tired just from all the walking but they are heavy lumps to lug around by yourself. It took a while to get set up but once I was going it was straight forward. I finished after dark by matching the colour of the cross brace wood I had used to the brown posts.

The next morning I set about finishing the construction by completing the legs which will make it free standing. I cut the remaining 3m post in half, for the two feet, and cut a joint into the center of each to accept the leg posts. These were then screwed together being careful to align the posts correctly to accommodate the jib when affixed.

The completed legs

In construction with angle support

This ‘T’ shape was aligned at a right angle and locked off by a strip of wood attached to both lengths. The two smaller posts were cut in half for two cross braces for each leg and the ends cut to join to the legs and feet. Once attached the support strip was removed and the legs were complete.I kept four off cuts for wedges to avoid any rocking on uneven ground.

I did attempt to fully construct of the gallows by myself, but it was simply too big and dangerous to do so alone and so abandoned it.
The gallows will be left in the three sections for transportation. All the jib joints have been pre-assembled in sections. The first full assembly will be on site.

The three completed components and wedges.

The gallows needs a noose. I bought some rope from B&Q and looked for an eyelet also, with no luck. The rope is ornamental and is really meant to string along boundaries, and so it has a soft loose twist to it. I picked it as it was the thickest gauge they had.
Upon getting home this is just a rope it needs a loop in the end to make it a hang man’s noose.  The classic knot (which strangles) was abandoned long before Mary’s time in favor of the drop system which is intended to break the neck for quick dispatch. Most of these loops that I had seen were covered in leather and is why I wanted the eyelet to just cover it.
 I remembered a TV programme that I had seen years before where a ship hand demonstrated how to form a loop in rope and tie it off. I set about experimenting with the frayed end formed a loop and wove the excess back into the rope length. The softer rope probably helped with this. I was happy with the results of the first attempt and tied it off. I have seen ropes like this and so chose not to spend time covering it.

I was really quite pleased with my rope work.

My Mother offered me some large lengths of fence she had been storing for the stage surround. Wide planks at regular lengths made this the obvious choice over the salvaged wood from Mecca Bingo for the stage surround. I had an idea that that wood could be bonded to bed sheets that had been stitched together and used for a floor on the stage, which will just rolled up for transport.  As the production ramped up I simply didn’t have time to do this.
Kyle came over the night before the shoot at the Heugh Battery and although I had hoped to use the panels as is cut to length and join them their construction prevented this and they had to be stripped and cut to length to be reassembled into four panels, two for the front and one for either side. The extra work eat into the evening and there was no time to cover the steps in the same planking also, the only immediate solution to this was to not have the steps at the front of the platform but to have Mary get onto it from the rear with the steps out of sight (which wasn’t really the shot that I wanted).

The cage also had to be abandoned also, although an easy solution for this was possible and probably more appropriate under the circumstances to the elaborate cage design. The morning of the shoot I went out as early as possible and cut two panels to bridge the gap between the sections of stage to be screwed in place one of these can be unscrewed and removed for the end shots. Easy, safe and quick.

The only solution left available now for the lack of stage floor was to not have any shots looking down at it, which again compromised intended shots.

To complete the set the large guns at the location needed hiding. As these could not be moved, I opted to camouflage them with a hessian sheet and sacks. These will need moving around as we take shots but hopefully will be effective to break up the lines of the guns and make them unidentifiable as such.

CCAD portable staging.

Finally upon picking up the staging from CCAD which Mike was kind enough to collect in his van on his day off, and drop it off at my house (Cheers Mike), we also picked up an extra quad of staging to be able to stand the camera and operative on, raising the camera up to the level of the stage easily.

Scans of the design development follow;