While out walking along the coast from Whitley Bay heading towards Hartley, I came to a pleasant spot on the headland that looked out towards the causeway leading to St Mary’s Island and the lighthouse there. This little promontory is known as Curry’s Point and is named after a rather gruesome landmark that once stood there – a gibbet, from which hung in chains, the rotting corpse of a man called Michael Curry. Back in the good old days this sort of thing was seen as being a way to deter crime, get up to no good and you too could be executed and then hung up for all to see while the crows pecked the flesh from your bones.
So, you may wonder who was Michael Curry and what was the crime he committed that merited this horrible treatment? Well Michael, in his own words, was a ‘laborious, honest man’ who ‘had the grace to keep the Sabbath Day holy’, though he did admit to enjoying a drink and having a bit of a potty mouth. Michael worked in a physically demanding job digging some of the numerous bell pits around the North East of England. These pits were a way of mining coal from seams near the surface. A shaft was sunk down to reach the coal, and as it was dug out and removed the pit formed a bell shape. These bell pits tended to collapse after a while, so when they did another one would usually be dug nearby and mined until it too collapsed, and so on and so on…. This job probably meant that Michael would travel where the work took him and then take up lodgings nearby.
Sometime before December 1738, Michael took up lodgings in Hartley at the Three Horseshoes Inn, an establishment run by Robert Shevill and his wife Isabel. Not long after arriving there, Michael and Isabel began a hot, steamy affair with Michael sneaking into Isabel’s bedroom while her husband Robert slept soundly in his. This bonk fest didn’t go unnoticed for long though, as one night Robert woke to some strange noises and upon investigating found Michael naked in Isabel’s room. Demanding an explanation, he was told by Michael that he had just been looking for a drink of water. Robert pointed out that the water was downstairs, and Michael mumbled some apologies and left the room. The next morning Robert, who had a deep suspicion of what had been going on between Michael and Isabel, demanded that Michael leave the Inn immediately. And that is where it could have all ended, but it didn’t. Isabel was having none of this and told Michael he could stay, and so he did. It seems that Robert then just had to accept this, which suggests he was either frightened of his wife or Michael, or maybe even both. Days went by and Michael was still at the Inn. Robert became increasingly worried by this and when Michael’s father came to visit, Robert told him that he wanted his son to leave. This appeared to have some effect, as shortly after the visit Michael left and presumably took up lodgings elsewhere.
All was well for a few days, but then on Thursday, 11 January 1739, Michael returned to the Inn for one last time. The Three Horseshoes was locked up for the night and all were supposedly asleep in bed when someone unlocked the door and let Michael in. Probably Isabel sneaking him in for a bit of rumpy pumpy. Michael however was not in the mood for a bonk, he had murder on his mind and taking a razor from a cupboard he made his way up to Robert’s room. There he woke him up with a few punches and kicks before slashing his throat with the razor. Robert, bleeding heavily managed to escape and made his way to a neighbour’s house. There, virtually unable to speak, he wrote on a piece of paper what had happened and who had attacked him. Later that morning, Michael was found sleeping at his father’s home and blood-stained clothing belonging to him was found drying by the fire in the house. He was then taken to the Three Horseshoes Inn where a bedbound Robert, who in the presence of all gathered there, pointed at Michael and declared that he had cut his throat. Michael denied this but was carted away and locked up. A few days later Robert died from his injuries.
In August 1739, the trial of Michael took place. Originally Isabel had also been indicted for aiding and abetting Michael in the murder, but these charges were dropped before the trial began. Michael was found guilty of the charge of murder and sentenced to be hanged at Newcastle with his body to be then taken and hung in chains near Hartley. Shortly before his execution Michael admitted that he had indeed murdered Robert but said that Isabel played no part and had not helped or encouraged him in attacking her husband. Whether this was true or he was just being a gentleman and getting her off the hook, who knows?
On Tuesday 4th September 1739, Michael Curry was executed by the West Gate in Newcastle and was said to have ‘behaved well under his unhappy circumstances.’ His body was then cut down and transported to the coast by Hartley where it was hung in chains from a gibbet. And just in case any of his friends or family were tempted to remove his corpse and give it a decent burial the local paper gave the following warning –
That then was the end of Michael Curry, but not the end of my wanderings. Just across from Curry’s Point is the causeway that leads to St Mary’s Lighthouse, and that was where I headed off to next.
I’ve always liked lighthouses and have harboured a fantasy of being a lighthouse keeper, even though I don’t think there is such a thing anymore. And anyway, with my dodgy knees and dicky heart, the constant climb up and down the stairs would probably cripple or kill me. Thankfully I managed the ascent up with no mishaps and was rewarded with a view out over the coast and the sea.
St Mary’s Lighthouse was built in 1998 by the John Miller Company of Tynemouth and replaced an earlier lighthouse that had stood there. Its light warned ships of the dangers of the nearby rocks right up until 1984 when it was decommissioned.
After taking in the views from the lighthouse and watching the colony of seals sunbathing on the rocks, I made my way back over the causeway. Cutting back over Curry’s Point, I left the Skulferatu that had accompanied me on a small ledge on the memorial stone.
The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are -
Latitude 55.069467
Longitude -1.452236
what3words: meant.slower.drums
I used the following sources for information on Curry’s Point –
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