18/10/2024
Where it began. And where it all ended.
St. Breock Church. Where great nanny Ann was baptised along with all her siblings, including older brother William and younger brother James.
Her brothers would later become infamous in Cornish history as the 'Wadebridge Murderers' for the highway robbery and murder of a local well respected and highly thought of gent, Neville Norway.
William and James Lightfoot were hung at Bodmin Gaol and said to have been buried in the jail's coal yard with no marking.
Their ex*****on was said to have drawn in a crowd of thousands who travelled in to Bodmin for the spectacle. Their trial had been standing room only, with people injured in the crush to enter. Bodmin was said to be bustling in the days leading up the ex*****on, with extra transport into town laid on especially and no room at any inn in town.
I have mixed feelings about my family being used as a spectacle in the Bodmin Gaol tour. I can't help thinking of Ann, their parents, and William and James's wives and children, no matter what the boys did to deserve their punishment, knowing that their loved ones death was so celebrated. James was just 23 when he was executed.
