Plaque to mark last hangman's Rishton home (From Blackburn Citizen)

Plaque to mark last hangman's Rishton home

4:00pm Thursday 14th March 2013 in News By Emma Cruces, Reporter

THE home of Britain’s last hangman will be among the landmarks included in a heritage trail of Rishton.

Specially-made plaques will be put up across the town over the next few months, marking out sites of historical interest.

Booklets will guide visitors around Rishton on the trail, which highlights a dozen places of interest.

The map will take visitors to places where Catholic priests were once hidden from persecution and the site where Rishton members of the Accrington Pals volunteered.

Coun Harry Grayson, of Rishton Neighbourhood Action Group which is behind the scheme, said he hoped it would start in the summer.

The clay plaques are also expected to depict the Queen’s visit in 1968 and the Festival of Britain in 1951 with a carnival through the streets. One festival goer who recreated the famous ride of Lady Godiva is still spoken of to this day in the town.

A plaque at Rishton Conservative Club will commemorate the site as the area recruitment office for the Accrington Pals.

One will be installed outside the Tottleworth house which was the home of Britain’s last hangman Harry Allen. He executed a number of famous prisoners, including James Hanratty in 1962, and performed one of the last executions in Britain in 1964.

The Roebuck Inn’s plaque will tell how it can trace its roots back to 1753.

At the Auberge Restaurant, a plaque will mark the site of the Great Egg Smash which took place in Rishton in the 1957. A vehicle carrying hundreds of eggs overturned on the corner, and families were able to feast on the cracked eggs afterwards.

Coun Grayson said: “Rishton had the highest number of volunteers of all the nearby towns for the Accrington Pals.

“Things like that need to be remembered and passed on.

“The Great Egg Smash is also a part of our past we can share with others. Families in Rishton were eating omelettes for weeks.”

At Hermitage Street a plaque will mark the first Methodist School in 1810 and the location of ‘priest holes’ which were hiding places for Catholic priests during the Reformation.

Rishton Neighbourhood Action Group has 10 points on the trail and hopes to include a couple more.