Driving or walking by Stoke Damerel Church in Paradise Road today, it's hard to imagine the grisly practices that were once not only carried out in the graveyard but also at the nearby 'Deadlake'. The Deadlake was the name given to the upper part of Stonehouse Creek which has long since been reclaimed. If you ever get a cold shiver, especially at night, when passing by this way, then the following tale might be the reason why.
The tale of the Stoke gibbet is a dark and macabre one. It is a true story that tells of the murder of a dockyard clerk on the night of July 21st, 1787. Philip Smith was brutally bludgeoned to death near to Stoke Church. His murderer, a John Richards, together with an accomplice, William Smith, were both soon apprehended. Richards was a dock worker who had earlier been suspected of killing a Fore Street sentinel. At first, there were no clues to who had committed the crime but Richards soon boasted of the crime and was, shortly afterwards, arrested. However, there was little evidence against him and he was soon released. A hat found beside the body was identified as belonging to Richards' accomplice, William Smith. Hearing of this, Smith fled to Dartmouth but was soon caught and admitted to his role in the murder and implicated Richards. Both men were tried for murder at Heavitree. They were found guilty, condemned to death and executed in 1788.
The judge in the case, Judge Buller, declared that their bodies wouldn't by given to surgeons for dissection, which was usually the case, but were to be 'suspended between Heaven and Earth as they were fit for neither.'The corpses were brought from Exeter to Stoke and displayed near the scene of the crime. This gruesome practice was common at the time.
The bodies were hoisted in wire cages and chains on a gibbet erected on the muddy Deadlake beach just below Stoke Church. Smith's body stayed there for seven years before the gibbet collapsed and Richards' body stayed there slightly longer.
People avoided the spot and it was said to be 'the terror of some and the disgust of many'. Nettleton's 'Stranger's Guide to Plymouth' says that the gibbet stood in place upwards of 38 years near the Mill-bridge until it was blown down in the gale of 1827.
In 1788, a bestseller called, 'The Genuine Account of the Trial of Richards and Smith' sold 25,000 copies. Some were sold around the base of the gibbet.
Long after the gibbet disappeared, people shunned the area after dark which, during the 1830s, left the area quiet enough for grave robbers to carry out their grim practices in the secluded Stoke churchyard.
Today, it's hard to imagine that all this once went on and the area has changed considerably over the years although the church still stands. Walking through the church grounds today, many of the older gravestones have been laid flat and form a pathway. One of the headstones once marked the grave of Cornelius Tripe who was the Mayor of Devonport between 1838-1839.
Thankfully, the days of the gibbet have long since disappeared as have names like 'Cornelius' and Tripe' which seem to belong to a past time when the world seemed a lot more grim!
