24/03/2026
Caution, this post contains distressing content. I write it because I think this is a side of the story that needs to be told about Durham’s Dark Angel, Mary Ann Cotton.
Quite by accident I met one of her direct descendents and she told me how, even in the 21st century her family is being victimised because of their relationship to her. It’s a long post but please read it, and think about them. They wish to remain anonymous.
Today, 24th of March is the anniversary of the ex*****on of Mary Ann Cotton by the brutal ex*****oner William Calcraft in Durham Gaol. I believe that there are certain events that leave a memorial of themselves in the English language long after the event itself has been forgotten. This memorial is the phrase “Money for old rope.”
Opinions do vary about Mary Ann: some believe she has become a demon, and if you whisper “Bloody Mary” three times into a mirror she will appear. Caution! The best thing that can happen if you do this is nothing, trust me!
Others believe she was entirely innocent, fitted up by male dominated misogynistic legal system. After a lot of research I take the middle ground in all of this I believe that she was a psychopath, probably damaged by her brutal childhood, who did murder a number of people, but just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, when the state decided that it was time to make an example of someone who was blatantly killing children for financial benefit, something that was shockingly commonplace in the mid 19th century.
I must declare a financial interest at this point. Because for the past quarter century I have been doing talks and guided tours relating to this lady. She is not the villain of my story, that place is reserved for her ex*****oner William Calcraft, a state licenced sadist. MAC probably killed around between ten and twenty people but Calcraft killed almost 500 and it is clear that he enjoyed the job.
His ex*****on of Mary Ann has gone down in history as a botched hanging because she strangled slowly and painfully. That is untrue, it was the usual outcome of Calcraft’s technique. He executed around one person per month over a period of nearly half a century and you cannot do something that many times without knowing the likely outcome.
Calcraft’s public ex*****ons attracted tens of thousands of spectators, bloodthirsty folks who travelled miles in the expectation of entertainment. Charles Dickens watched a couple of his ex*****ons and was driven to write a condemnation in the Times newspaper. Calcraft had perfected the technique of keeping his victims alive and kicking at the end of the rope for up to half an hour, sometimes being reduced to finishing them off with a mallet if the crowd grew too restive.
Calcraft also had a side hustle selling souvenirs of his trade. He was allowed to keep his victim’s clothing and sell inches of hangman’s rope which was believed to be a good luck charm by people in dangerous occupations like mining and fishing. T is said that on the evening of Mary’s ex*****on he hosted a gathering in the Dun Cow pub and sold enough rope to stretch along Old Elvet to the Half Moon pub at the other end.
Mary had given birth to a baby girl three days previously and the child had been taken away and adopted. Two years previously public ex*****on had been abolished, much to the disappointment of many of the inhabitants of Durham City, who climbed up to rooftops around the jail in the hope of seeing or hearing something on that fateful morning. Mary was escorted out to the wooden platform that had been erected in the courtyard, surrounded not by a bloodthirsty crowd, but a small party of Durham’s elite whose job it was to witness the final act of the drama.
Calcraft’s assistant pinioned Mary’s hands behind her back with a leather strap and tied her feet together to protect her modesty as she fell. A white cotton bag was placed over her head and the noose placed around her neck. Then came an important part of his act: Calcraft pulled the short end of the slipknot so that the noose tightened slowly.
When Calcraft pulled the lever to open the trapdoor, Mary fell only 17 inches, which was only about one fifth of the distance which would have produced instant death. After a few moments her body stated to squirm and convulse, her hands trying to free themselves. Blood vessels in her throat burst and she stated to cough black fluid. It is said that the bag covering her face resembled a handkerchief used for collecting blackberries.
The spectators were appalled. The Under-sheriff fainted and was carried away. Calcraft looked around and saw that he had mistaken the situation entirely, these people wanted to see a human end to the tragedy and this was not what they wanted.
The ex*****oner climbed onto the platform and started to push down on Mary’s shoulders to hasten her death. Unlike most of Calcraft’s ex*****ons Mary only suffered for three or four minutes but those memories were etched on the spectators minds forever. A breakfast was served later but it seems that most had very little appetite. Nobody spoke to Calcraft and his assistant, and they took offence.
After the breakfast Calcraft and his assistant returned to the gallows to remove Mary’s body. People who watched say that he treated her no better than a side of meat. Contrary to instructions he removed the rope from around her neck and put it in his pocket: he should not have done that, it was the property of the prison and there was concern about his gruesome practise of sale of souvenirs.
The next day the newspapers were full of descriptions of the incident and Calcraft had been booked to carry out one more ex*****on but was never hired again. He wrote a book entitled “Groans of the Gallows” and when he died he was so unpopular that he had to be buried in secret in his wife’s grave to escape retribution.
People who bought inches of rope from Calcraft were scandalised when it came to be known that Calcraft had sold the actual rope he used, along with Mary’s clothing to Madame Tussauds's waxworks in London. I cannot say for certain that this incident was the origin of the phrase “money for old rope” but it seems likely. Mary’s body was buried inside the prison in a coffin with holes drilled in it, covered in quicklime to hasten decomposition.
She was accidentally disinterred in the 1960’s by a prison officer named Brian Spooner, now deceased, who used to live in Easington Lane, during alterations in the courtyard. The body, which was missing one shoe, was cremated and the ashes allegedly thrown into the River Wear.
