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Hangman diary’s gruesome details

29/10/2008

THE diary of Britain’s last hangman — who comes from Ashton — is being auctioned off.

Harry Allen carried out the last hanging in England in Strangeways on 13 August, 1964.

Born in Oaken Clough, Ashton, where he lived for 20-odd years until he married, Allen kept a macabre and meticulous log of gallows prisoners at jails across the UK.

The journal noted the age, weight and height of his unfortunate ‘customers’ — even specifying the precise length of rope required for a painless death.

He would congratulate himself on a job well done, and make remarks about positive feedback.

In one entry, he wrote: "Very good job. Time 16 seconds. Culprit was of average build and went very good."

Allen famously wore bow ties at work, many of which are being auctioned off in Knutsford next month.

One of Allen’s most controversial executions was of James Hanratty in 1962, and another one was when he assisted in the execution of Derek Bentley in 1953.

Allen was one-time assistant to perhaps Britain’s most famous hangman, Albert Pierrepoint.

He was grandfather to Fiona Allen, the ex-Coronation Street actress. As a child, Allen attended St Anne’s school Burlington Street, Ashton.

He worked at Park Bridge Iron Works and later as a bus driver for Ashton Corporation, a job he still held when he started as assistant executioner in 1940. After marriage he moved to Hurst.

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