Haunted York ~ Part Four, Dick Turpin
The Ghost of Dick Turpin ~ Haunted York
Coming into York
In 2006, a driver returning home from work saw a horse and rider on the A64 near the Four Alls pub. As a good driver should, he pulled out to pass. The rider was wearing fancy dress, appropriately enough as a Highwayman.
Again, as a good driver should, he checked his rearview mirror to ensure he had not spooked the horse while passing. But…
The figure, horse and all, had vanished.
Who was the mysterious rider on the A64? Well, we can have a good guess.
Well, who is it?
York has long been known as a place of execution for highwaymen. The most notorious of these was Richard Turpin, more commonly known as Dick Turpin, made famous by the Victorian novelist, William Harrison Ainsworth. Ainsworth invented the 200-mile ride in one night, from London to York, on the horse Black Bess. It was common enough for Victorian novelist to romanticise criminals, just look at the Newgate Novels, and Ainsworth turned the poacher and horse thief Turpin into a romantic Gentleman of the Road, even though Turpin started life following his father’s trade of butcher.
He was captured and hanged in 1739, but locals say Dick Turpin, the notorious highway man, still rides the night in Yorkshire.
However, if the ghost rider was Dick Turpin, he’s a very busy ghost.
Yorkshire Justice
On the 19th of March 1739, Richard Turpin was hanged.
His body was taken from the ‘Three-legged mare’, which was the nickname of the gallows on the Knavesmire of York, and laid in the cellar at the Blue Boar pub nearby. This pub is said to be haunted by the ghost of Dick Turpin.
Who else could it be?
Any number of highwaymen were executed on the York Gallows. On the same day Dick Turpin met his end, John Stead was also hanged for his crimes of horse theft, a common euphemism to avoid the romantic label of highwayman.
Another prospect is John ‘swift nicks’ Nevison, an ex-military man fallen on hard times. All three of the other members of Dick Turpin’s gang of thieves, Thomas Cooper, John Midge, and William Randal, also ended their lives on the York gallows.
So we don’t know?
We’re not sure who it was still riding that road in the night, but there are plenty of men on the High Toby to choose from.
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