IN a remote West Yorkshire community in the late 18th century - out of sight and out of mind as far as the Lords of the Treasury were concerned - a powerful gang of counterfeiters operated a lucrative criminal enterprise.
In moorland cottages and farmhouses, the edges of coins were being clipped and filed, then returned to circulation, while the extra metal collected was melted down to produce counterfeit currency. The crime was punishable by death.
The Cragg Vale Coiners were highly organised, enlisting many people in the local community. Eventually, with their large-scale clipping operation threatening to defraud the Exchequer of millions of pounds, and ruin the national economy, the Government was forced to act. High-ranking officials of the Mint were sent to the Calder Valley to investigate the gang - and bring its ringleaders to the gibbet.
The fascinating story of the Cragg Vale Coiners has inspired plays, children’s stories, poetry, folk songs and a novel, The Gallows Pole, adapted for a new three-part BBC2 drama starting tonight.
There are various accounts of the coiners - often lauded as working-class heroes, they’re also branded ruthless criminals who ruled their neighbourhood with violence and terror. What set this gang apart from other coiners in England is the extensive scale of their operation.
In his book The Yorkshire Coiners: The True Story of the Cragg Vale Gang, Steve Hartley examines the facts of the case, and how the notorious coin clippers were eventually brought to justice.
Steve, who grew up in Otley, runs online resource Yorkshirecoiners.com and spent years researching the case. His interest was sparked by the discovery that he is a direct descendant of Cragg Vale gang leader David Hartley, known locally as ‘King David’.
Coining had been going on for centuries, as long as coins had been used for payment, but was mostly carried out by individuals or small groups. The Cragg Vale Coiners, however, were well organised and involved many people, from cottage weavers and land labourers to merchants and manufacturers of the Calder Valley’s wealthy families.
Other factors also allowed this gang to thrive. In the 18th century, with no national police force, local constables had a minor role in law enforcement. Halifax had just two constables and the nearest magistrate was in Bradford. Also in the coiners’ favour was that much of the country’s money had been in circulation for many years and coins were so worn down it was difficult to spot fakes.
Then there was the coiners’ remote location. Writes Steve: “Away from main settlements, the farmhouses were often some distance from neighbours. Tracks that served them were surrounded by open fields or moorland, so the chances of anyone arriving unexpectedly were slim, giving the coiners ample opportunity to tidy away evidence of their unlawful activities.”
David Hartley is said to have learned his clipping trade as an apprentice iron-worker in Birmingham in the early 1760s. Birmingham, like London, was well known for coining.
Hartley returned to Cragg Vale in the mid-1760s and, with his father and brothers, set about assembling coiners. Steve’s book sets the scene for this period; weaving was a cottage industry and, with the wool trade in a slump, families were living in poverty. Many people who got involved with the coiners did so due to financial pressures. Most were linked to weaving, but other occupations included innkeepers and butchers, who had access to coins. Writes Steve: “The difference in Cragg Vale was the number of people involved and the support the Coiners gained by ensuring that anyone assisting them in their activities also benefited.”
The gang operated freely until 1769 when two men, Bradford magistrate Samuel Lister and barrister John Stanhope, took matters into their own hands. What followed was a series of events, documented with rising tension in this book, that led to the arrest and hanging of David Hartley and the murder of William Dighton, Supervisor of Excise in Halifax, who’d been on a determined mission to root out the coiners.
When news of Dighton’s murder reached Parliament, pursuit of the Yorkshire coiners gathered pace. Led by Halifax solicitor Robert Parker, a public proclamation of the names and descriptions of the wanted men confirmed that, at a meeting held in Bradford on November 22 1769, “the gentlemen present agreed that all means necessary should be used to bring the Coiners to justice.”
Despatched to Halifax, officials from the Mint swiftly rounded up coiners, aided by informers keen to reap increasing rewards. By the mid-1770s the saga of the coiners had ended. Some were convicted and executed, some were acquitted and some absconded. A report to the Government declared that the quantity of diminished coin circulating during the reign of the Cragg Vale Coiners was over £16.5 million - equivalent to £2.3 billion today. Their clipping operation, and its huge significance to the economy, led to the introduction of new coining legislation and milling methods.
Thoroughly researched, without romanticising or sensationalising the coiners, Steve Hartley’s book is a comprehensive, compelling account of their story.
* The Yorkshire Coiners: The True Story of the Cragg Vale Gang (Amberley Publishing) is available from bookshops or at amberley-books.com
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