Although seeming to be placed conveniently close to the cemetery, this is coincedence as the cemetary wasn't consecrated until 1862, and there have been extensions in 1888 and 1924.
Gallows Hill are so named because of the fact it was originally a place of execution. Not just through hanging as the name suggests, but the inventive people of time gone by also put the nearby river to good use as well. The use of this site for execution goes back many centuries. In 1297, for example, Ralph Brum was hanged here for robbery, his lands and chattels were forfieted. Later Thomas Teasdale was also hanged for stealing goods to the value of 3s 9d from the Prioress of Esholt.
Whilst the male condemned were hung, it was customary for female thieves to be drowned in a channel cut from the river to flow past the site. This practice stopped in 1150.
The last man to be hanged here was John Conyers, a bellman, on June 12th 1614.