This is the seventh in a series of events to bring us to some of the sites of correction used during the past in Derbyshire, with this one taking us to the stocks in the small White Peak village of Litton.
The pillory & stocks are often confused. Stocks were designed to hold the feet, whilst a pillory would restrain the hands & the head of the criminal. Both were used throughout Medieval times to publicly humiliate wrongdoers & positioned in prominent places for maximum effect, although the punishment usually only lasted for a few hours. The person would be mocked & jeered by passers by & the criminal could also expect to be pelted with rotten vegetables & fruit or even worse. In 1351, the Statute of Labourers Act decreed that every town & village should maintain a set of stocks to punish "unruly artisans"! By 1494, The Vagabonds and Beggars Act stated that “Vagabonds, idle and suspected persons shall be set in the stocks for three days and three nights and have none other sustenance but bread and water and then shall be put out of Town.”
Litton stocks are made entirely of wood, so are not original & as such have no historical significance. However, they serve as a good example of the type of stocks that would have been found in many of the small villages in the area & beyond. They are typical in design, having a double set of holes to hold up to two miscreants by the ankles. They have been placed in a prominent position on the village green, outside the local inn, where they would have had maximum visibility.
This short event will give us an opportunity to meet up safely outside for some geochat & to swap trackables in hopefully peaceful & beautiful surroundings. I have provided a parking waypoint for some on street parking, but please park considerately. Litton is a quiet Peak District village which upholds many of the local traditions & in late June the children of the village school can be seen maypole dancing. There are also two well dressings displayed that week; one outside the Methodist Church & the children's well adjacent to the village school. There are a couple of caches in the village, if you haven't done them previously, with more further afield. There may even be a new cache published for the occasion...