THE hanging of William Haywood on December 15, 1903 marked the end of two stories. One was the violent, alcohol-fuelled life of the quarry labourer - the other the history of the death penalty in Herefordshire

THE thud of the trapdoor opening under the prisoner's feet travelled slowly but distinctly through the early morning drizzle outside Hereford Prison.

Accompanied by the toll of the prison bell it was the sign the crowds had been waiting for, the cue to make their way home for breakfast, or to work, bearing the news the Yarpole wife-murderer was dead.

The hanging of William Haywood on December 15, 1903 marked the end of two stories. One was the violent, alcohol-fuelled life of the quarry labourer; the other the history of the death penalty in Herefordshire.

Until the July afternoon when Haywood battered his wife Jane to death with sticks and rocks, inserting two stones inside her body, his life was measured only by visits to the pub and the birth of his six children.

A career as a soldier had given way to labouring jobs like the stone breaking he was doing in Pokehouse Quarry on the day of his wife's death.

The first hint of trouble came the afternoon before the murder when Jane Haywood went to fetch her husband from The Bell Inn in Yarpole.

Though her husband was reported treating her politely in the pub, when he got home that afternoon his attitude changed.

Giving evidence in Hereford Assizes, his daughter Elizabeth said her father had threatened his mother saying: "I'll daub your nose if you fetch me again."

After a silent meal he left the house for the last time that afternoon for his work at Pokehouse Quarry.

No-one knows where he spent that night but his next reported movement was at 8am the following day when he turned up at Mortimer Cross Inn for a drink.

He drank a pint of beer at the pub, buying another pint and a bottle of whiskey to take with him.

As Haywood was returning to the quarry, his wife was on her way to him with very different supplies.

Leaving home at about 8.30am with her husband's breakfast she must have got to the quarry about mid-morning. She often worked alongside her husband and may have done that morning as he was working alone.

The lack of an exact time of death makes it difficult to piece together what happened that day. The story of an accident that Haywood at first stuck to must be a near impossibility. A broken leg, cuts and bruising to her face and torso and the two stones found inside her body almost certainly rule it out.

Insanity, as was claimed in court, remains a possibility. There was a history of madness in the family. Haywood's grandmother was committed to Abergavenny mental hospital and Haywood himself was described in court as 'a very weak man further reduced by mental instability inherited and further enfeebled by alcoholic habits.'

At midday on Saturday Haywood was back at the pub though this time drinking ginger beer and complaining his wife was unwell.

"There is something the matter with my old woman," he was reported saying. "I ought to have the doctor. There is blood coming from her one ear."

The conversations he had in the Mortimer's Cross Inn at midday together with the cuts to his face were used as evidence in court to suggest a scuffle had already taken place.

But nothing was done and after drinking his ginger beer Haywood left the pub for the penultimate time, heading back to the quarry.

Six hours later he was back at the pub with his dead wife in a wheelbarrow.

News of the murder would have spread quickly through the county. Most of the evidence was reported at the inquest where the prisoner was found to have committed wilful murder without anything being said in his defence.

A magistrates' court case followed within two weeks and a trial date at Hereford Assizes was set for November.

With the pathologist's evidence proving beyond doubt the death was murder the only defence possible was an insanity plea.

But even with a professional defence lawyer to fight his case Haywood stood little chance. A report in the Leominster News summed up the judge's attitude.

"The judge observed that there was nothing in the prisoner's conversation, demeanour or conduct in prison to show he was not right in his mind."

Faced with such a strong line from the judge it was no surprise the jury took just 15 minutes to return their guilty verdict.

The verdict gave William Haywood just three more weeks to live. He was hanged in private at Hereford Prison on December 15, 1903.