The Yorkshire Coiners: The True Story of the Cragg Vale Gang

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Two Tunbridge Wells women were murdered in 1987, but it took until 2020 to identify the killer. Details that emerged after David Fuller’s arrest then made him one of the UK’s most notorious sex offenders. The opening episode of this sombre two-parter examining the case focuses on the original victims, Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce. Graeme Virtue Live sport A breakthrough came in the following month, when James Broadbent from Mytholmroyd, who was active on the fringes of the Coiners gang, approached Dighton. Dighton allegedly offered Broadbent 100 guineas to betray ‘King David’ Hartley and his close associate, James Jagger. The trial of David Hartley took place on 2 nd April 1770, presided over by William Murray, Lord Chief Justice. Hartley was accused of clipping four guineas with James Jagger, on the evidence of James Broadbent and Joshua Stancliffe, a watchmaker from Halifax. Hartley was found guilty, sentenced to death and executed by hanging at Tynburn, near York, on April 28th. Isaac was buried in a grave alongside his brother David in the village of Heptonstall, above Hebden Bridge. David Hartley’s grave is often easily identified by a number of coins left on it by visitors to the cemetery. A serious, intense person (in The Gallows Pole, his novelisation of the gang’s story, Benjamin Myers writes of a “seldom-seen smile”), Hartley was a brutal man, not unaccustomed to using fists and force to bend others to his will. It’s inaccurate to paint him as an altruistic, charming Robin Hood figure; that he forged a network of allies and associates was probably less to do with charisma and more with intimidation.

The story of the coiners is told in a song called "King of the Coiners" written by UK singer/songwriter/guitarist Steve Tilston published in his 2008 album Ziggurat. Less than ten miles due south of Haworth in West Yorkshire, where Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte grew up in the early 19th century, the same rugged landscape that inspired Wuthering Heights played host to a sinister story of organised social crime, High Treason and ultimately murder, some forty years before the Bronte sisters were born. The Chumbawamba song, "Snip Snip Snip", from the album Shhh, is inspired by the story of the Cragg Coiners. The scenery of the Calder Valley, much like some of its attitudes, has largely remained untouched since Hartley was alive. "This area has not changed an awful lot since those days," said Tilston. "This is where Hartley and his cohorts would have trudged. They would have looked out at the same views as we do today." Opinion is divided when remembering the Coiners. Some believe they were simply products of their time, hard men for hard times. Others believe they were nothing more than criminals.Every day was a highlight. Working on this job was a bit of a religious experience, you have to give yourself to it and the flow of it, and I’ve liked that. You didn’t know what was going to happen each day, in terms of how we made it, because it was improv, so for me there were always little magic moments that you couldn’t predict or foresee in the scriptments, and you just go that’s magic, that’s the alchemy that is beautiful. So I enjoyed seeing those things pop up. Someone might do something or it might be a feeling, or it might be coming in to a space where the art department had just smashed it. I really enjoyed observing every day, the bits of magic the crew the team, the actors created. Olivia Pentelow Gold was clipped from the edges of a coin and the coin’s milled edges recreated by rolling and beating the edge of the coin along a file. The collected gold clippings were melted down to create a blank disc, which was then stamped with an impression using dies made of spelter, a zinc alloy. Vinter, Robyn (16 June 2023). " 'Definitely a lot busier': TV show lures visitors to coin gang's Yorkshire home". The Guardian. These coins were made from valuable metals, more or less worth their weight in silver and gold. The Coiners, led by Hartley, clipped edges from these coins, shillings and moidores usually bought from local traders who would get a cut of the profits, and melted the clippings with metal scraps to forge counterfeit coins. Portuguese moidores were commonly forged because they were the most valuable, worth around 27 shillings a piece, roughly a week's wages. Initially, clipping and forging coins was a way for weavers, whose livelihoods had been eroded by mechanisation, to put food on the table. But greed soon took over and the Coiners' organised and prolific production of counterfeit coins led to the near-collapse of the British economy in the mid-18th century.

David Hartley was buried here in 1770 after being executed by hanging at York Tyburn for the part he played in leading the Cragg Vale Coiners, though the only charges he actually faced were for clipping a Guinea with another man. As the counterfeit coins circulated, the Coiners’ operation had a profound impact on the Calder Valley. The introduction of fraudulent currency eroded trust in the legitimate monetary system, leading to financial losses for honest traders and businesses. Local commerce was thrown into disarray as people questioned the authenticity of the coins they received. The Coiners’ activities also attracted the attention of the authorities, who launched investigations to apprehend the culprits. A copy of my family tree, together with details of census records, probate records, memorial inscriptions and family bible records indicate the direct male link between David Hartley and me, which to my knowledge is the only direct male link remaining.The effect on the British economy was disastrous, devaluing the Pound by 9%. Stories of a fraud gang in Yorkshire reached Parliament and soon the law began sniffing about the Calder Valley. When I finally made it, however, the skies were clear blue and the hills glistened in burnt yellows and rich greens. This is an imposing landscape largely untouched by time, where a handful of wind turbines dotted along the horizon are the only obvious markers of modern life. Read next:• Life in the remote and unspoilt 'forgotten' Yorkshire village that really is a hidden treasure Up in Yorkshire in the 1760s, the industrial revolution was steaming ahead at full pelt. The rich were getting richer, through the building of cotton mills and factories, while the poor grew poorer. Suffering ensued. There was great poverty, especially in the area of Cragg Vale, near Hebden Bridge, which was populated by weavers, land-workers and their families.