Come and experience ‘Romancing the Gibbet’, a collaboration between poet Ralph Hoyte and historian Steve Poole (University of the West of England). Through the medium of your smartphone you can follow on the ground Ralph Hoyte’s ‘dark tourism’ poetic response to ‘The Morrismen Murder’ of 1772 which took place near here and the subsequent extraordinary public execution.

Steve Poole  will introduce you to the background of the murder case, trial and subsequent hanging. William Keeley was found guilty of murdering the gardener Joseph Dyer after spotting him flashing his money at the old Fish Inn on Broadway Hill. The Oxford Journal at the time commented: “It seems that Keeley is a famous Morrice dancer, and on Sunday morning before the fact was committed, he was teaching a set of fellows to dance. Warner used to play on the tabor and pipe to the dancers. It is to be hoped the Justices will suppress such nurseries of idleness and drunkenness as morrice-dancings have generally proved!”

Ralph Hoyte will then perform extracts from his poetic responses, and we will both introduce the project’s audio trail as set in and around Broadway Tower and the Cotswold Way and explain how it was made. You are then invited to sample some of the actual ‘Morrismen Murder’ dark tourism trail which has been relocated in and around the Tower.

Ffi and to book: http://satsymph.co.uk/being-human-festival-2019/romancing-the-gibbet-the-morrismen-murder

Warning: some strong language and themes of murder and public execution