Hounslow Heath

‘Two highwaymen were seen on Hounslow Heath, hanging from a gibbet to discourage potential offenders. Remembering Dr Coventry saying that “you must travel faster than a coach and four to arrive before the devil”, he was pleased that travel was so much quicker and safer than in the eighteenth century.’ This is a quote from The Claudians: gardens, landscapes, reason and faith: John Claudius Loudon and Claudius Buchanan, Tom Turner (Kindle, 2024).

More about Hounslow Heath

It is said that Hounslow Heath had over a hundred gibbets in the 1770s but this figure is likely to be a gross exaggeration. 

In his book on executions, the Hanging Tree, Vic Gatrell asserts that on Hounslow Heath ‘up to a hundred gibbets were said to have stood in the 1770’s.’ Recent research has found fewer than 30 instances of Hanging in Chains across England and Wales in that decade. It is however true that contemporaries believed there were a great many executions on the Heath.