Inside brand new BBC crime thriller that hits screens tonight
FACED with crippling poverty and starvation, a ragtag band of farmers came up with a daring way to escape their plight – make their own money.
It was the 1760s and the desperate Yorkshire workers turned counterfeiters, known as the Cragg Vale Coiners, swindled the equivalent of £490million in one of the most audacious — and little-known — frauds in British history.
Now the true story of how a whole community came together to pull off the large-scale crime at the risk of being hanged is being told in gritty BBC Two thriller, The Gallows Pole, which starts tomorrow night.
The three-parter, by This Is England writer Shane Meadows, takes place in Calderdale — also the setting for hit drama Happy Valley — and is adapted from the award-winning novel of the same name by Benjamin Myers.
Shane, 50, said: “It may have turned into one of the biggest crimes in British history but it was pulled off by a bunch of destitute farmers and weavers doing what they had to to survive.
“I think that will resonate with people.
“I really wanted to delve into the history of this story and the circumstances that led to an entire West Yorkshire community risking their lives to put food in their children’s bellies.”
Such was the scale of the crime — flooding the country with £2.5million of fake coins — that inflation soared and the currency was devalued by nine per cent, nearly bringing the Bank of England to its knees.
Little to lose
It was a situation that could not last and it ended in a violent struggle between the authorities and the gang.
Talking to the Radio Times, Shane added: “I was flabbergasted that I’d never heard of them.
“I live in Nottingham and there are countless songs, plays and films about Robin Hood, who no one knows truly existed.
“Yet this story was little known, it definitely happened and represented a huge turning point in history.”
There is a distinct “Robin Hood” feel to the coiners’ story, as they helped the poor with the proceeds of the swindle.
The group were led by David Hartley, who got the nickname “The King” for the good he was perceived to be doing.
In the drama he is played by Michael Socha, who made his screen debut as blond-haired Harvey in 2006’s This Is England.
He is joined by Thomas Turgoose, who was 14 when he first played Shaun in This Is England and the subsequent TV series, as William Hartley.
In an area crippled by poverty, a near-dead David is offered a second chance at life by mysterious men wearing animal skull masks.
He leaves behind his family and wife Grace, portrayed by Downton Abbey star Sophie McShera, and moves to Birmingham, a city famous for its metalwork.
Becoming an ironmonger’s apprentice, he learns the skill of making coins and, crucially, the trick of “clipping” — shaving small slivers of gold from existing coins to use to make new ones.
It is with this new talent that he returns to his Yorkshire community, where he not only makes his fortune but also helps provide food and firewood for the destitute families who surround him.
At one point Hartley’s gang had about 80 members.
They would invite people to donate their coins which would then be returned to them, only marginally smaller, along with a cut of the profits.
Although the punishment for being caught would likely be severe, the people involved were so poor they felt they had little to lose.
When the Royal Mint cottoned on to what was happening they slowly closed the net on the Cragg Vale operation.
Shane said: “There was no standing police force as we know it today and the law was a lot more random.
“You could be hanged for more than 230 ‘offences’ back then, including stealing a handkerchief worth more than 12p or having a dirty face outdoors.
“I realised that, for these people, the concept of being ‘hung for a lamb when you could have a sheep’ is possibly why it got so out of hand.”
Public official William Dighton began investigating the fraud gang In 1769.
Bloody war
Then one of the coiners, James Broadbent, grassed on his fellow members and Hartley was arrested.
That sparked a bloody war between the authorities and the gang members.
An informant was killed by having burning coals poured inside his trousers and Dighton was assassinated.
Former Prime Minister Charles Watson-Wentworth was brought in to investigate.
And on Christmas Day 1769, 30 of the coiners, including David Hartley, were arrested.
But due to muddled evidence, most were acquitted.
Hartley, however, was convicted and hanged at Knavesmire on April 28, 1770.
His grave can be found in Heptonstall, also in Calderdale.
His death persuaded the other, now demoralised, coiners it was no longer worth the risk.
By the end of the series, the overriding consideration for viewers is what the motivation was for these men to do what they did.
Shane said: “Some people behaved abominably and there was no excuse.
“But for others, I want viewers to ask, ‘If I were in that situation and needed to feed my child, what would I do?’.”
- The Gallows Pole starts tomorrow night on BBC Two at 9pm.