An England divided From his remote moorland home David Hartley assembles a gang of weavers & l&-workers to embark upon a criminal enterprise that will capsize the economy & become the biggest fraud in British history They are the Cragg Vale Coiners & their business is 'clipping'
- the forging of coins a treasonous offence punishable by death A charismatic leader Hartley cares for the poor & uses violence & intimidation against his opponents He is also prone to self-delusion & strange visions of mythical creatures When excise officer William Deighton vows to bring down the Coiners & one of their own becomes turncoat Hartley's empire begins to crumble With the industrial age set to change the face of England forever the fate of his empire is under threat Forensically assembled from historical accounts & legal documents The Gallows Pole is a true story of resistance that combines poetry landscape crime & historical fiction whose themes continue to resonate Here is a rarely-told alternative history of the North