The Canklow Murder

On the 10 May 1880 a Rotherham man, John Henry Wood was executed at York for the murder of John Coe. The body, found at the side of a haystack on the Canklow Road was almost beaten to a pulp, and missing from his pockets was money and a silver watch. The victim had been on a drinking spree with Wood visiting many of the local public houses still in existence in Rotherham today, including The Stag, The Masons Arms, The Belvedere, The White Swan and The Mail Coach. The two men then ended up in a brothel on Wellgate run by a woman known as 'Big Liz'. When it became known that after the murder Wood had been seen in possession of the stolen silver watch he went on the run, and it was seven days before he was caught, tried and finally hanged. But was he the man who committed the murder?