Less than ten miles due south of Haworth in West Yorkshire, where Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte grew up in the early 19th century, the same rugged landscape that inspired Wuthering Heights played host to a sinister story of organised social crime, High Treason and ultimately murder, some forty years before the Bronte sisters were born. Despite being named in many depositions and examinations as the man that had arranged the murder of Dighton, paid the murderers and obtained and disposed of the weapons; Isaac Hartley was never charged in connection with Dighton’s murder and he died an old man (reports vary between 78 and 85 years of age) in 1815 at his home at White Lee in Mytholmroyd. David Hartley is said to have learned his clipping trade as an apprentice iron-worker in Birmingham in the early 1760s. Birmingham, like London, was well known for coining. It's a fascinating true story adapted for the screen by one of Britain's greatest contemporary directors and it features a stellar cast. But is The Gallows Pole – a prequel to Benjamin Myers' novel of the same name – worth the sum of its golden parts? YorkshireLive writer Dave Himelfield thinks so. Here's his review of Episode One.

Up in Yorkshire in the 1760s, the industrial revolution was steaming ahead at full pelt. The rich were getting richer, through the building of cotton mills and factories, while the poor grew poorer. Suffering ensued. There was great poverty, especially in the area of Cragg Vale, near Hebden Bridge, which was populated by weavers, land-workers and their families. Read more: BBC The Gallows Pole: First look at scenes from hotly anticipated Yorkshire period crime dramaStanding tall atop a 1,300ft hill in the Upper Calder Valley – made up of small towns and villages such as Hebden Bridge, Todmorden and Mytholmroyd, as well as Cragg Vale – is Stoodley Pike, a 121ft spiked monument originally completed after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 as a tribute to peace. By calamitous chance, the pike toppled just before the Crimean war was declared against Russia in 1854. Their exploits were punishable by death. But the scale of the forgery was so vast, the Cragg Vale Coiners nearly brought down the British economy.

A copy of my family tree, together with details of census records, probate records, memorial inscriptions and family bible records indicate the direct male link between David Hartley and me, which to my knowledge is the only direct male link remaining. The legacy of the Cragg Vale Coiners lives on in the Calder Valley. Museums and heritage centers in the region preserve their story, showcasing artifacts and providing insights into their activities. Books, poems, and even a folk song have been dedicated to their memory, ensuring that their story remains a vital part of local history. At times The Gallows Pole is more modern social commentary than period drama. Watching 18th-century weavers struggling with their own cost of living crisis strikes a chord in the economically unstable 2020s. For any viewer struggling in today's cost of living crisis, it will feel like history repeating itself. In 2017 the story was fictionalised by Benjamin Myers in the Walter Scott Prize winning historic novel The Gallows Pole and has more recently been developed into a dramatisation for television by renowned british director Shane Meadows for the BBC. The multi-episode television series is expected to air in 2023.The trial of David Hartley took place on 2 nd April 1770, presided over by William Murray, Lord Chief Justice. Hartley was accused of clipping four guineas with James Jagger, on the evidence of James Broadbent and Joshua Stancliffe, a watchmaker from Halifax. Hartley was found guilty, sentenced to death and executed by hanging at Tynburn, near York, on April 28th.

Shane Meadows hotly anticipated drama about an 18th-century Calder Valley gang premieres on BBC Two on Wednesday. David Hartley, who lived at a farm called Bell House, was the leader of the gang. He was married to Grace Sutcliffe in 1764. The Cragg Vale Coiners, sometimes the Yorkshire Coiners, were a band of counterfeiters in England, based in Cragg Vale, near Hebden Bridge, West Riding of Yorkshire. They produced debased gold coins in the late 18th century to supplement small incomes from weaving. The story of the Cragg Vale Coiners is a captivating tale of 18th-century counterfeiting that took place in the Calder Valley, Yorkshire, England. Led by David Hartley, a charismatic figure, the Coiners operated a sophisticated counterfeiting operation that had a significant impact on the region.

Ben Myers

Folklore has this ability to bring people in, to embrace people without them really knowing it," he said. "It's a search for origin, and a validation of one's own place. There's a strong element of that in the community here today. People who are looking for meaning and connection." A breakthrough came in the following month, when James Broadbent from Mytholmroyd, who was active on the fringes of the Coiners gang, approached Dighton. Dighton allegedly offered Broadbent 100 guineas to betray ‘King David’ Hartley and his close associate, James Jagger. Other factors also allowed this gang to thrive. In the 18th century, with no national police force, local constables had a minor role in law enforcement. Halifax had just two constables and the nearest magistrate was in Bradford. Also in the coiners’ favour was that much of the country’s money had been in circulation for many years and coins were so worn down it was difficult to spot fakes. I moved to the area in 2009 and lived in Mytholmroyd and I heard a bit about this local mythology but there wasn’t that much information about it, and I didn’t look too deeply in to it. One day my wife, Adele, who’s also a writer, was visiting a place called The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle in Durham, she walked in to the library and was looking along the shelves and there was one book that didn’t have a spine on it. She pulled it out, put it on the table and it fell open at the trial notes of the Cragg Vale coiners, so she was reading them from 1770 and she came home that day and said ‘You know the coiners story?’ and I said ‘yes I know a bit about it’ and she said ‘that would make a brilliant TV series, you should write it’ and I said ‘well I don’t know how to write telly, but I could have a go and write a novel and maybe Shane Meadows could film it one day with some of the actors from This Is England.’ That was in 2014, and it wasn’t even a plan, it was sort of a joking pipe dream really. The genuine coins would be filed down to remove evidence of clipping while the counterfeit coins would be minted to resemble French, Spanish and Portuguese currency. European coins were accepted as legal tender at the time due to a shortage of Royal Mint coins in circulation.