Echoes of the Gallows: Dorchester’s Most Infamous Executions
AN ITV drama part-filmed in Dorchester prison airs in March 2025. A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story explores Ellis’s killing of her abusive lover, for which she was hanged in 1955.
Notorious executions have been witnessed in Dorchester throughout history. From public hangings that drew thousands of spectators to cases that inspired literary greats, the town’s past is deeply intertwined with the history of capital punishment. This guest article by Keira Lake explores the tragic fates of three women—Ruth Ellis, Martha Brown, and Mary Channing—whose executions not only shocked the public but also sparked debates about justice, gender, and the morality of the death penalty.
Dorchester Prison has been a popular filming location since its closure in 2013, and on Wednesday, 5 March 2025, we are able to see the result of yet another series being filmed there. The four-part drama A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story will be aired at 9 pm on ITV and ITVX, highlighting the story of Ellis’s (played by Lucy Boynton) tragic end following the murder of her abusive lover, David Blakely (played by Laurie Davidson) in 1955.
The scenes were filmed in Dorchester on Friday, 27 October and Saturday, 28 October 2023, while the film crew from Silverprint Pictures had made their camp in Wollaston Field Car Park. They completely closed the ‘B Wing Hanging Shed’ within the prison for filming and had even labelled one of the cells as ‘Ruth’s Cell.’
Ellis shot Blakely outside the Magdala pub in Hampstead, London, following a miserable relationship filled with mutual infidelity, pregnancy abortions, and physical abuse by Blakely—including a punch to the stomach which resulted in a miscarriage. She was taken to court, and the jury decided her fate in as little as 20 minutes. It was only a month later that Ellis was hanged for her conviction, which led to mass public questioning over whether capital punishment had a place in 20th-century English society.
Martha Brown
The tragedy of Martha Brown is believed to have been the inspiration for Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Martha was born in Whitchurch, Dorset, in 1811 and had her first marriage at age 20 to a man named Bernard Bearn, with whom she had two children: William and Thomas—both of whom died at a young age due to illness. Their marriage lasted only 10 years, and she later remarried in 1852 to a man named John Brown while living in Birdsmoorgate, near Beaminster, Dorset. This is when the true tragedy began.
On Saturday, 6 March 1856, Martha’s neighbour found John Brown covered in blood, dead, within his home. Martha, very much alive, was adamant that he had been kicked in the head by a horse. However, due to the nature of his death occurring indoors, Martha was brought before the Assizes at Shire Hall, Dorchester, on 21 July 1856 to be tried for the murder of her husband. The jury believed that she had killed John Brown out of jealousy over a younger love interest, Mary Davis, and despite the lack of evidence either way, she was sentenced to death.
Soon after her conviction, Martha confessed to striking John with a woodchopper axe after he came home drunk from the pub and whipped her several times. It was made clear that she had been in an abusive relationship when she stated, “I had never struck him before after his ill-treatment.” Due to large media coverage of her trial, many unnamed influential people attempted to have her sentence commuted, but their efforts proved futile.
Martha was hanged less than three weeks after her trial over the gates of Dorchester Gaol on 9 August 1856. Over 4,000 people attended her execution, and Thomas Hardy, then a teenager, is believed to have witnessed the event, which deeply impacted him. This execution contributed to later debates over the use of capital punishment and the treatment of women within the justice system. However, despite increasing public concern, capital punishment remained in the UK until 1964.
More information on Martha Brown’s trial can be found here: Shire Hall – Raising Voices: Elizabeth Martha Brown
Mary Channing
Like Martha Brown, it is believed that Mary Channing also inspired Thomas Hardy’s writing. She is thought to have influenced The Mayor of Casterbridge and the poem The Mock Wife.
Mary Channing was just 19 years old when she was strangled and burned at the stake in Dorchester’s Roman Amphitheatre, Maumbury Rings. Her public execution took place in 1706 following her conviction for the murder of her husband, Thomas Channing. It was believed that after only 13 weeks of an arranged marriage set up by her parents, Mary poisoned Thomas with an unidentified substance, thought by some to have been mercury.
Much like Ruth Ellis 250 years later, the jury took only 30 minutes to decide Channing’s fate, despite little—if any—real evidence. To prolong her life and protect the life of her unborn son, Mary ‘pleaded her belly,’ which meant that she would be incarcerated until her child was born, after which her execution would take place.
Thus, on Thursday, 21 March 1706, Mary Channing was strangled by a noose and burned at the stake—an event which was attended by 10,000 people. However, despite strangulation being intended to ensure Mary was dead before being burned, some reports from the time suggest that she may still have been alive when consigned to the flames. Quoting Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge: ‘Not one of those ten thousand people ever cared particularly for hot roast after that.’
Some may find irony in the date chosen for Mary Channing’s execution, as 21 March is notably known and celebrated as the first day of spring—a time for celebrating new life, rather than ending it.