The Yorkshire Coiners: The True Story of the Cragg Vale Gang

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An extremely difficult watch that doesn’t omit the horrifying details, this documentary follows Emily as she recalls how her father sexually abused her for 13 years. She speaks to a former teacher, the officers who investigated her case and took her father’s confession, and her mother – a devastating conversation that is saddled with guilt on both sides. HR Rookie Nurses 9pm, BBC Three 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.

Element Pictures adds: “Working with the BBC and A24 on Shane Meadows’ first period drama is incredibly exciting for all of us at Element. Shane’s unique take on the story combined with the stunning cast he has assembled will make for an intoxicating and unforgettable series.” Shane Meadows hotly anticipated drama about an 18th-century Calder Valley gang premieres on BBC Two on Wednesday. But Hartley was smart. Taking advantage of his formidable local reputation, as long as everyone around him was benefitting financially, his enterprise was relatively secure. As Myers writes, “the valley folk mythologised this gang leader whose behaviour they saw no harm in, so long as there was food on their tables and logs in their log stores”. For their cut, associates of the gang would smuggle the fake coins and clipped coins into circulation. The criminal enterprise was highly successful; the weavers of Calder Valley no longer starved and families like the Hartleys once again became wealthy.While the Coiners’ story ultimately ended in tragedy, their tale resonated deeply with the people of the Calder Valley. They were seen as rebels against an oppressive system, champions of the working class who defied authority and demanded fair treatment. Over time, their legend grew, and they became folk heroes, embodying the spirit of resistance against injustice. Read more: BBC The Gallows Pole: First look at scenes from hotly anticipated Yorkshire period crime drama A serious, intense person (in The Gallows Pole, his novelisation of the gang’s story, Benjamin Myers writes of a “seldom-seen smile”), Hartley was a brutal man, not unaccustomed to using fists and force to bend others to his will. It’s inaccurate to paint him as an altruistic, charming Robin Hood figure; that he forged a network of allies and associates was probably less to do with charisma and more with intimidation.

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.

Nevertheless, the Hartley tale is soon set to spread far and wide. A TV adaptation of the Benjamin Myers novel The Gallows Pole, a part-fictionalised telling of the Coiners story, is currently in production. Tourism to the Calder Valley will likely follow. "It will be like Peaky Blinders. Everyone will want to know about the real Yorkshire Coiners," Steve said, referencing the Birmingham tourism boom sparked by the crime drama series. Shortly after midnight on November 10 th 1769 close to his home in Halifax, Dighton was approached by two men, Matthew Normanton and Robert Thomas. Dighton was shot in the head, his valuables stolen and his dead body was left showing signs of having been stamped on. 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 coins. European coins were accepted as legal tender at the time due to a shortage of Royal Mint coins in circulation. It is the duality of the Coiners – they were Robin Hood-like community saviours and yet greedy, murderous thugs – that makes them fascinating.

One of the counterfeit coiners, James Broadbent, betrayed the group and gave evidence that revealed the conspirators in exchange for leniency of his own crimes. Dighton then arrested Hartley, which enraged his brother, Isaac. He rallied a gang of men who conspired to kill Broadbent (and in probably one of the earliest forms of crowdsourcing, raised 100 guineas from people who supported the plan) and on 10 November, 1969, two farm workers, Matthew Normanton and Robert Thomas, fatally shot Broadbent. The punishment Isaac and Broadbent travelled to York and were able to confer with Hartley and Jagger whilst they exercised in the gaol’s yard. A revised statement attempting to clear Hartley and Jagger was submitted to a York attorney, but it didn’t have the desired effect – no bail was offered. Broadbent attempted to retract the statement he gave to magistrate Leedes, but this too was unsuccessful, as Leedes believed the original statement to be true.

It's a tale of anti-establishment criminality gone murderously wrong. For a period in late 18th Century a gang of counterfeiters in northern England were producing fake coins on an industrial scale. They clipped and filed the edges of gold coins and return the clipped coins to circulation. Then they used the gold collected from several coins to cast blanks and stamp new coins using skilfully made dies. The new coins, usually Portuguese Moidores, were then put into circulation and as a result the Coiners made a healthy profit. Due to confused evidence, most of the defendants were acquitted but David Hartley was convicted and hanged at Knavesmire, aka the 'York Tyburn', on April 28, 1770. The grave he shares with his wife Grace can be found in Heptonstall, above Hebden Bridge. Isaac Hartley, "King" David's brother, engineered a plan to have Dighton murdered, with a number of coiners subscribing a total of 100 guineas in support of the plan. On 10 November 1769, two farm hands employed by the Coiners, Matthew Normanton and Robert Thomas, ambushed Dighton in Halifax and shot him dead in Bull Close Lane.