Medieval Graffiti: In the Footsteps of the Executed

In the heart of medieval Britain, the spectacle of execution was a grim theatre of power and control - as ordinary a sight as the bustling market or the tolling church bell. Beneath the public rituals of punishment, however, lies a quieter, more haunting story: the marks left behind by the condemned.

As men and women awaited their final moments, some carved simple scratches, initials, or symbols into the stone walls of prison cells, the wood of church pews, and even the beams of the gallows....