ABSTRACT
Wall operated an unlicensed cider house and had been fined for selling cider without a licence. Wall believed it was Poole who had tipped off the authorities. The prisoners were tried at Somerset Assizes in Wells, in August 1830. It was decided that the scene of the crime was the most appropriate place to execute the prisoners: In consequence of the district being infested with a considerable number of lawless characters; and it was hoped that this solemn and awful spectacle would have a salutary effect in checking the excesses. The Kenn execution was the first Somerset hanging in thirty years not to be performed at Ilchester gaol and was possibly the last public hanging to take place at the scene of crime in England. The late Reverend Robert Hall and myself were once staying together at the village of Clevedon, about ten miles from the above city, then first becoming a favourite resort for visitors from the adjacent parts.
