LAST week’s Craven Curiosity, pictured below, was another of those historical plaques which hundreds of people pass by every day, but relatively few seem to notice.

However, Mike from Southport informs us: “As an ‘out of towner’ but a regular visitor to your great town this is your first ‘Craven Curiosities’ challenge that I have the answer to!

The plaque is outside Barclays Bank a bit further along the High Street opposite your own office. Yours fairly confidently.”

Other contributors knew it was on Skipton High Street, but several guessed incorrectly that it was outside the Yorkshire Bank on the other side of the road!

The pillory was a punishment device commonplace throughout Britain and much of Europe, from at least the 13th century, and almost every community of any size seems to have had one.

It consisted - like the similar stocks -

of hinged wooden boards forming holes through which the head and/or various limbs were inserted; then the boards were locked together to secure the captive. They were set up in more public places and were often placed on platforms with the aim of increasing public visibility. Punishments would include whatever the assembled townsfolk could think of, though the intention was usually to inflict humiliation, not pain.

On discovering that the pillory was occupied, people would gather to taunt, tease and laugh. Use of the pillory as a means of punishment was formally abolished in England and Wales in 1837.

This week’s Curiosity, above, follows on from the plaque in Gargrave churchyard at the grave of the Rt Hon Ian Macleod which we featured in the May 2 issue. The above commemorates the politician’s birthplace. But exactly where is it? Send suggestions to: news@cravenherald.co.uk by 8am on Monday.