Lydford Law

Lydford Castle was built by the Normans in 1195. For six hundred years in the medieval period the tinners' stannary court met there, and the basement served as a prison. Local tradition says its harsh treatment of prisoners and quick summary justice became known as Lydford Law, the saying being 'hang first and try afterwards'. The Dartmoor Trust puts this down to a judge visiting only once every few years, so that prisoners were sometimes executed before trial.

The saying is older than most of the evidence for it. The earliest well-known use is in Lydford Journey by William Browne, a Tavistock poet, and sources disagree about its date, giving 1644, 1645 or 1664. Charles Kingsley's novel Westward Ho! later popularised the phrase. In 1512 Richard Strode, a member of parliament for Plympton, was held in the castle for more than three weeks after challenging the tinners over mine waste.

Legendary Dartmoor, following William Crossing, argues that the reputation owed more to the harsh forest laws than to the stannary courts, and so that Lydford Law was a later reputation, not a documented procedure.