Joseph Hedley

[8] During his life he was known as a highly skilled craftsman, designing and quilting in both linen and cotton, with extremely fine details executed down to a quarter of an inch.

[2] In 1773, at the age of 23, Hedley married Isabel Thompson, a woman 25 years his elder, and moved into a typical 2 roomed 'squatter' cottage in Warden Parish, called "Homer's House".

[14] He was generally well-liked by the local community but his seclusion made him liable with it being reported that he would have starved during a severe snowstorm in 1823, had it not been for a Hexham clergyman wading through snow drifts to bring him food when other attempts to reach him had failed.

There seemed to have been a struggle outside the cottage as his clogs and some scraps of cloth were discovered on the other side of the road, with some at the time theorising this showed that Hedley had been attempting to flee to the nearest residence, Wall Mill.

The only possible explanation seems to be that his murderers believed rumours that Hedley had some secret fortune despite the fact that Joe was known to be receiving parish aid.

[21][20] On the other hand, Robert Hill argues that personal motive should be considered because of details such as the clock face being smashed, something he points out would not have been done in the struggle and instead a purposeful attack against Hedley's identity.

[26] Because of the brutality of his death and subsequent reaction in newspapers around the country, a lot more is recorded about Joseph Hedley's life and living conditions than is usual for a person of his social standing in the Georgian era.

[27] Hedley's cottage was demolished in 1872 and its location was forgotten until archaeologists led by the Beamish Museum, using an 1826 postcard and old maps of the area, excavated the site.

The museum used a floor plan, along with 10 tonnes of material removed from the site, and information from the time to reconstruct the cottage, opening it to visitors in 2018.