Suicide Folklore

‘The practice of burying self murderers at cross-roads with a stake driven through their bodies, was of immemorial antiquity in England.  It was abolished in 1823. Tradition points out in almost every neighbourhood numerous unregarded spots where suicides are buried. Even when the popular voice is silent as to the cause, such places often have an evil name for being haunted by a ghost or barguest. Such a tradition had long clung to a place on the top of Yaddlethorpe-hill, in this parish [Bottesford]. The reason for it was made plain in the year 1854, when the hill was lowered, by the discovery of a human skeleton buried at the south side of the highway, about a foot under the surface. An oak stake had been driven through the chest. The remains were carefully gathered together and re-interred in Bottesford churchyard.’ — Church Furniture, Edward Peacock (1866) [Examples of Printed Folk-lore Concerning Lincolnshire by Eliza Gutch, Mabel Peacock (1908)]