These death masks are on display at the George Marshall Medical Museum. There are ten in total (one, a duplicate, is on display at the National Emergency Services Museum until 2026). The masks are purportedly of hanged Worcestershire prisoners of the early 19th century. Convicted prisoners sentenced to death were hanged in Love’s Grove Gaol and then taken via an underground tunnel running from the gaol underneath Castle Street to the former Infirmary to be anatomised by staff and students at the infirmary, as the law of the time allowed.

The tunnel exists today, though it is no longer possible to enter it. Archaeological survey work in 2008-2009 rediscovered the entrance to the tunnel on the infirmary site, and a very basic exploratory study of the entrance produced a human tooth as the only find. It is believed that the death masks were made in a small side room leading off from this tunnel.

We are told that the masks were handed to the former Infirmary in a large wooden trunk as being of possible interest or perhaps merely to get rid of them when the gaol was demolished in the 1930s. Then, the masks were found in and subsequently rescued from mouldering boxes in the basement of the former Worcester Royal Infirmary during the 1940s by surgeon, Mr. George Marshall. What happened to the masks between their creation in the second quarter of the 19th century and their emergence in the middle of the 20th is still a mystery. We have neither the names of the men represented, nor the details of any study made on the masks so we are left with this tantalising and somewhat macabre glimpse of 19th-century medical ‘science’ in Worcester.

A fairly large collection of disarticulated and obviously dissected human remains was found by archaeologists excavating the former Infirmary site in preparation for building works of the new University of Worcester City Campus. Such finds are extremely rare, and it is not at all unreasonable to imagine that these boned could belong to some of the individuals represented by our death masks. It is also possible that the bones and death masks relate to the work and teaching of Sir Charles Hastings, founder of the British Medical Association (then the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association) during his time at the former Infirmary in the early 19th century. Hastings would almost certainly have been aware of both practices, if not actively participating in them.

Death masks of criminals were made across Europe and the US to provide adherents of Phrenology with study material. The aim was, in general, to attempt to make connections between facial and cranial characteristics, and the nature of crimes committed in order to be able to predict future criminal behaviours in others. Phrenology began with Franz Joseph Gall in Vienna in the late 18th century. Gall’s theory related to his idea that certain areas of the brain related to specific personality traits or behaviours (an idea we still subscribe to today in some form), and that the stronger of these areas would naturally be better developed than the others and therefore larger. The skull would then mould itself around these areas in the brain, forming lumps or indentations depending on the shape of the ‘organ’ beneath.

Phrenology gained sinister connotations alongside its popularity, with numerous advocates of this pseudo-science applying its theories to racial characteristics. Although the theory of Phrenology is now widely lambasted, the idea that facial characteristics have an impact on personality is still considered by theorists today. Evidence can even be found in modern stereotypes, for example that eyes too close together indicate untrustworthiness, or in casting men with wide features and big, meaty heads as thugs in film and television.

While it is still widely believed that the death masks are of hanged criminals from the gaol, after finding out who a couple of these plaster casts were made from, we know now that this is unlikely. It is an interesting story though, and as many of the masks are yet unidentified, you never know…

We have worked with a number of organisations to try to find out who the death masks were cast from. These include Winchester Museum and Edinburgh University…

the gallery

Click on an image to find out more. Many of them are still unidentified.

How to make a death mask

Death and life masks are made by the same method. After the head and facial hair have been completely oiled a thin layer of plaster is applied to the face and built up with succeeding layers. Threads are embedded in this so that when the plaster has set it can be removed in portions by pulling on the threads. These portions are placed together and form a mould from which a mask is made. Most people dislike having life masks made for as the plaster dries it hardens in a terrifying fashion. Some people suffer no discomfort. Death masks can also be made by moulding wax over the features. It is important that a death mask be made as soon as possible after death as at that time the face of the dead is unguarded and revealing, and we see a person in a manner that no sculpture or picture can show.

a short history of the gaol

Worcester Castle situated on Castle Mound, now the site of the King’s School, was built in Norman times and was abandoned in the 13th century. Later it became the Worcester County Prison. City of Worcester offenders were contained in various small Bridewells (from St Brides Well) throughout the city such as at the foot of the Quay Street and at the Fore (Forest) Gate. Both the Castle and the Bridewells were full of disease and the escape rate from them all was very high so that in the beginning of the 19th century it was decided to build new prisons. The city scrapped its Bridewells and built a new prison in 1922 in Friar Street at its junction with Union Street. This was to accommodate thirty prisoners but proved to be unsatisfactory and was closed down in 1867. The building was bought by William Laslett MP who converted it into Laslett’s Almshouses and having been completely rebuilt it continues as such.

In 1813 the County built its new prison opposite the Worcester General Infirmary in, as it was then called, Salt Lane and that name was changed to Castle Street both because of the origin of the new prison and probably also because of its general appearance. This building at first contained ninety cells but was later extended by a further eighty cells and continued as a gaol until 1922 when it closed down and future prisoners were transferred to Gloucester. In Worcester the last hanging was in 1919 and the last public hanging in 1885.

The building and site were offered to the former Infirmary to provide an extension to the Hospital but the price could not be afforded and, in addition, Castle Street, which had by that time become a busy thoroughfare, would have run through the middle of the hospital. The offer was refused by the infirmary and the building was partially demolished and converted into commercial purposes. It is now part of the University of Worcester School of Art.

details of a few known criminal convictions in worcester

From Turberville (1852), Worcestershire in the Nineteenth Century, p.144-149

Could these be our death masks?

Thomas Dyer on 23 March, 1821

Thomas Dyer, capitally convicted of horse stealing, was executed at the County Gaol, but died protesting his entire innocence of the crime laid to his charge. He left a paper behind him, stating the names of the parties from whom he bought the horses, and the sums of money he had given for them; but it does not appear that anybody thought it worth while to make further inquiries about the matter.

Charles Wall on 30 July, 1830

Charles Wall, convicted at the Summer Assizes of the murder of Sally Chance, at Oldwinsford, was executed in front of the County Prison at six o’clock p.m., the execution having been deferred to that unusual hour in consequence of the election taking place that day. His body was delivered to a surgeon at Stourbridge, and afterwards exposed to view to great crowds who came from all the surrounding parts to se it. The party murdered was a little girl, whose mother the prisoner was about to marry, and he killed her by throwing her into a lime pit.

Thomas Slaughter on 25 March, 1831

Thomas Slaughter, a lad not eighteen years of age, was executed for setting fire to a large wheat rick, the property of Mrs. Rebecca Tomlinson, of Elmley Lovett. The poor fellow was wholly uneducated, and evidently of weak intellect.  

Robert Pulley on 26 March 1849

Robert Pulley was condemned to death for the barbarous murder of a girl named Mary Ann Straight of Broughton, on 5th of December, 1848. The manners of the prisoner were so brutish and careless as to induce a doubt in his sanity and at the expense of the High Sheriff, Mr. John Dent, counsel was provided at his trial to defend him on this ground. It was also made the plea for a memorial to the Home Secretary on his behalf which was signed by many benevolent persons, and by those opposed to all capital punishments. His conduct after trial, however, was such as to convince all who conversed with him of perfect rationality. He was lamentably ignorant, but listened with much attention to the exhortations of the ministers who visited him. He displayed a great firmness in his last moments. The execution took place at noon on the roof of the County Gaol, in the presence of a large crowd of spectators who behaved with much propriety.

The excitement occasioned by this execution produced much discussion as to the expediency of capital punishments. A public meeting was held in the Guildhall, Worcester, by those who wished their abolition, at which Mr. Charles Gilpin attended and spoke. Mr. George Grove attempted to show that Scripture contained a command which was conclusive on the subject, and required us to shed the blood of the man who took away the life of another; but a resolution, declaring capital punishments to be opposed to the spirit of Christianity and inexpedient, was carried almost unanimously. The Rev. W.H. Havergal and Dr. Redford also preached upon the subject—the former in favour of, and the latter against, death punishments.