Micklegate Bar, with its imposing gateway, has stood as sentinel to the City of York for nearly 800 years. The ancient gatehouse guarded the southern approach to the city from the main road to London and was the city's most important bar. It was through Micklegate that kings and nobles entered the city. And it was from Micklegate that traitors heads (and other body parts) were displayed as a warning to all.

The practice of mounting heads upon a pike and exhibiting them publicly was carried on for centuries. Cities would vie with each other for body parts of rebels that were beheaded and/or quartered. For Micklegate the custom ended in 1754.

After the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 many participants were tried as traitors to the English Crown. The last head to stare down upon those passing through Micklegate belonged to James Mayne following the Battle of Culloden. Mayne awaited execution in a cell in the York Tyburn. Afterward, his head, along with that of Billy Conolly, was set out on Micklegate, a morbid threat meant to quell any further desire for rebellion.

The threat wasn't severe enough for a young ambitious tailor however. On a dark, stormy night in January of 1754, he managed to sneak into Micklegate and steal York's grisly trophies. They had been on display for a mere seven years.