He called time on many a convicted criminal.
Now the one-time pub home of the country's last hangman is going under the auctioneer's hammer.
Harry Allen, who became the country's chief executioner in 1941 and always wore a bow tie at the gallows as a mark of respect, ran the Woodman pub in Middleton, Manchester.
He carried out one of the country's last two executions at Strangeways prison in 1964.
During his 23-year appointment Allen was chief executioner at 29 hangings, and an assistant at a further 53, with perhaps his most controversial case that of James Hanratty, who was convicted of the infamous A6 murder and hanged at Bedford prison on April 4, 1962.
It's understood Allen became landlord of the pub on Wood Street a year before his role of chief executioner ended.
The derelict, two-storey pub - which has single story additions to the side and rear - is one of 60 lots up for sale at a property auction being held at the AJ Bell stadium in Salford.
It carries a guide price of £165,000.
Better known as the Middleton Hangman, Allen followed in the footsteps of Albert Pierrepoint, who is arguably Britain's most famous executioner.
It's understood Allen also worked abroad on occasion and in this country, earned £15 for every execution he carried out.
He is known to have kept a detailed log of prisoners and how they died in a series of diaries which were auctioned off in 2008.
The journals gave precise details of each prisoner's age, weight, height and Allen's calculations on how much rope was needed to ensure a swift death.
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Referring to one hanging, Allen mentioned that in hindsight the rope had been too short.
He noted: "Very good job but should have had at least another two or three inches - very strong."
The last executions by hanging in the United Kingdom were in 1964 - with Allen presiding over the deaths of one of two murderers Gwynne Owen Evans and Peter Allen.
Evans was hanged at Strangeways by Allen at 8am on August 13, 1964, with Allen hanged at the same time at the hands of executioner Robert Stewart, who lived in Chadderton, at Walton prison in Liverpool.
The hangings were carried out at the same time so neither man could be singularly tagged with carrying out Britain's last hanging.
In 1965, just 12 months later, the Death Penalty was finally replaced by the term of life inprisonment.
Allen is also known to have carried out the last executions in Northern Ireland in 1961 and Scotland in 1963.
After retiring to Fleetwood, not much is known of his later years and he died at the age of 81, after a short illness, in 1992, a few months after his predecessor Pierrepoint.
The pub's auction will be held at the AJ Bell Stadium on September 3.
Further details are here
