Where did the hangman stay on his visit to Durham?

Of course, he’d bed and breakfast at Tommy Sharp’s hotel, the Lord Seaham Inn at Gilesgate Moor.

Tommy Sharp – full name Thomas Sharp Moffat – was somehow friends with the Pierrepoint family, and Thomas Pierrepoint often stayed with him.

There were three Pierrepoint executioners. Henry was the first, and he despatched 102 people between 1901 and his dismissal in 1910 when he turned up for an execution at Chelmsford so drunk he had a fight with his assistant executioner.

Tommy Sharp, sportsman and landlord of the Lord Seaham Inn, with hangman Thomas Pierrepont who stayed at his hotel

Henry got his older brother, Thomas, into the trade, and between 1906 and 1946, he executed 294, and was a regular visitor to Durham.

The third Pierrepoint was Albert, Henry’s son who started his work as uncle Thomas’ assistant executioner. Albert carried out between 435 and 600 executions in his career from 1932 to 1956 – there’s uncertainty about his exact total because he carried out freelance operations on war criminals in Europe at the end of the Second World War.

Gilesgate Moor Hotel, formerly the Lord Seaham Inn, where Tommy was landlord

It is regular correspondent Billy Mollon who brings Tommy Sharp to our attention as Tommy has a great cricketing claim to fame.

Tom Sharp Moffat, the only man known to have thrown a cricket ball over the Penshaw Monument, in his Royal Garrison Artillery uniform during the First World War

Billy, who is distantly related to Tommy, has found a cutting from the Durham Advertiser that tells of the landlord’s athletic prowess.

It says: “Tom, in his day, was one of the most outstanding sportsmen in the county and was pitman’s champion boxer of England. He holds records in pot-share bowling, as whippet slipper, in quoits, fives cycle-riding, swimming, and is known as the only man to throw a 502 bowl and a cricket ball over Penshaw Monument. The many competitions he organised included a race between blackclocks.”

The December full moon sets behind the Penshaw Monument, or is it Tommy's cricket ball flying over? Picture: Owen Humphreys

There are so many terms in that little article that need – and may defy – explaining.

Pot-share bowling, for instance, was very popular in the Durham coalfield in the 19th Century, attracting crowds of thousands, largely because of the gambling that went with it.

It was basically golf without the holes or the clubs.

Each bowler – “booler” – had his own bowl – “bool” – that he had made himself out of super-hard whinstone. They weighed between 16oz and 22oz – about three or four times heavier than a cricket ball.

A course was determined, half-a-mile or a mile long, and the bowlers took turns to bowl their bowls – underarm as if you bowled overarm, the stone would plug on landing.

The bowlers would take their second go from where their stone had come to rest, and the winner was whoever bowled over the finish line in the fewest number of throws.

Booling on Newcastle Town Moor attracted crowds of tens of thousands but the best course was said to be the flat sands at Seaton Carew.

But beyond potshare bowling, we can’t tell you what a whippet slipper was (although you can buy online some very nice slippers with whippets on them). We can’t tell you what “fives cycle-riding” was, and we haven’t dared enter “blackclocks” into an internet search engine.

A “502 bowl” must somehow refer to the weight or size of the bowl, but we all know what a cricket ball looks like.

Memories 540 told how on April 18, 1881, on the Sands at Durham, Shildon miner Robert Percival set a world record for throwing a cricket ball 422ft (126.8 metres) – a record which has never been broken and so is a record in itself, as the world’s longest standing sporting record.

But Tommy Sharp’s feat is almost as impressive.

Penshaw Monument is a smaller copy of the Greek Temple of Hephaestus in Athens. Erected in 1844 the folly stands 20 metres high and dominates the skyline of Wearside

Penshaw Monument, built in 1844 in memory of the 1st Earl of Durham, is 100ft (30m) long, 53ft (16m) wide and 70ft (21m) high.

Unfortunately, the article doesn’t tell us which way Tommy threw his cricket ball – lengthways or widthways.

Either way, getting it over a 70ft obstacle is still an achievement.

Tommy died in 1969. “He and his wife, Ruth, are buried at St Nicholas's Cemetery on the Sands so his grave overlooks where Robert Percival’s record for throwing the cricket ball is believed to have been made,” says Billy.

If you can help us with any of those sporting terms – whippet slipper, fives cycle-riding, 502 bowl and blackclock – we’d love to hear from you. And pot-share bowls: it really was a big coalfield sport. Can anyone tell us anything about it? Does anyone by any chance have a rounded stone with which their ancestor once played? Please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk