This window is based on the legal practice that suicides could not be buried on holy ground but instead would be buried at crossroads tied and with a steak thru the body. It was based upon the idea that they're spirit would be confined to a busy area and not allowed to pass on, as punishment for rejecting the gift of life. In particular this sign was inspired but the Ratcliffe highway murders of 1811 as this was a shockingly modern case of this punishment being enacted.
The only suspect in Britain's first recorded serial killing took his own life in prison and feeling cheated by the execution not taking place the authorities paraded him past the victims house and buried him at the nearby Ratcliffe highway cross roads. The body was discovered during modern roadworks.
The peice is set in a real roadsign frame found abandoned on the side of the Ratcliffe highway.
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