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On the evening of 7th May 1819, the body of a Cricklade coal merchant, Stephen Rodway, was found shot through the chest. He had been returning home from business in Wootton Bassett on the toll-road between Purton and Purton Stoke. He had been robbed of all his money except for a few halfpennies. Robert Watkins, an unemployed labourer from Wootton Bassett was arrested for the crime and sentenced at the Summer Assizes at Salisbury. On Friday 30th July 1819, Watkins was taken from gaol in Salisbury to a place called Moore-Stones near Purton Stoke where a gallows had been erected since it was the custom of the time for executions to be public and performed at the scene of the crime.Although he was repeated called upon to confess his guilt, he refused to do so. Even at the gallows he remained composed and at his own request read aloud the 108th Psalm from a prayer book: 'O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.'
The crowd that watched the hanging was estimated at between ten and fifteen thousand. Almost at the time that he was hanged, a violent thunderstorm broke overhead and continued for half an hour.
The prayer book is now on display at Purton Museum and bears an inscription inside the front cover. Ever since that time, Moore-Stones has been known as Watkins' Corner.