The Hangman's Box and its equipment was stored at the Sheriff's Office. There was a weight (not visible here) to stretch the rope.

The leather covering on the noose was to prevent lacerations and bruising because hey, it's an OHS thing! You don't want anyone getting lacerations while they're being hung!

Yes, OK, I couldn't resist that last sentence. But the truth of the matter is that most hangmen were not psychopaths, and they felt no malice toward their... clients. I recall seeing a documentary on Albert Pierrepoint (1905-1992), one of the last hangmen in Britain. He regarded the process as a sacred one (his word), where due respect was given to the condemned person. This can't have always been easy because he executed between 435 and 600 people. Why so many? He was the chief hangman at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II. But even there he kept it strictly professional. His job was to send the condemned directly into the afterlife, not to make them suffer before it happened, and he was very good at it; under his watch the neck was always broken at pretty much the same place every time.

However according to the sign next to this equipment, the leather covering did not come in until 1939 (and was waxed to ensure that the brass ring slipped over it easily), meaning that the executions in this prison (up to 1924) did not use it.

The arm and leg shackles were obviously used to control the prisoner, but there was another reason for them; a prisoner who was flailing about might prevent the drop from being quick and direct. That may convert what should have been a quick, easy departure from life into an extended strangulation, so the restraints were in everyone's interest including, surprisingly, the prisoner's.