We are famous for our witches!!
By oldchem1
@oldchem1 (8132)
July 12, 2010 12:37pm CST
The area where I live in Lancashire, UK is famous for the Pendle of the Lancahire Witches and there is much in the area to celebrate the fact - tours of the area and of Lancaster Castle especially. The Pendle Witches lived during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I in the Pendle area of Lancashire. Because of King James I's firm belief in the existence of witchcraft, an Act was passed which imposed the death penalty "for making a covenant with an evil spirit, using a corpse for magic, hurting life or limb, procuring love, or injuring cattle by means of charms".
There were two families at the centre of the Pendle Witch case. Both were headed by elderly widows who were known by their nicknames - Old Demdyke (Elizabeth Southern) and Old Chattox (Anne Whittle). Old Demdike had been known as a witch for around fifty years; in 16th century England it was a way of life that one member of a village community would be a ‘healer’ using herbs and medicines ‘magic’. In those days these ‘witches’ had what were known as 'familiars'. Alizon Device had a black, and Old Mother Demdike allegedly had a devil's spirit called Tibb who came and drank her blood. In reality and looked at with 21st century eyes we know that in fact the Pendle Witches were little more than very poor old men and old women who were only brought up in front of the magistrate because of the feud between their two families.
After a three-day case at Lancaster Castle 10 people were found guilty of witchcraft, sentenced to death and they were hanged on the moor above Lancaaster on the 20th of August 1612.
Even today the view of Pendle Hill is very dark and atmospheric and so must have looked very imposing in the 16th century, when there was a spell of deaths in the area blame was laid mainly on the Demdyke and Chattox families, family feuds acting as fuel to the rumours, on Halloween people still go up on the hill - though I don't think that I'd be brave enough to !!
Do you have a story like this (true or false) for the area where you live?
3 people like this
5 responses
@ellie333 (21016)
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12 Jul 10
Hi Oldchem, In 1682, three women from Bideford were hanged - their crime was witchcraft. They were the last women in England to be executed for this crime.
The unfortunate women were Temperance Lloyd, Susanna Edwards and Mary Trembles.
All lived in Bideford although little is known about them beyond their arrests, trial and execution. The women were tried at the assizes of Exeter Castle.
According to the official record of the trial, all three pleaded not guilty. They were hanged at Heavitree, just outside the city.
I do know for a fact though that witchcraft is stil very much going on here in Devon, including black unfortunately and there are many covens especially in placeslike Ashburton and Teignmouth where I used to liveis a very dark place too, howver all the whitewitches help balance this activity with their good.
Huggles. Ellie :D
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@oldchem1 (8132)
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12 Jul 10
This was 70 years after the Lancashire Witches then, really all these people were were village healers and the like it was just fear and ignorance that caused their execution!
There are loads of witch trails and the like round here and Lancaster Castle is still actually a real prison!!
The placed where they were hanged was by a big park we have here and the village (called Golgotha) is really old and still very much like it would have been at the time.
A favourite trip most summers fr us is a tour out to Pendle and all the little places associated with the trial, it is quite interesting.
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@ellie333 (21016)
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12 Jul 10
This has just prompted me to start a discussion about the Devil's Footprints which is another local legend that I am actually doingsome research on to see peoples thoughts and feelings. I used to do hands on healing myself at one time but do distant healing now and alsouse herbas and plants asalternative medcines so guess I would have been classed as a with back then, some friends actually call me the Christian Witch lol because I go to church but practice these pagan and Celtic traditions but how many churches have a Green Man, makes me smile as they are all one really as long as it is for the good rather than the harm of others. Huggles. Ellie :D
@Galena (9110)
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12 Jul 10
interesting to hear the wording of that law.
as I've been telling people for years that Witchcraft wasn't illegal. causing harm by Witchcraft was.
down here in Cornwall, we've our fair share of Witchy history.
but the most famous legends of my county are of King Arthur and Merlin and all that jazz. Tintagel is not too far from where I live, and it's beautiful, the castle and the beach (which is right down some rickety uneven steps in the cliff-face) with all it's caves but in all honesty I'd rather be a few miles down the road in Boscastle.
it's slightly less touristy and has a wonderful museum of Witchcraft, wonderful cliffs to sit and watch the sea, and a beautiful harbour. and better shops than Tintagel.
and Dozmary pool is considered to be the lake where excalibur was thrown in.
as well as that, there is widely believed to be an ABC (Alien Big Cat. not as in space, as in not native to the country) on Bodmin moor. the Beast of Bodmin. in fact, there has been one very often sighted in my village, so the BoB is not the only one in the county.
there are many stone circles with their usual associated legends. such as the Hurlers, where we had our handfasting, which is a row of three circles, and said to have been people hurling, a local game, on the sabbath.
and just over the border, there's a road where there is the legend of the hairy hands. a stretch of road where there have been reports of a pair of disembodied, hairy hands grabbing the steering wheel of cars and pulling them off course, and the stunningly beautiful Whistmans wood, which is strongly associated with the legends of the Wild Hunt.
Cornwall, and Devon too, are absolutely teeming with legends associated with places, stones, buildings and historical figures.
we like our local legends
@oldchem1 (8132)
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13 Jul 10
I've been to Tintagel several times, and know that several places claim to be 'Camelot' and who have housed the 'round table', I seem to remember Glastonbury also laying some claim.
Dozmary Pool ? Is that on Bodmin Moor?
I think we also visited there ans seem to recall there being another couple of places around it being associated with Arthur.
I love anything like that, and think that we're lucky to live in a country with so much history ( and legends)
@topffer (42156)
• France
12 Jul 10
I don't know why you start this discussion in urban legends ?
I had a great aunt who married a Guernsey man, and this island is one of the last British crown dependencies where you can still burn a witch, though they did not burn a witch since three centuries, but they will be famous when they will do it 
!
I have a friend who is a psychoanalyst ; his woman did a thesis about the last French witches -- in the center of France, Berry --, and she really believes in sorcery and witches. It is not only a historical subject and an urban legend 
.
!
I have a friend who is a psychoanalyst ; his woman did a thesis about the last French witches -- in the center of France, Berry --, and she really believes in sorcery and witches. It is not only a historical subject and an urban legend .@topffer (42156)
• France
12 Jul 10
Criminal law in Channel Islands is mainly the French -- Normandy -- law of 13th century, and there were some prosecutions for witchcraft in the 20th century. It was useful against some sects, condemned only to fees : if inhabitants of Guernsey are called "donkeys" they are not stupid -- well, I have cousins in this rock, I love it, and I don't want to be banned 
--.
--.1 person likes this
@Memnon (2170)
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13 Jul 10
I used to live in Weymouth, where witchcraft was said to be common. No cases such as the one you describe. But as recent as the 40's farmers would hang 'hag' stones around their horses necks to ward against witches stealing them to ride to the sabbat- and fishermen left holy stones in their boats.
There are still pagan groups that hold rituals in Dorset, although they are low key. In 2007 there was a witches market and ball in the Corn Exchange at Dorchester. The Bishop of Salisbury, albeit light heartedly, passed comment.
Vaguely related, I took one of the fun quizzes- who would be a likely ancestor- and found myself cast as Vlad the Impaler!
