The bewitching month

Laura Malpas explores a dark side of Northamptonshires’s history, looking at witches, witchcraft trials and the superstitions held to ward
off these supposedly evil women and men.

It’s October. It often starts in an autumnal glow, then the days shorten, and nights become long and dark. The family fun of Halloween brightens up the final week, with little children dressing up as witches, and almost anything really, to extort treats from their friends and neighbours. Witches and wizards are viewed as fun, but it has not always been like that, and Northamptonshire has had more than its fair share of convicted witches who met a grim end.

Many societies have a tradition of wise women, often elderly, to whom people turned for advice or healing as a valued member of the community. But often many poor old women were viewed as objects to be feared. In the case of disaster, failed crops or injured animals, or just bad luck, they were an easy target to blame. An unpopular and difficult woman could be controlled with an accusation of witchcraft, and they and their companion animals might be punished, or even cast out from the community. Witchcraft was denounced as heresy by the Pope in 1484 and in Britain, it became a capital offence in 1563.

King James I and VI was particularly concerned by the threat. In 1597 he published ‘Daemonologie’ consisting of several treatises analysing sorcery, witchcraft, and the role played by Satan and his devils. The King thoroughly researched his subject, classifying demons and evil spirits in a surprisingly scientific manner, whilst leaning heavily on the bible for guidance.

King James was personally involved in the persecution and trials of witches, and life became very uncomfortable for many women and a few men. Witch-finding became a serious profession, and in Northamptonshire the threat was taken seriously by the God-fearing folks in the county. The belief in and fear of witches proved very alarming to the these Northamptonshire residents, and they held some of the earliest recorded English witch trials.

There were many reports of dark magic being practised in villages and towns. Records show the folks of Guilsborough, Thrapston, and Raunds had a good deal to complain about. In 1612 there was a series of notable witchcraft cases heard during the Lent Assizes at Northampton Castle. Known as the Northampton Witch Trials, reports are unclear on exactly what the crimes were, but they included inflicting diseases on the innocent, and the bewitching of pigs and horses. These trials were significant as they are the earliest recorded use of the ‘water ordeal’ to prove guilt.

On 22nd July 1612, at least four women and one man were executed at Abington Gallows with the recommended punishment being to be hung until nearly dead, then burned at the stake. A terrifying death designed to dissuade the practice of witchcraft in all who witnessed it.
Even today I regularly see signs of that ancient fear when visiting Northamptonshire’s oldest places. While working at Canons Ashby, I noticed them daily. If you know what to look for, you too may spot the signs from the past.

These signs, commonly called ‘witch marks’ are described as ‘apotropaic’. This name comes from a Greek word which means to turn away (evil). They were designed to repel witches and evil spirits from the homes of the good and virtuous. Today we may dismiss this as mere superstitious fantasy, but the Bible specifically mentions witches, meaning belief was compatible with Christian doctrine.

So how best to keep the witches away from you? Look for all places in your home where a person, a spirit or a familiar animal or being might enter. This might include doors, windows, fireplaces, chimney flues or gaps in the roof. You might decide to scratch a few protective symbols on the wooden house frame or stone lintels, or perhaps the roof timbers. During my time at Canons Ashby, the mark I spotted most frequently was the hexafoil daisy wheel symbol, a six petalled design made with a pair of compasses and scratched into both wood and stone. The complex single line pattern was believed to confuse and trap the evil spirit, preventing its entrance to the home. The pentagram was also often used to protect against evil.

Another common design includes what are sometimes referred to as Maryan marks, easy to scratch with a simple tool or knife. These are overlapping V shapes which combine to read as AM for Ave Maria, or VV for Virgin of Virgins, or simply M, designed to invoke the protection of the Virgin Mary. The Saltire, or cross of St Andrew is also seen used in the same way. At Canons Ashby, these can be seen close to the entrance, scored deeply into the ironstone door frame.

A seemingly counter intuitive mark of protection was often made by deliberately scorching wood with a taper into a distinctive teardrop shape. These were once thought to have been accidental burns, but experimental archaeologists have shown that the teardrop shape can only be made in one specific way. Varying in length and depth from a quarter-inch to a foot in length, they are often found around lintels and fireplaces, in roof structures, hidden under floorboards and on wooden features. At Canons Ashby they are seen on panelling in the Long Gallery opposite the windows.

A third way of protecting one’s home was to conceal significant objects deemed as protective within the fabric of the house. These might include ‘witch bottles’ often found still containing traces of organic remains that might be urine, hair or fingernails, and even more frequently, shoes. It seems the shoes so often found hidden in the walls and floor of old houses were placed there deliberately to protect the occupants of the houses. Our own Northampton Museum houses the National Collection and records of all Apotropaic shoes.

Why were shoes considered such powerfully magic objects? There is a great deal of debate, however some suggest they are the one item of clothing which is shaped by the body of the wearer, and potentially hold their personality or essence. However, we may never know exactly what the true beliefs were, but there are sufficient shoes concealed in buildings to be more than a coincidence.

Many of the shoes in Northampton Museum’s records have now been returned to their original hiding places to continue their task of protecting the occupants.

This was the case at Canons Ashby during restoration works in the 1980s, where a gentleman’s leather mule slipper was discovered with an empty bottle concealed between the ceiling and floorboards of the first floor. Both items have now been replaced.

The last woman to be hung as a witch was Alice Molland in 1684. By 1700 the frenzy of witch-finding came to an end and the laws against witches were repealed, although it seems that the superstitious fear remained active in Northamptonshire for longer than many counties.

One question that needs an answer is, how effective were all the marks, burns and hidden objects at preventing the entry of malign spirits? I often worked late at Canons Ashby, well past the witching hour, being the last one to lock the doors and set the alarms. I saw vast numbers of friendly bats swirling around my head, but not once did I see a witch. So, I suppose these precautions are still working well, and I am so glad the hidden shoe was replaced below the floorboards. There are lots of ancient buildings open this month, many with a fun Halloween offering. Why not visit and keep your eyes open for the witch marks!

For more information, please visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/canonsashby