Walking with witches
Lancashire's dark past
My love of history didn’t start in school (I dropped the subject at the age of 13!), but with childhood trips to historic, often quirky, places with my family. From my home in Manchester, I visited the Lancashire countryside regularly with my parents and sister, and one of my favourite visits was to Pendle. I was so fascinated by the old tales of the Pendle witches, their secret covens and terrible fate that when I won a book award at school, I chose Robert Neill’s classic tale, Mist Over Pendle, as my prize, which I read repeatedly, captivated by the dark events that unfolded in the brooding shadows of Pendle Hill. As an adult, I returned to Lancashire to explore this compelling and tragic real-life story afresh.
Setting out
My starting point for this historical trail was the Pendle Heritage Centre in Barrowford, which includes an exhibition and film about the Pendle witch trials. Housed in the former home of the Bannister family, the oldest surviving parts of the house date from the sixteenth century. In addition to the museum, the centre boasts a substantial tea room and beautiful eighteenth century walled garden. Here I reacquainted myself with the timeline of events and the context of religious persecution and superstition, in which witchcraft was possibly linked to Catholic practices that survived during the Reformation. In fact, the number of recusants increased in the late-1500s, despite efforts to suppress them. Witchcraft became a criminal act in 1542 and punishments for those convicted of the crime increased in 1604, influenced by James I’s writing on the subject. The following year, the Gunpowder Plot led by Guy Fawkes added fears of treason into an already potent mix of societal and political concerns about conspiracies and covert religious practices. With the backdrop set for this fateful tale, I was ready to embark on my trail following in the footsteps of those unfortunate women and men who were hanged for these offences in 1612.
I began my witching tour at Roughlee, a village at the foot of Pendle Hill, near where a casual meeting set off a chain of events that would lead to the infamous witch trials. In her ‘confession’ in court, Alizon Device claimed that she had welcomed the devil in the form of a black dog on the incitement of her grandmother, Elizabeth Southerns (known as ‘Demdike’), whilst on the road to Roughlee. The ‘dog’ remained with her as a familiar and, in March 1612, when Alizon met a peddlar, who refused to give her some pins, she cursed him. Shortly after, John Law fell down in a faint – he’d had a stroke from which he never fully recovered. A fortnight later, on 30 March, Alizon was brought in for questioning before local magistrate Roger Nowell, along with her mother Elizabeth Device and brother James. Alizon was charged with witchcraft and during her interrogation, she incriminated other members of her family, known as the Demdikes, and a rival clan, the Chattoxes who, along with several others, became enmeshed in a local witch hunt.
A tragic figure
The quiet village of Roughlee was one of the locations central to this deadly drama. Alizon’s sister, nine-year-old Jennet Device, corroborated her story of the black dog under questioning, and also accused their mother Elizabeth, and local resident Alice Nutter, of murdering Henry Mitton of Roughlee for refusing Elizabeth a penny. He died three weeks later. Elizabeth Device confessed to his murder and that of two other men. Her alleged accomplice, Alice Nutter, was a key character in this web of stories and allegations. She was also a prominent inhabitant of Roughlee.
Alice Nutter differed from the other protagonists in that she was a wealthy and well-respected member of the local community. On 27 April, when young Jennet Device was questioned, she inculpated Alice in a meeting which had been held under cover of darkness on Good Friday at Malkin Tower, the humble ‘home’ of the head of the Chattox clan, Anne Whittle (known as ‘Old Chattox’), at which a group of about 20 ‘witches’ plotted to blow up Lancaster Castle, where those already charged were being held while awaiting trial. This explosive revelation sealed Alice Nutter’s fate.
In 2012, to commemorate the quatercentury of these events, a statue of Alice was erected in her home village of Rouglee and I was keen to see it for the first time. By the side of the road opposite a bubbling brook, it is a beautiful but desperately sad monument and a poignant reminder of the wretched individuals caught up in this storm of superstition. Alice is represented as demure and well-dressed, her gaze downcast as she strides ahead lost in thought. The only evidence of her hopeless situation are the chains hanging from her wrists and her closed eyes as she contemplates her fate. The Nutter family also featured in the next stop on my trail, Newchurch-in-Pendle.
A spooky graveyard
I have the most vivid memories of this village from my childhood because of its famous witch shop, Witches Galore, which has been selling spooky souvenirs and witchy memorabilia for decades – the current owner told me that she’d been there for 40 years! Inevitably the shop was smaller inside than I remembered it but it was just as enchanting, with witches on broomsticks hanging from the celling as you walk in, and a tantalising array of books, postcards and magical knick-knacks. It was like stepping back in time and I couldn’t resist a few witch-themed purchases before resuming my trail.
Newchurch-in-Pendle is a tiny village with a narrow steep road running up towards the infamous hill. Although the church of St Mary was rebuilt in the eighteenth century, it adds to the eerie atmosphere with its ‘Eye of God’, a strange symbol made of oval glass halfway up the west wall of its tower. Its significance seems to be unknown but it does give the impression of warding off evil. Close to the church porch is the Nutter family grave which, although Alice’s name is not inscribed on the time-worn headstone, she is nevertheless believed to be buried there. It was also alleged that the Chattox matriarch (Anne Whittle) desecrated graves in the churchyard to collect teeth and skulls for weaving spells. Of course, this could all be local folklore and fiction, but it does make for an intriguing visit!
I stopped briefly at other villages in the vicinity of Pendle on the first day of my witch ‘tour’, including Barley, the home of the one of Elizabeth Device’s alleged victims John Robinson, and Downham where Richard Assheton lived, who was supposedly killed by Elizabeth Southerns (aka Demdike). They are both picturesque villages, and Barley even has a witch-related pub. After my touring day, I was then ready to follow the Pendle witches to their final destination, Lancaster Castle.
The ‘witches’’ fate
As the castle complex is now mostly a sanitised tourist attraction, it was difficult to imagine what incarceration would have been like there for those charged with witchcraft in 1612. It is believed that they were held in The Well Tower, known since as ’The Witches’ Tower’, which was built around 1325 and had two cells and three underground dungeons. Conditions were so terrible that Elizabeth Southerns (Demdike), who was about 80 years old, died in the tower before the trial.
The assizes opened on Monday 17 August 1612 and lasted three days. The only surviving account is that of Thomas Potts, the judges’ clerk. He published a compilation of transcripts in book form in 1613 called The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancashire. His publication has been reproduced over the decades and also served as the basis for many fictional retellings – it’s often difficult to tell the facts from the fiction!
On 20 August, all nine defendants were found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. The number included Elizabeth Device, and her two children, Alizon and James, Anne Whittle (Chattox) and her daughter, Ann Redfern, and Alice Nutter of Roughlee. Visiting the place where they met their tragic fate was a sobering experience, even though it was four centuries since these terrible events had taken place.