A History of Witches

7/5/2024

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
Norfolk, England has a history of witches, and it was one of the regions where most witch trials were prevalent. One who attended these trials was Matthew Hopkins, also known as the "Witchfinder General."

Castle Rising c.1782

Constructed of brick, carstone and Sandringham sandstone the Hospital of the Holy and Undivided Trinity was established in 1609 by the Earl of Northampton as a memorial to his grandfather Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. It was meant to be an almshouse and provide shelter to 13 religious single women, or widows who were older than 56 years of age. This was a time period where normal life expectancy was 35 years. It was placed under the governance of the Mercers' Company who continues in this role until present day.

The originalqualifications for admittance were:

They must be of honest life and conversation, religious, grave and discreet, able to read, if such a one be had, a single woman, her place to be void on marriage, to be of 56 years at least, no common beggar, harlot, scold, drunkard, haunter of taverns, inns and alehouses.

Bedewomen c.1882 (source - Facebook)

The residents were to pray the Lord's Prayer, the Creed and a prayer for the founder and his family three times per day. Present day the requirement is that they are single, residents of the parishes of Castle Rising, North Wootton and Roydon who are in reduced financial circumstances. This place also became known as Bede House.

The Bedewomen were mandated to don on special occasions a cloak and what looks like a witch's hat, but which some suggest is a variation of the stove top hat.

Witchcraft items were found at a ruined church close to Sandringham in 1964

In a strange coincidence in 1964, police were called to Sandringham estate, which is close to Castle Rising for claims that black magic was found on the Queen's estate.

Symbols included a nude effigy of a woman made of modelling clay which measured about six inches. A hawthorn pierced the heart. It was found affixed to the wall of a ruined church at Babingley, Norfolk. Nearby was a sheep's heart and a black candle. A witchcraft expert said they were a crude death charm, and the question was who this was directed at.

The items were found by schoolboy Richard Dix, age 10. The church is near the farms on the Sandringham estate.

This was the first time black magic was connected to the royal estate, even though two other cases were reported about 10 miles away.

In Sussex county, an Anglican vicar cursed from the altar unidentified persons who had held black magic rites in his churchyard.

However there was a history of witchcraft in Norfolk.

During the 1640s there was an explosion of witchcraft trials in Norfolk. Of 69 people charged, ten were found guilty and hanged, four other were given guilty verdicts with an unknown sentence, 42 found not guilty, and 12 with unknown verdicts. One was found to be insane. Most of the charges included bewitching people and entertaining the devil.

The earliest reference to witches in Norfolk was the hanging of Mother Gabley at King's Lynn in 1583. She was accused of causing the death of 13 men who had sailed from Spain to England. The claim against her was that she boiled eggs in cold water, stirring it vehemently to raise a storm at sea, where the sailors drowned west of Wells-next-the-Sea's harbor. This was some type of sympathetic magic, raising a storm at sea by simulating one in a pail.

This sourced a superstition of smashing eggshells to prevent witches form using them as boats, to cause storms and the sinking of ships.

A poem by Elizabeth Fleming from 1934 refers to this belief:

Oh, never leave your egg-shells unbroken in the cup; Think of us poor sailor-men and always smash them up. For witches come and find them and sail away to sea, and make a lot of misery for mariners like me... 'They call up all the tempests from Davy Jones's store, And blow us into waters where we haven't been before; And when the masts are falling in splinters on the wrecks, The witches climb the rigging and dance upon the decks...

Raymond Howard showing off the Head of Atho c.1967

In 1967, Raymond Howard owned an antique shop in Field Dalling, Norfolk with a witchcraft exhibition on the second floor. The most important piece of his exhibition was the Head of Atho, which was a mask carved from oak, adorned with bull's horns, inset with silver and jewels and inlaid with zodiac symbols.

Howard also led a coven from his antique shop known as the Coven of Atho. He offered a correspondence course in white witchcraft, which included instructions on how to create ritual circles, use magic, and communicate with the spirit world.

Atho is derived from the Welsh word Arddhu meaning the "dark one". Howard claimed it was a powerful witchcraft talisman, and had been the property of an old Romany woman who parked her caravan on farmland in Swaffham where he grew up. One day she left behind the caravan and other artifacts including the mask.

On month after Howard gave the local newspaper a tour of the shop, the mask was stolen. High on Howard's list of suspects was Charles Cardell. The reason for his suspicion started years before.

Major Charles Cardell born in 1892, had served in India in the army, however by the 1950s and 60s he worked from a consulting room in London as a conjurer and a questionable psychologist.

He presented a woman named Mary as his sister, even though they were not related and there was a 22 year age difference. The rumor was that they ran the Coven of Atho from a secret underground temple in an old air raid shelter. They had a long history of dabbling in the occult.

The couple also ran the Dumblecott Magick Productions, which produced paraphernalia including Moon Magick Beauty Balm "made from a genuine old witch formula".

Mary Cardell while appearing in court c.1967

In 1959, Raymond Howard went to work for the Cardells, however within a year they had a falling out, and he tipped off newspapers about their witchcraft rituals carried on their 40-acre property.

Cardell who was also known as Rex Nemorensis denied the allegations of black rituals, and said he and his sister were professional psychologists with consulting rooms at 63 Queen's Gate London. They specialized in paranoid schizophrenia caused by dabbling unwisely in the occult arts.

They said their creed was handed down from the Druids and listed their followers in the thousands. The couple denied claims that ceremonies took place in the woods near their house, with people wearing ceremonial robes and the existence about a group called The Vent.

Howard claimed that Cardell had written him a note that said, "In thirty days from now I have to meet the Vent and plead your case. In plain language save your neck."

Prior to this he had sent Howard an effigy pierced with a needle and a mirror. After this Howard moved to Norfolk to set up his antique shop.

William Hall the reporter who wrote the story, had to testify in court in 1967 when the Cardells sued for libel since they were named as two of 12 hooded figures who he had seen take part in a "sinister ritual in the wood."

One of only two known photographs of the original Ooser, taken between 1883 and 1891

The Mask of Atho measured 3 feet in height and according to Howard had been proven by laboratory tests to be made of English oak, and to be about 2,200 years old.

Later Raymond Howard claimed the mask was given to him by a white witch called Alice Franch, who he had known since childhood. After his death, Howard's son Peter said his father had made the head himself.

There was a rumor that Charles Cardell had the head stolen and buried in Surrey.

This was not the first time this type of relic was stolen. In 1897, the Dorset Ooser crowned with bull's horns also went missing.

The mask came to public attention in 1891, when the Cave family of Melbury Osmond's Holt Farm owned it. Throughout the years various historians have debated the origins of the head. Some believed it was part of a horned costume of the devil used in mummer's plays. Folklorist Margaret Murray believed it was a representation of a pre-Christian god of fertility, whose worship survived in Dorset into modern time. She posited that those tried as alleged witches were adherents of a surviving pre-Christian fertility religion—claiming that the mask was a cult item that reflected continuing worship of the cult's Horned God.

The Dorset Ooser was cut from a single block of wood, except the lower jaw which was was connected by leather hinges to the mask. The folklorist H. S. L. Dewar stated that "the expression of the eyes [conveyed] a really agonized spirit of hatred, terror, and despair"

In 1975 a replica was made.

Neither mask has ever been found.

Mummified cat found in Mill Hotel in Sudbury

In 2011, a mummified cat was found in the ceiling of Room 10 of the Dukes Head Hotel in Kings Lynn, Norfolk. The hotel dates back to 1683, and it overlooks the square which was once used to carry out executions. During the 17th century it was common to immure cats into walls or ceilings as a barrier against evils spirit and witches entering the property.

The hotel is said to be haunted by the ghost of a servant boiled to death in 1531 for poisoning her mistress.

Mary Taylor and Mary Smith were both burnt at the stake close to the hotel in 1616 and 1730. Smith was accused of being a witch; it's unknown what Taylor's crime was.

The remains of a cat was found in Mill Hotel in Sudbury. After it was extracted the hotel suffered a big fire. The cat was reinterred inside the floor with a glass plate over it.