subject: The Pendle Witch Trials - Their 400th Anniversary [print this page] Salem might be famous for its witch trials but there was an equally shocking case some eighty years earlier in the heart of England. 2012 marks the four hundredth anniversary of the Pendle Witch trials held in 1612. Many events have been planned to mark the date but what was it all about?
Pendle is an area of the county of Lancashire that at the end of the sixteenth century was regarded as a wild and desolate place where lawlessness was a common occurrence. People were suspicious and quick to blame unforeseen circumstances such as illness and sudden death of both people and stock on spells and witchcraft. Unfortunately some people fell foul of such scaremongering and tittle-tattle, the most likely victims being those who were already renowned as having healing powers. Elderly women in small villages in those days were often called upon to assist in childbirth or lay out the dead, thereby being in a prime position for accusations to fly if something went awry during these seemingly good deeds.
This was the atmosphere under which several people were accused of causing death by witchcraft. The accused were mostly members of the same two families each headed by octogenarian women, the families also blamed each other for bringing about the unfortunate incidents. Twenty people were sent to the Lancaster Assizes in August of 1612, sixteen from the Pendle area and the rest from Samlesbury, another Lancashire village. Ten were judged to be guilty, sentenced to death and subsequently hanged at Lancaster Castle.
As mentioned the 1612 trials are being remembered in a series of events across Lancashire and Bowland; these include illustrated talks, plays, art exhibitions and workshops and walks. The walks will take place around the actual places where the accused lived and were said to have practised their witchcraft. Some are short afternoon strolls lead by guides who are not only very familiar with the area but are also experts on the stories of the events leading up to the trials and the court cases themselves. One walk in particular has been devised especially for the anniversary and will take place over four days, at forty-eight miles it is not for the faint-hearted.
Naturally it could also be undertaken as a car or cycle trail and a guide book explaining the route and the history of the area has also been published.
On the trail are the places where the witches lived, reportedly conducted their magic and were charged - Higham, Fence, Newchurch-in-Pendle and Barley. The journey also takes in the Ribble Valley and Forest of Bowland, via Clitheroe, through which the accused were taken en route to Lancaster for their trial and execution, concluding at the Castle.
The route itself starts at the aptly named Pendle Witch Inn in Sabden and continues through the Ribble Valley and The Forest of Bowland to Lancaster Castle. It travels through the area around Pendle Hill known to the protagonists in the Pendle Witches story before heading North West to the scene of their fate. The final descent into Lancaster takes goes past their place of execution at Golgotha and on to Lancaster Castle where they were held for four months before being tried and sentenced to their deaths.
