Wendover Witches, a Witchy Wednesday article.
Welcome to another Witchy Wednesday. This week I thought I would share a section from the History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3, ed. William Page (London, 1925) about the Witches in Buckinghamshire.
The church and manor-house stand nearly half a mile from the town, and possibly mark the site of the original settlement, which migrated to the road when Wendover became a market town and borough. There is the old and not uncommon tradition to account for its position, that the building of the church was begun in a field close to the town, but when the materials had been collected they were taken away in the night by witches or fairies and found next day on the present site of the church. The field originally chosen was known as 'Witches Meadow,' and in support of the tradition 'Wychewelle Croft' may be noted as an early 14th-century field-name in this parish. Wendover Church was of considerable local importance in the middle ages, the Rood Cross of Wendover being a place of pilgrimage. Amongst the punishments meted out in 1506 to certain people at Chesham, who had spoken against idolatry and superstition, was an obligatory pilgrimage to the cross. The rood screen was not removed till about 1842. The Manor House, the residence of Mr. C. S. Routh, is just beyond the church. Between the church and the town are the vicarage and Bucksbridge House, the latter formerly belonging to the families of Stace and Hakewill. The Congregational chapel was built in 1811 and rebuilt in 1903; the Baptist chapel, in South Street, represents a cause dating from 1683. The Literary Institute, containing a reading room and library, was given to the town by the late Lieut.General Smith. The Metropolitan and Great Central joint railway passes through the parish with a station at Wendover. Wendover Dean lies in the southwest of the parish, the chief house being Mayertorne Manor, the residence of Mr. H. W. Massingham.
Bewitched Spinning Wheel.
There is also story of an old woman in Wendover who was accused of bewitching a neighbor's spinning wheel. The vicar arranged a test where the woman was placed on one side of a scale and the Bible on the other. The woman outweighed the Bible and was exonerated.
Another Bucks tale did not have such a happy ending! Sourced from https://theknittinggenie.com/2017/05/03/the-bewitched-spinning-wheel/
From ‘The London Evening Post’, February 24th – 27th, 1759.
We hear from Wingrove, near Aylesbury, in Bucks., that a few days ago, one Susanna Hannokes, an elderly Woman of that Place, was accused by a Neighbour with being a Witch, for that she had Bewitched her Spinning-Wheel, so that she could not make it go round; and offer’d to make and Oath of it, before a Magistrate, on which the Husband of the poor Woman, in order to justify his Wife, insisted upon her being tried on the Church-Bible, and that the Accuser should be present: Accordingly, she was conducted by her Husband, attended by a great Concourse of People, who flocked to see the Ceremony, to the Parish Church, where she was stripp’d of all her Cloaths to her Shift and Under-Coat, and weighed against the Bible; when, to the no-small Mortification of her Accuser, she out-weighed it, and was honourably Acquitted of the Charge. It is Observable that not eight years Since, one Ruth Osborn and her Husband, were by the too-credulous People of that Neighbourhood, duck’d in a Pond on a like Supposition, and used so ill, that the poor Woman was at last drown’d…
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| eakinsgrandmotherstime Thomas Eakins (1844–1916), In Grandmother’s Time (1876), further details not known. Wikimedia Commons |
Thank you for visiting my blog page. I will be posting another 'Witchy Wednesday' article next week. Kat 🥰
