On The Trail of the Pendle Witches

Here is one I made earlier - much earlier - more than 20 years ago. It looks at the capture, trial and execution of the Pendle Witches - a group of desperately poor Lancashire women, caught up in the hysteria when James 1st came to the English throne and brought with him his own little conspiracy theory about witchcraft - he had even written a book about it.

[@PhilipDrown]

What a gem of a story you’ve produced here. So we’ll told and enjoyable to watch.

[@tanis3639]

The best documentary I have seen about the Pendle Witches. It is fascinating to see the routes and the sites. Thank you

[@DaysofHorror]

From what I believe, there may now be another possible location as to where Malkin Tower once was. We are travelling to Pendle this weekend to visit this location and to see if fits in with the information garnered from other resources. Its an intersting theory, the location, and not too far away from Barley. But like all other stories and theories of where Malkin Tower once stood, this could just end up being another. Interesting all the same though.

[@VMM34]

Did you go to research the site? Did you find anything interesting?

[@jeanniegee8366]

@@VMM34 one of the very few things I didn't like about this particular documentary (and I've watched many) was the image of a tower in the distance just as they were mentioning Malkin Tower, which could be misleading.. it almost suggested that it could have been the tower where they lived. Instead Malkin Tower at the time was a hovel where they slept with their few animals... they were as poor as poor can be. It may have once been a tower but more likely they called itt Malkin Tower by way of a joke...

[@boulecoq1700]

I’m a Bulcock and I’ve traced my family back to the early 19th century when they were farmers in a place called Goldshaw booth which is now whitechurch. I m pretty sure if I mooched further back I’ll be related to John and Jane Bulcock.

[@marksadventures3889]

To my most ancient forebears - you will not have died for nothing for our kind still live under the Fells of Pendle and Bowland - forever blessed be.

[@BenStone_]

Pendle Hill, cosmic axis of the northern Celts, sacred hill of Brigantia.

[@jonfitz2278]

Absolutely Brilliant I lived and worked with travelling people they are very big on LUCK MONEY

[@lady12roses]

Fantastic video, thank you.

[@sommesoul33]

I love this.

[@elizaphe58]

I'd love to know where the Witches were buried.

[@MrBazzabee]

They weren't buried in consecrated ground.

[@branthomas1621]

Hi, some were buried in a small plot of land across the road to the entrance of Williamson's park at Golgotha. The locals know it as "the witches garden"

[@thependlewitchblog1797]

​@@branthomas1621 Moorside Burial Ground has nothing to do with the witches, it's just local folklore I'm afraid. It's interesting nonetheless because it's one of the earliest surviving sites associated with Non-Conformist movements in the area.
I found the conveyance deed a few years back at the Lancashire Archives. It was pasture land during the early 1600's and belonged to William Greenbank of Halton and others. They sold it to John Lawson in 1660, a merchant of St. Leonard's Gate and an early follower of George Fox. Lawson turned it into Moorside Burial Ground the same year and went on to lay the foundations of the Quaker movement in Lancaster.
From the deed:
"a burial place for the people of god the children of the light, such as lived and abode in the truth of God and for no other purpose whatsoever, and that no particular person or persons should claim or have any right or title therein"
Nobody knows where the Pendle witches are buried, but an early 18th century account of an execution at Lancaster refers to an 'appointed place of burial near unto the castle'.

[@jeanniegee8366]

@@MrBazzabee Annoying and desceptive that some say Alice Nutter (who I just found out was my 11th gt grandmother) was buried in St. Mary's churchyard in Downham... which I don't believe for one minute. There's no way they would have transported her body back from Lancaster - but rather, as you say, she and the other poor wretches were put into unmarked unhallowed ground near where they were brutally hanged. But, at least we are still talking about them 412 years later. xx

[@paulwestwood4417]

Is this same Peter Underwood who is author of the book, Ghosts of Somerset?

[@PeterUnderwoodProductions]

Nope