From “Agatha All Along” to “Wicked” this year is a particularly witchy one, and – just in time from Halloween – a new discovery brings us closer to understanding how people viewed witches in days past.
At Gainsborough Old Hall in Lincolnshire, U.K., Rick Berry, a volunteer for the English Heritage charity, discovered 20 carvings over the past two years. These carvings are known as “witches marks,” according to a Tuesday press release from the charity.
Historic England said Gainsborough Old Hall was likely built between 1464 and 1484 and was originally a medical timber framed house. In the Tudor era it was altered and brick was added to most of the walls.
Famous visitors to the building in its long history include Henry VIII and his then Queen, Catherine Howard. It has also been a linen factory, theatre, public house, mechanics’ institute, ballroom, masonic temple, auction house and church. Methodist preacher John Wesley preached there in the 1700s. During the Victorian era, the hall was renovated and more restoration was conducted in the 1980s. It has been in the care of English Heritage since 2011.
According to Historic England, witch marks are ritual protection symbols also known as apotropaic marks (from the Greek word that means “evil”). They can be found at many historic places, especially on stone and woodwork near entrance points of buildings and were intended to keep out malevolent spirits and witches.
“They date back to times when belief in witchcraft and the supernatural was widespread,” Historic England explained. “Magical symbols and ritual objects were a common part of life from around the 16th to the early 19th century.”
One of the most common witch marks designs was a hexafoil or daisy wheel. These depict a six-petaled flower inside of a circle.
“A wide range of designs have been found at Gainsborough, with a particular concentration of marks in the servants’ wing,” English Heritage said, including simple circles that appear to be missing the hexafoil petals. It is believed that the empty circles were intended to trap demons. Other witch marks found at Gainsborough include Marian marks to call on the Virgin Mary for protection and pentangles.
Most of those marks are linked with protection – to keep witches out. However, they weren’t the only type of marks found at Gainsborough.
“The research also revealed rare ‘curse’ inscriptions, which must have been made around the time William Hickman owned the property (from 1596), though they are more commonly associated with the Roman and Anglo-Saxon period,” said English Heritage.
Hickman’s name is written upside down in one inscription. This practice was widely believed to curse the named person. English Heritage said this type of inscription has not been discovered before at one of their sites.
According to English Heritage, William Hickman was a Protestant during a time of religious contention in England, as well as a “ruthless businessman,” whose family would own the property until about 1730.
“He was not a popular man, being called a ‘threadbare fellow’ by one complainant,” said the charity. “William persisted, enclosing areas of common land, contesting local market rights, levying tolls on river goods and seeking to open up the Gainsborough market to traders from London.”
In addition to the witches mark carvings and the apparent curse on Hickman, 100 burn marks used for protection were also discovered at Gainsborough Old Hall. That makes it one most “protected” of the charity’s 400 sites, which the charity also considers on of its “spookiest” sites.
“It’s astonishing that centuries on, the amazing old buildings in our care still have secrets waiting to be discovered,” said English Heritage’s Head of Collections, Kevin Booth. “The Old Hall has undoubtedly had a tumultuous past, not least under the ownership of the apparently unpopular William Hickman, but why it’s the scene of quite such a high concentration of protective carvings remains a mystery.”