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| Folk Magic in Dorset |
| An inventory of concealed finds from the county by Jeremy Harte |
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This inventory of folk magic finds in Dorset has been compiled by Jeremy Harte and kindly donated to the public via this website. The list contains many good examples of folk magic artefacts. If you can add to this list both Jeremy and myself would love to hear from you.
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| Bettiscombe, near Lyme Regis
|  |
| The Bettiscombe Skull was first recorded in 1847; there are several theories of its origin, all conjectural. It protects the house from ghosts, and misfortune (heralded by mysterious noises) follows if it is removed. There is an extensive literature: see Andy Roberts and David Clarke, ‘Heads and tales: the screaming skull legends of Britain’, Fortean Studies 3 (1996) pp126-138. | |
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Blacknoll in Winfrith Newburgh parish, near Dorchester
*
Mummified cat found under roof; shoe and vase found in fireplace
An informant told me, February 1985: ‘There was a mummified cat in his house,
which was originally three cottages, dating back to 1650. It was in the space
below the rafters, which had been sealed up for generations. And there was also
a Victorian shoe and vase sealed up behind the C19 fireplace’.
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Blandford Forum
Dale House, Salisbury Street
Broom found in wall
‘In 1930 alterations were being made to Dale House in Salisbury Street, Blandford,
in the course of which an old and solid partition wall was demolished. Built into
the wall was discovered an ancient, crumbling broom, a survival of the days when
it was believed that a besom so placed would bring luck to the inhabitants of
the house. This broom was replaced’ - Marianne Dacombe, Dorset Up Along
and Down Along (Bridport 1935) p111.
_________________________________________________________________________
Blandford Forum
Lime Tree House, The Plocks (c1731-50)
Shoe found in cardboard box in roof space
Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1995.174 identifies this as a woman’s left
eight-button boot, horseshoe heel, c1870; repaired, buttons removed; examined
by June Swann; Blandford Museum wrote to her 30th June 1990.
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Blandford Forum
10 Market Place (c1731-50)
Shoes found in roof space lying on ledge
Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1995.175 identifies these as two youth’s
leather buckle shoes, 1730s; well worn, repaired; examined by June Swann; Blandford
Museum wrote to her 30th June 1990.
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Blandford Forum
6 Whitecliff Mill Street
Mummified cat found in wall
‘In May 1963…the mummified body of a cat…was found standing on
a ledge about six feet from the floor, sandwiched between a lath-and-plaster partition
and a brick wall. Only a few inches away was a volume of prose and poetry published
in 1851. This was entitled The Speaker with the explanation that it contained
‘miscellaneous pieces selected from the best English writers, with a view
to facilitating the improvement of youth in reading and speaking’. Inside
the cover was an inscription: ‘John Chaffey, from his sincere friend and
well-wisher James Hunt, 3 Victoria Terrace, Swanage, Oct.12/63’.
‘Said Mr. Jack Raymond, of Milton Abbas, who demolished the building: ‘The
wall was completely plastered up, and there was no sign of any opening, so I don’t
see how the cat could have got in there by accident. The book was bound in black,
and someone who saw it suggested that somebody, unable to read or write, might
have placed it beside the body of the cat thinking it was a Bible’ - Olive
Knott, Witches of Dorset (Dorset Publishing Co, 1974) p52.
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Bradford Abbas, near Sherborne
1 East Farm Cottages, North Street
Wooden head found in chimney
‘The carved wooden head of a man, found walled up in a niche together with
a newspaper of 22nd June 1749, in an upstairs chimney-breast, during the reconstruction
of a 17th century cottage is identified as a wigmaker’s block. Judging by
the moustache and absence of beard, it would appear to belong to the first half
of the last century’ - Proc. of the Dorset Nat. Hist. & Arch. Soc.
76 (1954) p99. The head is now in the Dorset County Museum, accessioned as 1955.23.
See also Western Gazette 16 Apr.1954.
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Bradford Peverell, near Dorchester
Dower House (built ?early C19)
Shoe found on top of wall under barn roof
Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1995.1098 identifies this as a man’s single
leather ankle boot, late C19, right foot, heavily hobnailed, possibly military;
poor condition; Dorset County Museum wrote to them in Sept. 1994 (photographs
are kept with the notes)
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Buckland Newton, near Dorchester
*
Shoes and hayfork found in bread oven
Nikki of the Dorset County Museum told me, December 1983: ‘Whey they moved
to Buckland, they had an old bread oven unblocked, and where it had been built
up they found some shoes and a hayfork’.
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Burton Bradstock, near Bridport
*
Shoes found bricked up in cottage
Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1995.176 identifies these as a pair of child’s
shoes, pointed toes, latchet tie; said to be early C17, but dated by June Swann
in Sept. 1973 as late C18; worn. The shoes are now in the Dorset County Museum,
accessioned as 1947.9.1
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Burton Bradstock, near Bridport
*
Mummified cat found in attic
‘In 1980 a mummified cat was found in the attic of a Burton Bradstock house
by the new occupants. The corpse was estimated to be over 100 years old’
- Maureen Hymas, Dorset Foklore (Books of Wessex, Taunton, 1981) p6.
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Burton Bradstock, near Bridport
Magnolia House
Coin found in fireplace
Renovations revealed ‘a George III coin, dated 1765, embedded under the hearthstone
of the original fireplace. It is well known that the builders placed a penny in
the hearth when building a house and other finds relating to witchcraft and superstition
have, from time to time, been found behind hearths or lodged on a stone in a chimney
or in the roof space of cottages’ - Elizabeth Gale, Farmers, Fishermen
and Flax Spinners (Privately, 1983) p58
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Burton Bradstock, near Bridport
Rookery Cottage (mediaeval upper crook hall house, ?C15)
Shoe found on top of wall under thatch
Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1995.1097 identifies this as a woman’s single
leather shoe, mid C18, left foot; much of upper missing, but buckle strap evident;
poor condition; Dorset County Museum wrote to them in Sept. 1994 (photographs
are kept with the notes).
________________________________________________________________________
Cerne Abbas
40 Long Street
Shoe found behind skirting in main bedroom
Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1995.177 identifies this as a child’s leather
buckle shoe, just above first walking size, c1785-90; one strap missing, quarter
patched; examined by June Swann for Captain F. Dobson, 5th April 1989.
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Cheselbourne, near Dorchester
*
Bottle placed up chimney
'A neighbour that had the palsy so terr'ble bad he couldn’t walk nor guide
hisself, and said as he were overlooked, and twold it to a travelling man, and
he said if we could say who ‘twere as doned it he’s cure un. So the
poor man said ‘twere a woman as lived a long way off. ‘Never mind’,
says the travelling man, ‘I’ll bring her here in the form o’ a
hare, and make her cure thee.’ So he bid un get a odd number o’ folk,
and my father were one, to sit up at night and do what he twold un. And he did
say as there were a bottle o’ summat hanged up in chimney. And the fire were
blinded off, and the travelling man were a-reading verses out of the Bible backward,
when just as we was outside the string broke, and the bottle fell, and it broke,
and what come o’ the hare I can’t say.' - H. Colley March, ‘Dorset
folklore collected in 1897: I’, Folk-Lore 10 (1899) pp478-489: p488.
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| Corfe Castle
|  |
| Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1995.179 identifies this as a child’s latchet shoe, c1700; from J.W. Waterer; photograph inspected by John Thornton. | |
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Corfe Castle
Boar Mill
Mummified cat and coin found under floor
Nancy Grace told Brian Hoggard in 2000: ‘At Boar Mill, in the region of Corfe
Castle, Wareham, another 18th century dried cat was discovered under the floorboards
of the main bedroom with a George III coin’.
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| Corfe Castle
|  |
| Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1995.178 identifies this as a lady’s shoe, 1670s/80s, top piece missing; found 4th April 1964; they were notified 6th July 1976. See also Dorset Countryside 1vii (1976) p18 (with photograph); Ralph Merrifield, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic (Batsford, 1987) p132 (with photograph). | |
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Corfe Mullen, near Wimborne Minster
Coventry Arms
Mummified cat found under roof
‘Here, in a glass case overhanging the bar, may be seen the mummified body
of a cat, which had been nailed to the rafters. It was during the process of alterations
to the house that the remains of the animal were discovered’ - Olive Knott,
Witches of Dorset (Dorset Publishing Co, 1974) p12.
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Frampton, near Dorchester
Police Station
Bullock’s heart found in chimney
‘During the fitting of a new firegrate at the Police Station nearly forty
years ago my mason dislodged a bullock’s heart stuffed full of pins’
- Dorset Year Book 1942-3 p63.
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Hawkchurch, near Axminster [now in Devon]
A farmhouse
Bullock’s heart found in chimney
‘A bullock’s heart, into which was stuck a quantity of the prickles
of the white thorn, some nails, pins , and other things… It presented a very
dry, shrivelled, and almost mummified appearance, evidently having been in the
smoke for many years’ - John Symonds Udal, Dorsetshire Folk-Lore (Hertford,
1922) citing Bridport News March 1884. Cf. also F.E. Hansford, ‘Concerning
evil irradiations’, Dorset Year Book 1969-70 pp23-7, and C.V. Goddard’s
notes on Chideock (Dorset County Museum: Chideock file, item 3.3)
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Hazelbury Bryan, near Sherborne
Cottage adjoining Lyddon House
Ox’s hoof found in wall
‘When I lived at Lyddon House some twenty years ago, a very old cottage adjoining
was pulled down. The building was largely of rubble and one of the men engaged
in the task of demolition, found embedded in a wall, the hoof of an ox shod with
a miniature horse shoe, which he gave to me. I wondered why the hoof was shod,
and why it was in the wall, and eventually took it to the late Colonel Drew at
Dorchester Museum. He told me that cattle were often driven long distances in
olden times and were sometimes shod to protect their hoofs from the roads. Colonel
Drew also said that the presence of the hoof in the building arose from an old
belief that if it was put in the wall it would keep off witches and bad luck.
So here was an interesting survival of an ancient superstition. I gave the hoof
to Colonel Drew and it is probably still in the Museum’ - letter from the
Revd. A.C. Esau, c1965, in Dorset Record Office: PE/HAZ:IN2/1.
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Langton Matravers, near Swanage
Boundary wall with Worth Matravers
Bottle found in wall
Nancy Grace told Brian Hoggard in 2000: ‘A bottle was discovered by workmen
rebuilding a boundary wall which was the parish boundary of Langton Matravers
and Worth Matravers. The glass bottle is a greenish blue colour and contains a
substance which becomes more fluid as it is held and moved. Research by Alan Massey
at the University of Loughborough suggests that the main ingredient of this substance
could be beef tallow’.
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Little Fontmell in Child Okeford parish, near Blandford Forum
Fontmell Farm (said to date from C17)
Shoe found in bread oven
Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1998.9 identifies this as a child’s plain
front left ankle boot (high low); ten pairs metal (ferrous?) eyelets, steel horseshoe-shaped
toe plate, hobs in heel and sole, possibly of riveted construction; stiffener,
unlined, plain front Oxford type, blunt round toe, built up at toe; 1870-90; poor
condition, all upper seams split, decayed upper left side of vamp, whole boot
oily with slight smell of soot; found 1997, brought in by Julia Doolan (daughter
of Mr. Litton, farm owner) May 1998.
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Littlewindsor in Broadwindsor parish, near Beaminster
*
Stone walled into chimney
‘A house at Littlewindsor had a large stone bricked into the chimney; if
the stone were taken out of the house, poltergeist manifestations would occur’
- Edward Waring, Ghosts and Legends of the Dorset Countryside (Compton
Press, Tisbury, 1977) p84.
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| Lower Bockhampton in Stinsford parish, near Dorchester
|  |
| Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 2000.6 identifies these as four children’s separate boots, at least three of them being girl’s; all of riveted construction, probably farm worker’s family; 1880s/90s; examined by Brian Hensman; Joan Kendall of the Textile Conservation Centre wrote to them in Jan. 2000 (photographs are kept with the notes). The shoes are kept in the bread oven. | |
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Lyme Regis
*
Bacon placed up chimney
‘A piece of bacon stuck with pins used to be suspended in chimneys to interrupt
witches in their descent, and so avert their visit’ - George Roberts, The
Social History of the Southern Counties of England (Longmans, 1856) p530
_________________________________________________________________________
Maiden Newton
White Horse pub
Mummified cat found in building
‘There was one from the White Horse, Maiden Newton, given to DCM, in 1886’
- MS note to copy of Margaret M. Howard, ‘Dried cats’, Man 1951
p252, filed at the Dorset County Museum under Folklore: L1952.202.
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Marnhull, near Shaftesbury
Michels Square
Mummified cat found under roof
‘Dried cats… The first authenticated Dorset example has come to light
in 1952 in a small row of 18th/19th century cottages known as Michel’s or
Mychel’s Square, in the village of Marnhull… This one was under a roof
of pantiles’ - Proc. of the Dorset Nat. Hist. & Arch. Soc. 74
(1952) p110.
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Marshwood, near Lyme Regis
*
Bullock’s heart placed up chimney
‘A farmer complained his cattle had been ‘overlooked’ and were
all gradually dying off. He was told to take the heart out of the last animal
which had died and push the heart, stuck all over with pins and nails, up the
chimney so that the ‘overlooking’ would pass back again where it had
come from’ - J.B. Lang, ‘Charming of cattle’, Proc. of the Dorset
Nat. Hist. & Arch. Soc. 91 (1969) pp222-3.
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Middlebere in Arne parish, near Wareham
Middlebere Farm
Mummified cat found in fireplace
Nancy Grace told Brian Hoggard in 2000: ‘At Middlebere Farm, in the region
of Corfe Castle, Wareham, a dried cat was found in a roof collapse at the side
of the fireplace in the bakehouse’.
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Minchington in Sixpenny Handley parish, near Shaftesbury
*
Bottle found in house
Peter Robson told me, October 1984: ‘A witch bottle, or something like that,
was found at Minchington in Sixpenny Handley in the last century’.
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Morecombelake in Whitchurch Canonicorum parish, near Lyme Regis
Five Bells pub
Sword kept in cupboard
‘At the Old Five Bells Inn at Morecombelake in a cupboard hung an old sword
and it was said that it must never be moved or the house would be haunted’
- Marianne Dacombe, Dorset Up Along and Down Along (Bridport 1935) p114.
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Morecombelake in Whitchurch Canonicorum parish, near Lyme Regis
Manscombe, Taylors Lane (C18)
Shoes found under bedroom floorboards, NE corner, with mummified mouse
Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1995.1061 identifies these as two men’s
leather ankle boots, both left, one c1860, repaired and the other front lace and
c1850; and a carpet slipper, mid C19, very worn; all apparently from the same
man; examined by Mr. R.J. Coombe at Clarkes Museum, 27th June 1994
_________________________________________________________________________
Notton in Maiden Newton parish
Notton Cottage
Shoe found in chimney breast downstairs
Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1995.180 identifies this as a boy’s black
leather tie shoe, 1780-1820; lengthened, repaired (and hobnailed) and back seam
opened to enlarge further, with ties abandoned and tongue pulled over; examined
by June Swann at Street Shoe Museum, 4th April 1989.
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Pamphill, near Wimborne Minster
Walnut Farm
Mummified puppy and shoe found under floor
Nancy Grace told Brian Hoggard in 2000: ‘A dried puppy (identification of
it is not certain) was found amongst 40 sacks of straw and dust which existed
beneath the floorboards of two rooms in the roof of Walnut Farm, in the region
of Corfe Castle, Wareham. A child’s cloth shoe was also discovered along
with some coins, leading to the conclusion that these finds were of the 18th century’.
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Piddlehinton, near Dorchester
House of William Mitchell the blacksmith
Cow’s heart placed up chimney
‘Joe Bollard.. he come’d down and took’d a drop o’ ale wi’
we, an’ he talked a good bit about the cow, and said as he knowed ther were
summat more than common about thic cow… He twold we thet he had a cow once
as were sarved just the same way, it were a wold cow hisn, and a’ter a bit
the poor beäst died, and a’ter she were dead, when ‘er were skinned
and cut up and all that, they took his heart and stuck eleven pins into un, and
burned un, and a’ter he were burned they sweep’d and drave’d it
all up in the ashes. But next morning ‘twere all abroad over the floor again.
Ees, and they that hurted the poor wold beäst were took bad and died.
‘Zoo it went on…and the cow died, and the same morning I seed Joe Ballard…
I gathered a lot o’ firewood in the back-house chimley and I made the nails,
as I’ve made many for such work. And Joe, he’d been in and skinned the
beäst and took out the heart and show’d it up to winder to I, and put
it up in loft ‘cause er mustn’t never touch ground. And I went and bound
the heart wi’ wire to the two nails I’d a made, and hanged en up in
chimley, and darkened up the winders wi’ sackbags as nobody shouldn’t
see in. But we couldn’t foller on wi’ nothing till ‘twere 9 o’clock,
‘cause the moon were late o’ getting up, an’ us was bound to wait
the right time.
‘Mother and Joe come into the kitchen. Mother she sot
a reäding of a newspaper into chimley corner, but I couldn’t seem to
have nothing to doin’ wi’ it. So I went on to bed and got to sleep,
I were that tired.
‘I ‘bid abed mid abin a couple or dree hours,
then I got up and went down to see how all were agoing on. When I got there all
were quiet enough, the vire were burning up under the heart, wasn’t a soul
about, and the ‘leven pins was in the heart sure enough.
‘I was
just going off again when my missus she zed: ‘Drat if ee shall, Bill, afore
thic heart do burn’; and I swore a woath as sooner nor that fire should go
out afore thic heart were burned, I’d beät up our clock, I ‘ould,
to make fuel…
‘So I sot down again in front o’ the fire, when
all on a suddent like, there busted a spout o’ blood out o’ the heart
sort o’ sideways, right out on the kitchen floor, and ‘fore we had time
to spake a word the awfullest screeches and noises that ever anybody did hear,
just outside our front door. And fust the door did sheck, and then the winders
did rattle, just as if they was going to be droved in.
‘We had sackbags
up to winder so nobody couldn’t look in, so I croped up stair and looked
out o’ chamber winder. Well! Blowed if there werdn’ thic Mrs. Hart!…’
- H. Colley March, ‘Dorset folklore collected in 1897: I’, Folk-Lore
10 (1899) pp478-489: p483.
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Piddletrenthide, near Dorchester
Saddlers Cottage
Shoes and other items found in a big old fireplace hidden behind a smaller modern
one
Mr. Binoy Roy spoke to the Dorset Evening Echo 30 April 1987, who included
a photograph of the finds. ‘In the fireplace he found a pair of child’s
boots from the 1870s, a woman’s boot of the 1890s and a shoe from the 1930s.
There were also the remains of old leather gaiters, the broken tine of a pitchfork,
a trivet, a penknife and a small cardboard box. The box bore the name of Cooke
& Kelvey, ‘Diamond merchants, Jewellers, Watch, Clock and Chonometer
makers, Scindia House, Queensway, New Delhi’. From the photograph, the box
looks 1930s: there are also two dress-maker’s cards of hooks and eyes. See
also Muriel Pike, The Piddle Valley Book of Country Life (Hutchinson, 1980)
p116.
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Portland
*
Mummified cat found in house
Nigel Pennick told Brian Hoggard in 2000: ‘A black cat with the skeleton
of a mouse in its mouth was discovered in the 19th century in a house in Portland.
The cat is now in Avice’s Cottage [the Portland Museum]’.
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Portland
Cottage (late C18/ early C19)
Shoe found walled up
Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1995.181 identifies this as a child’s leather
shoe, ?three eyelet tie, round toe; 1820s; out at toe; examined by June Swann;
Weymouth Museum wrote to her in June 1987 (photographs are kept with the notes).
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Portland
Cottage at Straits, Easton
Stone head found in wall
‘According to Mr. R.A. Healey, of British Damp Proofing, Beaminster, who
uncovered the effigy while working at the cottage, these were a common addition
to buildings for centuries and were meant to ward off evil spirits.
‘The
cottage was last occupied by a 90-year-old member of the Cox family who died recently
and it is now owned by his nephew, Mr. Bert Male, and his wife who live in the
Midlands, but will make the cottage their home after renovations…
‘It
is believed to have been built at the end of the 17th century and has been added
to over the years. The effigy was found embedded in the wall of the original scullery…
‘The effigy, an ugly fellow with empty eye sockets, a squat nose and a little
round hole of a mouth into which the workmen stuck a cigarette to lighten his
gruesome appearance, will remain exposed to become part of the décor of
the room’ - Dorset Evening Echo 22 Dec.1987.
_________________________________________________________________________
Portland
House at the Verne
Mummified cat found in house
Nigel Pennick told Brian Hoggard in 2000: ‘A dried black cat was discovered
‘installed’ in a building at the Verne, Portland, now in Weymouth Museum’
_________________________________________________________________________
| Purse Caundle, near Sherborne
|  |
| Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1995.182.1-2 identifies these as a pair of men’s shoes c1650, and one pull-on type c.1600; examined by John Thornton, March 1961. | |
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Shaftesbury
17 Bell Street (formerly a harness maker’s)
Shoe found in roof space near chimney, SW end, found with piece of harness strap
Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1995.1122 identifies this as a girl’s leather
shoe, c1710; quarters mostly missing, worn away, half of tongue folded over, half-sole
repair, nailed at waist, ?vamp re-covered; examined by June Swann at Clarkes Museum,
1st March 1995.
_________________________________________________________________________
| Shaftesbury
|  |
| Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1995.1123 identifies this as a man’s black leather button Balmoral boot, ½” platform sole continued to become 1” wedge heel – surgical; 1870s; examined by June Swann, Clarkes Museum 1st March 1995; per Shaftesbury Museum. | |
_________________________________________________________________________
Shaftesbury
14 Gold Hill
Shoe found in roof, NW corner, on stone ledge of brick and stone chimneystack
Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1995.1124 identifies this as a child’s front
lace shoe (?3-pairs); first walking size; 1810s; found 1989 and examined by June
Swann at Clarkes Museum, 1st March 1995; per Shaftesbury Museum.
_________________________________________________________________________
Shipton Gorge, near Bridport
Home Farm
Pig’s heart found in chimney
‘There was a chimney fire at Home Farm, and when they were clearing the chimney
of all the soot and debris they found a beam across and behind this beam, hanging
on just one side, they found this heart. A pig’s heart! It was all shrivelled
and shrunk but it was stuck with pins. Extraordinary, it was’ - Rodney Legg,
Mysterious Dorset (Dorset Publishing, 1987) p93
_________________________________________________________________________
(Stalbridge)
A six-sided bottle, containing a charm, is sometimes described as coming from
Stalbridge: it is in fact from Church Street in Sturminster Newton, q.v.
_________________________________________________________________________
Stalbridge, near Sherborne
*
Bullock’s heart found in chimney
‘A person still living in the village can remember seeing an old woman sitting
by her fireside, stabbing pins into a bullock’s heart, muttering and mumbling
as she flung it into the fire. Small wonder that bullock’s hearts have been
found stuck in the chimneys of old Stalbridge houses’ - Olive Knott, Witches
of Wessex (1961) p11.
_________________________________________________________________________
Stalbridge, near Sherborne
1 Grove Lane
Bottle found in fireplace
‘During the removal of 19th century blocking from an inglenook fireplace
at 1 Grove Lane, Stalbridge, a corked glass bottle filled with urine and containing
a small number of steel pins was discovered by the householders, Mr. and Mrs.
Finch. This was presented for identification at the Dorset County Museum (DCME
2296).
‘The cylindrical bottle, either a medicine or a sauce bottle of
mid-19th century date, was mould-blown in pale blue glass, 145mm high and 41mm
in diameter. It was not possible to ascertain whether the bottle had been placed
in the chimney at the time of blocking or had been there for some time’ -
Chris Copson, ‘A witch bottle from 1 Grove Lane, Stalbridge’, Proc.
of the Dorset Nat. Hist. & Arch. Soc. 117 (1995) p142 (with drawing of
bottle).
_________________________________________________________________________
Stalbridge Weston in Stalbridge
parish, near Sherborne
*
Effigy found in chimney
Hilary Townsend of the Barnes Society told me, June 1984: ‘At Stalbridge
Weston, when a cottage was being renovated just after the War, an effigy stuck
with pins was found placed up the chimney. It hadn’t been there for very
long’.
_________________________________________________________________________
Sturminster Newton
Church Street
Bottle found under floor
‘A six-sided bottle was discovered under the floorboards of a cottage in
church Street, Sturminster Newton, during building operations in 1973… the
bottle and manuscript are now in the Dorset County Museum (presented by Mrs. E.M.
Rose, of Stalbridge)’ - Edward Waring, Ghosts and Legends of the Dorset
Countryside (Compton Press, Tisbury, 1977) p85. A photocopy of the manuscript
is filed at the Museum under Folklore: L1973.12, where it is misattributed to
Stalbridge. It is written in an 18th or 19th-century hand, and includes the magic
squares of Jupiter (adding up to 34) and of the Sun (adding up to 111); eight
sigils, two of them Solomon’s Seals, one accompanied by the word Adonai,
and another by the words Agla and Omega; four astrological glyphs; and then the
words - ‘The Lord the faithfull King give commandment o God to thy strength
confirm o God thy strength in us. El. Elohim. Elohai Zebaoth. Elion Exeherchie,
Adonai. Jah, Jehovah Tetragrammaton Jod Ehevi so good lord take heare Remove the
Evil from this house in the Name of Jesus Christ Amen. Fiat Fiat Fiat Cito Cito
Cito’.
_________________________________________________________________________
Sturminster Newton
Cottage below the churchyard
Bottle and bullock’s heart placed up chimney
‘Two old spinsters, Ridouts, known as the ‘Wormies’, lived in a
cottage below the churchyard at Sturminster Newton some sixty years ago…
They practised charms, hanging a bottle up the chimney with frog’s entrails
and a bullock’s heart stuck with pins’ - Marianne Dacombe, Dorset
Up Along and Down Along (Bridport 1935) p109.
_________________________________________________________________________
Upwey, near Weymouth
Cottage in Elwell Street
Mummified cat found in roof
Nigel Pennick told Brian Hoggard in 2000: ‘A dried cat or kitten was discovered
in the roof of a cottage in Elwell Street, Upwey, Weymouth in 1987. The building
dates from 1821 and the cat was replaced after work was completed’.
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Waddon in Portesham parish, near Weymouth
Waddon House
Skull kept in house
‘A somewhat similar story [to that at Bettiscombe] of a negro skull is told
of Waddon House, near Upwey… Now in Dorchester Museum - Marianne Dacombe,
Dorset Up Along and Down Along (Bridport 1935) p114. ‘Waddon House
had a skull. It was said to be that of a negro servant killed by his master in
mistake for a burglar’ - Edward Waring, Ghosts and Legends of the Dorset
Countryside (Compton Press, Tisbury, 1977) p84. In 1989 the skull was amongst
a collection of unaccessioned items at the Dorset County Museum.
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Wareham
*
Shoes found in roof
Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1995.183.1-2 identifies these as a latchet-tie
shoe and a ‘court’ shoe, 1650-1700; examined by John Thornton, Feb.
1956.
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Wimborne Minster
Church Street
Mummified cat found in wall
‘A mummified cat…has been presented to the [Priest’s House] museum
after being found during building reconstruction near Wimborne Pottery in Church-street.
The cat, says Miss E.M. Coles, a museum official, was found bricked up in a wall
high above the ground’ - Swanage Times 4 Jan.1967.
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Wimborne Minster
Higher Honeybrook Farm, Cranborne Road
Shoe sole found in fireplace
Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1995:1033 identifies this as an insole from a
child’s shoe or boot, probably early C17; examined by Andrew Mackay, 25th
February 1993.
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Wimborne Minster
House near the Stocks Inn
Bullock’s heart found
A bullock’s heart stuck with pins was found in pulling down the house: the
builder ‘was told it was done to keep the witches away’ - Dorset Year
Book 1929 p198.
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Winfrith Newburgh, near Dorchester
*
Shoe found under floorboards in first floor bedroom, near chimney
Northampton Concealed Shoe Index 1995.184 identifies this as a child’s shoe,
round-toed pattern, raised arch; late C18; hole punched in side of wood behind
straps; examined by June Swann and John Thornton, 21st February 1983.
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Winterborne Kingston, near Blandford Forum
Farmhouse
Bottle found in chimney
‘The architect who planned the alteration of this house told me there were
hundreds of bottles hidden in chimneys in Dorset. This has also been corroborated
by our ancient chimney-sweep. In a farm-house in the neighbourhood a bottle was
found hanging by a wire up in the old chimney; and, when it was cut down, was
found to contain liquid. It was tightly corked and the cork stuck all over with
pins. After the bottle was broken and the liquid spilled the family had nothing
but bad luck and finally left the place. The bottle is supposed to prevent bad
spirits entering the house’ - Marianne Dacombe, Dorset Up Along and Down
Along (Bridport 1935) p110.
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Winterborne Stickland, near Blandford Forum
*
Bullock’s heart found in house
‘There was some comment when, upon modernising an old thatched cottage, they
found a shrivelled bullock’s heart, riddled with rusty pins’ - Dorset
Year Book 1964-5 p150.
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Winterborne Whitchurch, near Blandford Forum
*
Pig’s heart placed up chimney
A girl was mentally ill: ‘well, the mother went to a wise woman and was told
to get a pig’s heart and stick into it an ounce of pins and burn it, ‘
‘cause, you see, the devil he went into the swine’. And duly did she
get the pig’s heart and the pins and burn the same, and the daughter was
perfectly cured’ - H. Colley March, ‘Dorset folklore collected in 1897:
I’, Folk-Lore 10 (1899) pp478-489: p488
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Worth Matravers, near Swanage
*
Pot found in wall
‘A local man…was a house repairer and in tinkering with an inside wall
he broke through into a hidden space that had been built up, and there was the
pot. He described that pot and it must have been a delightful thing in itself;
tall and of goodly proportions, it was probably an interesting relic of old. It
stood in the space all alone as if it had been placed there with care and not
just left as forgotten rubbish and the finder said he knew he had found the pot
of gold, and the shock was too much, he swayed on his feet and fainted under the
stress. When he recovered he opened it up and it was full to the top with old
pieces of iron, like old shut-links and things that any countryman might gather
in a lifetime. There was no gold and there is a possibility that someone long
before had walled it in with a joke in view’ - Eric Benfield, Dorset (Robert
Hale, 1950) p85.
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Wyke Regis, near Weymouth
*
Bullock’s heart placed up chimney
‘There was an old woman who used to smoke a clay pipe and was supposed to
be a witch. A young woman had her arm rendered useless by her, and a gipsy woman
coming to the house, told the girl’s mother to take a bullock’s heart
and stick 100 pins into it and hang it in the chimney. When the heart dried up
it fell down and was burnt and the old woman was seen tearing her hair in a rage
and saying that someone had been meddling with her affairs’ - Marianne Dacombe,
Dorset Up Along and Down Along (Bridport 1935) p110.
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Thanks must be expressed to staff maintaining the Concealed Shoes Index at Northampton Central Museum (Central Museum and Art Gallery, Guildhall Road, Northampton, NN1 1DP), Peter Robson, Hilary Townsend, Nancy Grace, Nigel Pennick and Brian Hoggard in compiling the information presented here.
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Caveat: proper formatting of text was not possible for this web-page. The original document contained perfect grammar and punctuation! Blame Brian Hoggard!
The research on this page is copyright of Jeremy
Harte (except where otherwise indicated) and permission must be sought before
any copying, publishing or other media distribution of this article is undertaken.
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www.apotropaios.co.uk
© Brian Hoggard 2000-2009
This site has been on the web since July 3rd
2000
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