Curses, cures & cunning charms

From cases of ailing pigs and cows refusing to milk, to self-operating scythes and shape-shifting women, tales of witchcraft abound in the Cotswolds

- Julia Phillips

Witches have always occupied a curious place within rural communities. They were blamed for bad luck or illness, but at the same time they were respected for their ability to heal, find stolen goods, and tell the future.

Cotswold witches Catherine Huxley, Bevil Blizard and Ellen Hayward are classic examples of this ambivalent attitude, with Catherine Huxley (c. 1612-1652), known as ‘the witch of Evesham’, being a particularly tragic case.

According to an account published in 1691, Catherine Huxley was being tormented by a group of children who were throwing stones at her and calling her a witch. They ran away when she shouted at them, but Mary Ellins (aged nine) got left behind and Catherine said to her, “you shall have enough stones in your stomach.”

Mary began to “void stones by the urinary passages,” and experienced the “most grievous pains in her Back and Reins,” which are “like the pricking of Pins.” After passing some 80 stones, “some plain pebbles, some plain flints, some very small, and some about an ounce weight,” her parents claimed that Catherine had cursed their daughter. Similar stones being found by the side of Catherine’s bed was evidence enough for her to be charged as a witch, and she was executed by hanging.

In contrast to poor Catherine, Bevil Blizard (1742-1836), who was also known as the Necromancer of Winchcombe or Blizard Wizard, enjoyed the respect of his community. He was widely believed to possess supernatural powers and the story is told of how he hurriedly left work in the fields one day, telling his workmates that he knew that his henhouse was being robbed. To the astonishment of those left behind, his scythe continued to cut the hay after he dashed off.