South East London blogzine - things that are happening, things that happened, things that should never have happened. New Cross, Brockley, Deptford and other beauty spots. EMAIL US: transpontineblog at gmail.com Transpontine: 'on the other (i.e. the south) side of the bridges over the Thames; pertaining to or like the lurid melodrama played in theatres there in the 19th century'.
Saturday, October 09, 2004
Southwark Witch Trial talk
South East London Folklore Society will be hosting a talk on 'Urban Witchcraft and Witch Trials' on Monday 11th October 2004. Kathleen Blackmore will be talking about a Southwark witch trial in 1701 and related matters. It all happens at 8:00 pm in the upstairs room of The Spanish Galleon, 48 Greenwich Church Street, Greenwich, London, SE10 9BL. Entrance is £2.50 (£1.50 concessions). SELFS meets on the second Monday of the month to discuss 'paganism, forteana, folklore, high strangeness and the occult'.
Kathleen's talk was excellent. What may have been the last witch trial in England took place in 1701 when Sarah Morduck was accused of causing a neighbour's illness at Bankside (near the site of the Tate Modern). Even though she was found not guilty, she was beaten up and left for dead. The motives for her being accused seem to have been financial rather than witchcraft. Still she was lucky compared to another woman who was hanged at Tyburn as a witch accused, among other things, of having sex with satan in the form of a squirrel!
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