My new novella – The Malan Witch – takes place in a remote coastal area not unlike Cornwall. It is peaceful, tranquil – except for the activities of two of the most evil witches you could ever encounter. The sisters were burned centuries earlier for their crimes, but the site of their former home is soaked in their heinous, demonic practices.
Mercifully, these
two devil sisters never actually walked the earth, but the practice of
witchcraft most certainly did – and indeed does – exist. Thankfully, in most
cases we are talking about good or so-called white magic. Indeed, in centuries
past, most (if not all) witches executed in various torturous ways were guilty
of nothing more than being ‘wise women’ who knew a thing or two about how herbs
and natural remedies worked. Then one day they upset one of their neighbours
and, before you could light a candle, they would find themselves being poked and
prodded for the infamous ‘witch marks’. Anything would suffice – a small mole,
a wart, a tiny patch of eczema. Most of us have something the witch hunter would
proclaim was a mark of the devil.
In Cornwall, a coven of witches managed to evade detection, maintain their secrecy and continue practising their benevolent craft from the 1640s until at least the 1970s. Archeologist Dr. Jacqui Wood discovered pits lined with animal skins, carcasses of birds and feathers which, it is believed formed part of a fertility ritual.
The site is in a
tiny hamlet called Saveock near Truro where two unmarried women lived,
practising their craft and passing on its secrets. They were believed to be
part of that secret coven until they died in the 1980s. The most recent of the
small pits used synthetic orange baler twine only used in Cornwall since the
1970s, while the earliest witch pit dates back to the 1640s and is lined with a
slaughtered swan (the bird symbolizing fertility), which had been turned inside
out.Claws belonging to other bird
species and a small pile of stones were also found in it. The killing of swans
has been illegal since the 11th century.
Other pits are
lined with the skins of cats and dogs along with bird’s eggs containing
soon-to-be-hatched chicks.
Dr Wood believes
the pits were dug by young women desirous of becoming pregnant and could be an
offering to St Brigid of Kildare in Ireland – the patron saint of newborn
babies.
All in all, carbon
dating has revealed that the site has been in continuous use since the 1640s, and there are over forty pits – each one unique, but all roughly the same size,
measuring 42cm long x 35cm wide and 17cm deep. Dr Wood believes it is highly
probable that members of the coven are still active today.
That this coven
has managed to continue to exist despite contravening laws of the land and the
prevailing prejudices of the times bears testament to the determination of a
dedicated group of women who, no doubt, passed on their secrets from mother to
daughter – with not one weak link.
Naught
remained of their bodies to be buried, for the crows took back what was theirs.’
An idyllic coastal cottage near a sleepy village. What could be more
perfect? For Robyn Crowe, borrowing her sister’s recently renovated holiday
home for the summer seems just what she needs to deal with the grief of losing
her beloved husband.
But behind those pretty walls lie many secrets, and legends of a
malevolent sisterhood - two witches burned for their evil centuries earlier.
Once, both their vile spirits were trapped there. Now, one has been released.
One who is determined to find her sister. Only Robyn stands in her way.
When not reading horror, I frequently turn to another of my passions - historical fiction - and one of my favourite authors in that genre is Shehanne Moore. She brings a zest for adventure, humour, spice and a cast of characters that leap from the pages and keep me entertained from start to finish. Yes, there is romance, but bosoms most assuredly remain unheaved. Shehanne's heroines are tough, feisty and indefatigable. The heroes are anything but textbook. Now Shehanne is back with the first in a new series - Cornish Rogues. She's here to tell us more about 'O'Roarke's Destiny': ‘May everything you touch wither
to dust.’ Cursed? Or just unlucky?
‘The
question is this. I cursed you. I cursed you and your brothers –”
“One of whom—”
“Blew his brains out at midnight. Do you
seriously think I didn’t trouble myself to find out?”
“Oh, I’m sure-"
“May everything you touch, turn to
dust.”’
Cursed?Or just unlucky? Nice to think it’s the latter but legends of curses
permeate practically every culture in history. from entire families to
items---jewels especially—but places too.It would be good to say we just like someone to blame misfortune on but
then again, some folks don’t seem to have a lot of good fortune, do they?
Let’s take my new heroine, Destiny who is the victim of just such a
curse…
“But the fact was that curse uttered for
nothing had killed Ennis, as surely as if Divers O’Roarke had pushed his
carriage down that ravine that night.”
It’s very convenient to believe that all the
loss and tragedy that follows Destiny about like a bad smell is the result of
that curse, when it was probably on the cards anyway. Also, at the time she was cruising for the
proverbial bruising, causing besotted men to shoot each other, this could just have
been a wind change in her life, a what-goes-round-comes-round time. But then again, the loss of a mother, father,
brother, husband and more in the space of two years, not to mention another
brother becoming an alcoholic, does seem the kind of misfortune that would give
the Kennedy family a run for their money in the cursed stakes.
And I think that is where curses have
their power—superstitious--but even so. Would you really want to flout a curse by
wearing the Hope diamond for example? Or indeed by then touching someone who was cursed?
“From Land’s End to Launceston people
avoided her like she had the plague. In fact it was probably from Land’s End to
John O’Groats. She couldn’t get another husband even if she wanted to.”
Whether it is balderdash or not, if something goes wrong after you flout
a curse, well, you are probably going to blame the curse and wish you hadn’t
done it, even if curses may, or may not exist. The Rhodes family aren’t alone
in being cursed. Other famous families, in addition to the Kennedys, include
the Hapsburgs, the Grimaldis, the Hemingways. I guess the Romanovs weren’t exactly
what you might call lucky either.
Of course big families like that, in terms of being newsworthy, of
having wealth etc., are always going to find their bones being picked over by
the ‘lesser mortals.’ And the Rhodes
family have that local standing.
‘She was a
Rhodes and Rhodes were all about living life to the hilt.’
Big
old house, family tree going back centuries, suggestions of links to pirates,
definite links to smugglers. Legends surround them, like Raven’s Passage, said
to stretch from their family seat, Doom Bar Hall, all the way to the beach, a
fabulous place stuffed with golden treasures.
It’s easy to say that some of these real families
were cursed when you can point to the actual curse itself, how it came to be
uttered and who was responsible. Rasputin,
of course gets held responsible for cursing the Romanovs but as a family they
had plenty of misfortune before that. Nicholas II’s father and grandfather didn’t
exactly fare brilliantly either and Rasputin never cursed them. But then the times they were living in were
pretty explosive.No pun intended
actually. Just pointing out the possible carnage/ill heath rate which brings me
to the Brontës, another family that might be construed as cursed. Equally fame
eventually touched them, so we know of their lives. But their deaths were the
lot of entire families especially given the unsanitary conditions of the time.
The thing about curses?I
honestly think you pay your money you take your chances…I know I am taking mine
releasing this book on a Friday 13th. It did-–er—seem apt.And I loved weaving a curse into the story as
it gave me plenty scope to use the hero and heroine’s reaction to it to drive
things forward.
Catherine, thank you so very much for asking me here today.
“He cursed you, me, Chancery. You most of
all. Think how different your life would now be if he hadn’t uttered these
damnable words. When Chancery loved Rose. Wanted to marry her, for God’s sake.
That Divers O’Roarke didn’t know is no damned excuse.”
“I am thinking. And I’m
thinking we are the life we live. Its graces and its pain. And while we may not
always have any control over it, we can control what we do about it. But if you
want to believe in a load of old gypsy mutterings and superstition and hold it
responsible for the fact you can’t walk past a drink, without feeling obliged
to down and then drown in it, that’s your choice. This is mine.”
Once he’d have died to
possess her, now he just might…
Beautiful, headstrong young widow Destiny Rhodes was
every Cornish man’s dream. Until Divers O’Roarke cursed her with ruin and
walked out of Cornwall without a backwards glance. Now he’s not only back, he’s
just won the only thing that hasn’t fallen down about her head—her ancestral
home. The home, pride demands she throw herself in with, safe in the knowledge
of one thing. Everything she touches withers to dust.
He’d cursed her with
ruin.
Now she’d have him live
with the spoils of her misfortune.
Though well versed in his dealings with smugglers and dead men, handsome
rogue Divers O’Roarke is far from sure of his standing with Destiny Rhodes. He
had no desire to win her, doesn’t want her in his house, but while he’s bent on
the future, is there one when a passionate and deadly game of bluff
ensues with the woman he once cursed? A game where no-one and nothing are what
they seem. Him most of all.
And when everything she touches turns
to dust, what will be his fate as passion erupts?Will laying past ghosts come at the highest
price of all?
Available Amazon. September 13th 2019 Black Wolf
Books.
When not cuddling inn signs in her beloved Scottish
mountains alongside Mr Shey, Shehanne Moore writes dark and smexy historical
romance, featuring bad boys who need a bad girl to sort them out. She firmly
believes everyone deserves a little love, forgiveness and a second chance in
life.
Shehanne caused general apoplexy when she penned her first
story, The Hore House Mystery—aged seven. From there she progressed to writing
plays for her classmates,stories for
her classmates, plays for real, comic book libraries for girls, various
newspaper articles,ghost writing,
nonfiction writing, and magazine editing.Stories for real werewhat she
really wanted to write though and, having met with every rejection going, she
sat down one day to write a romance, her way.
You don't expect such a small, attractive town to house such a massive prison, but that's the surprise that awaits you in the Cornish town of Bodmin.
It's been closed since 1927, but is by no means silent. Although much of it is derelict, its corridors still echo to the clanking of chains and the moans of long dead prisoners, seeking justice for their unjust incarceration...and execution.
Bodmin Jail's restoration is a work in progress and no visitor can envy the task. Built originally as a milestone in prison design, circa 1779, the jail started off its life as a prison for debtors, serious felons, and those guilty of less serious crimes. Males and females were strictly segregated and attempts were made to ensure a less harsh approach to incarceration. Running water was provided in courtyards and boilers were on hand for hot water. Ovens were installed to bake clothes (to kill vermin). There was also a chapel and an infirmary for the sick.
www.cornwall-online.co.uk
All of
this led to its approval by the great 18th century penal reformer, John
Howard, who visited in 1782 and proclaimed, 'By a spritied exertion, the
gentlemen of this county have erected a monument of their humanity, and
attention to health and morals of prisoners.'
From the mid nineteenth century, a heating and ventilation system ensured a constant temperature of 15 degrees centigrade was maintained throughout the year in all cells. In addition, prisoners were put to productive work and paid out of the profits from the sales of the products they made. Sadly, this changed to the useless labour of the treadmill from 1824 onwards, until the Prison Act of 1898 saw a reversal of ideas. Useless labour was abolished and productive work was back in. Between its opening and closure 148 years later, Bodmin underwent expansion and transformation. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, it took hundreds of prisoners, when the population of the prison reached its peak. In 1887, part of it was converted into a Naval prison. But what of the prisoners themselves?
Solitary confinement, hard labour, whipping and execution by hanging all took place within the walls of Bodmin Jail and there are some curious cases.
The great grandfather of writer, Nevil Shute, author of A Town Like Alice, the apocalyptic On The Beach and many others, was murdered by two brothers called William and James Lightfoot, whose public double hanging attracted a crowd of some 20,000 at noon on 13th April, 1840. They had battered Nevil Norway to death in order to rob him of the gold and silver coins he carried. Theirs was the only double hanging at Bodmin. There are a number of stories of young women driven to desperate acts as a result of finding themselves on their own with an illegitimate child, the father having long run off. But one of the saddest, is the case of Selina Wadge, who had two children. She was at the lower end of the social scale, barely surviving in the workhouse, when she met and fell in love with a former soldier called James Westwood. According to her story, Westwood told her he would marry her but was not prepared to take on both children. The younger one, Harry, would have to be sacrificed. She drowned him by throwing him down a thirteen foot deep well, where he was found lying in three feet of water, with no signs of violence visible on his body.
She had been previously regarded as a good mother and many from the workhouse and elsewhere attested to her previous good character, but the jury found her guilty of child murder, with a recommendation for leniency. The judge wasn't prepared to grant it and she was sentenced to death by hanging. By then, the measured drop had been introduced, which led to a swifter, more merciful death. Previously, the notorious 'short drop' had led to prisoners slowly strangling to death, taking up to twenty minutes or more.
Poor, desperate Selina was placed on suicide watch. By the day of her execution she was in a state of collapse. But she died 'without a struggle' on 15th August 1878. Her ghost is one of many said to haunt the place. She tries to reach out to small children and has been observed by them as a lady in a long dress who cries all the time.
www.bodminjail.org
An earlier and more primitive jail existed where Bodmin Jail stands today and it too saw its share of prisoners, some of whom were convicted for witchcraft. Most of these were, of course, women, who were guilty of nothing more than the ability to use herbs wisely to heal all manner of ailments. One such woman was Ann Jefferies, who was born in St Teath in 1626. She unfortunately came to the attention of the Justice of the Peace in Cornwall as a result of her claims that she had travelled to magical lands populated by little people, fairies and the like. She then claimed to have been given the power of clairvoyance and healing.
www.sacred-texts.com
Incarcerated in Bodmin for witchcraft, she was sentenced to three months and was kept without food or water. This was then followed by a further three months incarceration without food and water, in the mayor's house. Amazingly, in both instances, she not only survived, she thrived, even gaining weight, and was released in astonishingly good health. She claimed it was because the fairies had kept her fed and watered. She went on to marry and move to Devon, but she kept very quiet about the fairies and the magical lands she had visited. After all, it wouldn't do to tempt fate twice, would it?
One day, I, or a friend of mine, will tell you the moving tale of Joan Wytte, the Fighting Fairy Woman of Bodmin who was also incarcerated here. You may have seen an image of her and a fleeting mention in my blog on Boscastle
But her story deserves a blog post on its own - and so it shall be. One day... Find out more about Bodmin Jail here Bodmin Jail was the subject of a Most Haunted. I know I would be failing in my duty if I didn't leave you with an Yvette Fielding screamfest. Enjoy:
