https://www.eastanglianwitchproject.co.uk/blog daily 1.0 2026-03-15 https://www.eastanglianwitchproject.co.uk/blog/qirwtxuf9pn1dipw0br8v12k5ohhjw monthly 0.5 2026-02-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/c142340a-775f-40d0-8199-a696a6003596/48518931307_64b3775e76_z.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Suffolk’s Child-Witch - Pictured: St Mary’s Church, Rougham, which the Rattlesden Boy and his mother would have attended The Rattlesden Boy was originally from Rougham near Bury St Edmunds. It is likely his mother, name not recorded, was first to be suspected of witchcraft and that her young son came under scrutiny through association. However, the timeline is unclear as to which was suspected first. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/01303948-ac08-4dd6-a351-ff68a2bb205b/4505486_2ee709e3.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Suffolk’s Child-Witch - Pictured: the Moot Hall, Rattlesden, where John Stearne may have interrogated suspects on his visits in 1645 and 1646 The Boy confessed to witchcraft again and that the Devil appeared to him “in the likenesse of a black browne Mare, and would carrie him whither hee desired” — a terrified child’s fantasy of freedom and safety somewhere far, far away. The child was held in the Bury St Edmund’s gaol to await his trial. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/e996048f-1b65-49c6-865a-91d85222acff/IMG_4828.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Suffolk’s Child-Witch - Pictured: recreation of a seventeenth-century gaol similar to the one at Bury St Edmunds, at Colchester Castle The panicked gaoler saw the Boy as an opportunity to discover where the man had gone. The gaoler interrogated him and made “threatening speeches”. The frightened Boy showed them where the prisoner had made his escape and said that he had gone home to his wife. The Boy further claimed that the man had escaped on the Boy’s devil-mare. No one seems to have questioned why the Boy would not have used the mare to flee himself. The escaped prisoner was found at his wife’s home and taken back to gaol. https://www.eastanglianwitchproject.co.uk/blog/witches-gender-amp-sexuality monthly 0.5 2026-02-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/c8ba92b1-3dad-48f7-b187-6f0438b54524/CrossedLines2-1024x747.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Witches, Gender, & the Family - Pictured: woodcut depicting male and female witches The first ‘witches’ convicted in the East Anglian trials at Chelmsford in July 1645 had all been women. But once John Stearne and Matthew Hopkins entered Suffolk that same summer, they began investigating male suspects. Of the 133 accused Suffolk witches whose sex is known, 21 were men, or 16% — a minority, but not an incidental number. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/ee0afa6a-99f3-4a52-96b3-40123d6a5405/3819280566-3a9605479f-z_orig.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Witches, Gender, & the Family - Pictured: woodcut of a male witch trampling the cross Worse, Lowes had transgressed the expectations of his role as a spiritual patriarch. Lowes was meant to be his congregation’s symbolic father and connection to God the Father. Yet rather than guide his flock, he had bewitched them and jeopardized their very souls. In early modern English society where the patriarch was the ultimate figure of authority, this was a shocking and horrific insinuation. It is also worth remembering that Lowes’ conviction coincided with the ongoing First English Civil War, with Parliament risen against Charles I ,and the conflict’s larger questions of what it meant for a man to be a leader versus a tyrant. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/2de367d0-c260-49c5-830a-959341f09510/Feeding_demonic_imps.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Witches, Gender, & the Family - Pictured: woodcut of female witch feeding imps Witches were thought to feed their blood to imps, or demons, that took on the shape of small domestic animals or vermin. As described in John Stearne’s A Confirmation, female witches regularly referred to their imps as their children, and the nursing of imps can be understood as a perversion of a mother breastfeeding her infant milk. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/95645586-ab4a-4546-addd-382be0a17d11/Essex_Witches_featuring_Joan_Prentis_1589.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Witches, Gender, & the Family - Pictured: woodcut of female witch nursing and tending to imps while three witches hang Bysack’s ritual of leaving his bed in the middle of the night to nurse his imps by the fire is reminiscent of a mother waking at night to tend to her hungry infant. The twenty-year relationship between Bysack and his familiars suggests both a physical intimacy through the act of suckling and an emotional bond through the recognition of each imp as an individual. The relationship was built on Bysack’s ability to feed the imps blood in the same way a child-mother relationship centred on the mother’s provision of milk. Bysack’s fate is unclear. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/aee162ac-be24-4475-8677-fdf45906e980/file.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Witches, Gender, & the Family - Pictured: woodcut depicting male and female witches with demons Alexander Sussums of Long Melford, a former acquaintance of John Stearne, confessed to feeding imps and requested for Stearne to search him. When Devil’s marks were found on Sussums, he claimed he could not help being a witch because his mother, aunt, grandmother, and other ‘kin’ had all been witches. It is notable he does not mention any male relatives who were witches. Sussums was ultimately not charged, to Stearne’s dismay. https://www.eastanglianwitchproject.co.uk/blog/djr87tcwpldqqkipsotzhi1o8dqqup monthly 0.5 2026-02-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/04b42614-d3d1-4cf5-ae75-51f2c266a173/All_Saints_Church%2C_Brandeston_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1424549.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - The Witch-Priest of Brandeston - John Lowes had been the vicar of All Saints’ Church in Brandeston (pictured) for nearly 50 years by 1645. He was a controversial man, known to berate his congregation from the pulpit, to take his neighbours to court, and even to physically fight his parishioners in the church yard. In one incident, he beat a man with a cudgel so that “the bloude did gushe and rune out of his nose and heade”. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/058cc77f-2997-4dc2-aa40-02ad7b8b32df/framlingham-castle-880x628.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - The Witch-Priest of Brandeston - Lowes, in his seventies or eighties, was imprisoned at Framlingham (pictured). He was deprived sleep and forcefully searched for devil’s marks on his body. He was made to walk about the room to prevent his falling asleep. It is unknown how long he was subjected to this. He was then swum, possibly in the castle’s moat. Eventually, he confessed. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/25e9f359-9876-4f6b-9cf2-6d139f93663c/fort-site-VIP-tour-1.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - The Witch-Priest of Brandeston - Lowes claimed he had sent imps to sink a ship passing by Landguard Fort (pictured) and that in fifteen minutes, he had made fourteen widows. Lowes was viewed as a particularly powerful and evil witch, because he had deceived the world into believing he was a Godly minister and had jeopardized the salvation of his entire congregation for decades. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/ebc466a0-d3f6-4325-9916-d5f7519846a7/237497337_36a37b0c-a3e6-4d8a-a4d6-1f96f865c0ff+%281%29.jpeg East Anglian Witch Project - The Witch-Priest of Brandeston - Today, Lowes’s hanging body is featured on the Brandeston town sign and there is a commemorative plaque to him at All Saints. https://www.eastanglianwitchproject.co.uk/blog/ay4fq5busd0boazosol908wawc3icg monthly 0.5 2026-01-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/da83e0eb-45be-46f1-9814-fbc863763ee8/All_Saints_church%2C_Lawshall%2C_Suffolk_-_geograph.org.uk_-_180804.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - The Forgotten Witchfinder Pictured: All Saints at Lawshall. John Stearne was a wealthy landowner, self described as a “plaine country man”, presumed to have been born around 1610 and in his mid thirties in 1645. He was from Suffolk, possibly born in Long Melford, but by 1645 split his time between his family residence in Lawshall near Bury St Edmunds and in Manningtree where he owned a house. His wife Agnes remained at Lawshall with their first child, a girl who had been baptized in 1644. His writing in A Confirmation suggests he was educated to some degree. and that he held a strong Puritan conviction. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/1767898536384-A9OC7WU7LOLSZ5C1M2W3/81J1WR931ML._AC_UF894%2C1000_QL80_.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - The Forgotten Witchfinder - Pictured: colourized image of Stearne’s colleague Matthew Hopkins interrogating Elizabeth Clarke and another witch. Hopkins claimed all the credit for “discovering” Clarke in his The Discovery of Witches with no direct mention of Stearne. No contemporary image of John Stearne exists. Stearne in A Confirmation regretfully does not explain why he became involved in witch-hunting, only noting that he was in Manningtree at the time the first suspected witch, Elizabeth Clarke, was being questioned. He stated he was one of a group of concerned townspeople who caused her to be questioned and that, at the insistence of the townspeople and with authorization from the local magistrates, he was put in charge of Clarke’s investigation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/7450bc6b-07ec-4d41-bde9-9cd2ffcfa43b/out.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - The Forgotten Witchfinder - Pictured: front piece of A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft His demonology, A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft, was published in 1648 as a defence of his witchfinding. By that point, mounting criticism had forced him to retire from witchfinding and Hopkins was dead from tuberculosis. A Confirmation was his attempt to show he had acted within the law, using (what he considered to be) established methodology, and that everything he had done was for the good of England. The text has a strong element of Stearne’s self-importance as he positions himself as a hero wrongfully condemned by critics when he should be praised for the good work he had done in ridding the countryside of evil. Stearne likely truly believed he had done a heroic, godly service for his community, which left him all the more embittered by the perceived ingratitude. https://www.eastanglianwitchproject.co.uk/blog/s0dguxnsyylra6aznjbfr7qjju04p1 monthly 0.5 2026-01-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/44ea2768-d0bc-49cb-9ebb-d8a39fd00acd/w1.png East Anglian Witch Project - The Witchfinder General - This is partially due to his popular portrayal by Vincent Price in the heavily fictionalized film Witchfinder General (pictured). The waters are further muddied by a sensational ‘biography’ written by Richard Deacon that was allegedly based on a secret document Deacon discovered, but has since been proven to be a hoax and all of Deacon’s fanciful claims of Hopkins' being a Civil War spy and faking his death to flee to America entirely untrue. But even during Hopkins’ lifetime and not long after his death, he was seen as an infamous and shadowy figure rumoured to be in the Devil’s service or to have been executed as a witch. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/6006ae05-1dcd-4774-8033-5297d88932be/St._John%27s_church%2C_Great_Wenham%2C_Suffolk_-_geograph.org.uk_-_213446.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - The Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins grew up near his father’s church, St John’s in Great Wenham (pictured). James Hopkins was friends with John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts who desired to create a Puritan haven in the ‘New World’. In a letter to Winthrop, Hopkins lamented the “heathens” and “papists” that had infected England and expressed his desire to relocate with his family to Massachusetts. That he would risk the danger of the long crossing and resettlement indicates his strong faith. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/528aed11-bc1d-48fa-9349-33a56caccf97/8688744562_53599b3623_b.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - The Witchfinder General - Marie Hopkins remarried Thomas Witham, rector of Mistley and Manningtree, and moved with the teenaged Matthew to a house near Mistley’s parish church. The marriage caused Matthew to gain several step-siblings, including Susan Witham, who became Susan Edwards when she married the local chief constable and wealthy landowner Richard Edwards. Pictured: the rebuilt St Michael’s in Mistley. Not the original building that Thomas Witham preached at, but built near the original site. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/cb226161-5be5-4760-b2bf-66996016032f/discoveryofwitches_3+%281%29.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - The Witchfinder General - Pictured: woodcut from Matthew Hopkins’ The Discovery of Witches (1647) depicting him as the “Witch Finder Generall” with Elizabeth Clarke and another witch Witchfinding offered Matthew Hopkins a new identity as a heroic witch-hunter battling, and winning, against the Devil’s army of witches. He need no longer cling to the coats of more powerful men but was worthy of respect and praise in his own right. It may have made him feel closer to his father as both men had believed themselves to be doing God’s work. He may also have known his time was short: he would die of tuberculosis in 1647, and it is possible he had already begun to feel the effects of it in 1645, and was desperate to leave his mark upon the world and prove he had earned his place in heaven. As such, Hopkins did not return home with his step-sister Susan once the Manningtree coven were dead: he rode on to find and destroy evil throughout East Anglia. https://www.eastanglianwitchproject.co.uk/blog/the-essex-women monthly 0.5 2025-12-17 https://www.eastanglianwitchproject.co.uk/blog/chelmsford-trials-and-executions monthly 0.5 2025-12-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/41d4a785-7be8-4d06-8408-00635130745d/1-Walker-Map-Extract4.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Chelmsford: Trials and Executions - This 1591 map depicts the Chelmsford Cathedral and below it the town square including the Shire House where the witches were imprisoned and tried. It is unknown exactly where the executions took place. There is today an interpretive plaque located in Admirals Park in memory of the executed. The women were likely buried near the place of execution in unmarked graves. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/7c9b92da-57b1-4d1f-9f34-2dc3acb8bce9/_124216021_5817732_e52316c0_original.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Chelmsford: Trials and Executions - Most of the original buildings no longer exist, but the town square layout is still the same. The Shire Hall that stands today (pictured) is not the original building, but was built in 1791 near the original Shire House. It is no longer in use. Crowds would have gathered in the market to try to catch a glimpse of the witches. Trials and executions were a form of public entertainment, and a mass trial of witches would have drawn particular excitement. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/79bfa06d-7335-4f38-a64e-e7140014bf62/Chelmsford_Cathedral_Exterior%2C_Essex%2C_UK_-_Diliff.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Chelmsford: Trials and Executions - The current exterior of Chelmsford Cathedral is a mixture of medieval and Victorian architecture. While not directly tied to the trials, it towered over the square and would have been one of the last sights the women saw on their way to the gallows. One woman marked for execution, Margaret Moone, collapsed and died before reaching the execution site, probably from fear. Her condition was presumably worsened by the jeering crowd. https://www.eastanglianwitchproject.co.uk/blog/essex1 monthly 0.5 2025-12-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/50c45fc6-e562-496e-8f75-99cee6229253/67ff744d2640e612044627c4_Walton+Tendring+Witch+Heritage+Trail+TDC+April+25.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Essex Hunting Grounds Today there is a commemorative bench and signpost dedicated to Margaret Moone and the other Sokens accused at Walton-on-the-Naze, part of the Tendring Witch Heritage Trail. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/6aa903b9-a03c-4c92-90cc-d97f03bf7f16/Untitled.png East Anglian Witch Project - Essex Hunting Grounds Today there is a commemorative bench and signpost in St Oysth dedicated to Ursula Kempe and the others accused, part of the Tendring Witch Heritage Trail. https://www.eastanglianwitchproject.co.uk/blog/grimstonandbowes monthly 0.5 2026-01-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/d8e9a852-46d4-4c7d-b8ac-e01736462c13/bowes.png East Anglian Witch Project - Witch-Hunting Magistrates - Sir Thomas Bowes (pictured) was younger than Grimston at around forty years old in 1645. Bowes was also wealthy and had connections to other rich and respectable families in the county. He was a Presybterian and lived at Great Bromley Hall near Manningtree. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/9a861531-4206-4ca9-aad9-bfe68f15448a/the-old-church-opposite.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Witch-Hunting Magistrates Grimston died in 1648. He is buried at St Lawrence’s Church, Bradfield (pictured). Bowes continued to fulfil his civic duty as a magistrate for years to come. https://www.eastanglianwitchproject.co.uk/blog/colchester2 monthly 0.5 2026-01-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/6de00f5d-7f3f-4ac1-be9c-d0d4388d69c4/IMG_2786.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Colchester - Colchester Castle The thirty-six women who were tried for witchcraft at the Chelmsford Assizes in July 1645 were held in the castle gaol beforehand. See here for more information on the castle and the witch trials. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/4d0b29d6-594d-4a92-a7e5-a73e63d4f993/IMG_2834.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Colchester - Churches Pictured: Holy Trinity Church The accused witch Alice Stansby was from St Giles parish. Two local women who body-searched her and testified she had Devil’s marks were from the Holy Trinity and St Botolph’s parishes. The three sites still stand in some form to this day. St Giles was consecrated in 1211 and used for centuries as a place of worship, but is today a Masonic centre. Colchester’s oldest still standing building, Holy Trinity Church as it appears today is a combination of Roman, Saxon, medieval, and Victorian architecture. There is a memorial within to the Elizabethan scientist and physician William Gilberd. The church was under renovation and not open to the public at the time of publishing. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/16b8adfe-fdd4-455e-b1c0-63253d60493a/IMG_2884.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Colchester St Botolph’s Priory was founded circa 1100 and was one of the first Augustinian religious houses. It was dissolved in 1536 but remained in operation as a parish church. The priory was reduced to ruins during the siege of Colchester in 1648 as part of the Second English Civil War. It was used as a burial ground in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/973b5d29-192a-41b3-82b0-4d65566b771c/IMG_2853.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Colchester - The Dutch Quarter This residential area was the home of Flemish refugees fleeing religious persecution in the sixteenth-century. The Dutch residents were renowned for their skill with cloth-production. The author Richard Deacon wrote a fanciful “biography” of Matthew Hopkins that included a number of unsubstantiated claims about the witchfinder, including that he was descended from Dutch Huguenot immigrants. Like most of the claims in Deacon’s book, there is no evidence for this, but it is still a commonly repeated myth. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/a9397509-a7a3-4d53-ab0f-0455cdbac01e/IMG_2893.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Colchester - St. John’s Abbey Gate This gatehouse is all that remains of the Benedictine St. John’s Abbey. The abbey was founded in 1095 and the gatehouse was built around 1400. St. John’s initially refused to surrender during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, but submitted after the abbot’s execution. It became a family estate and was the birthplace of the writer Margaret Cavendish in 1623. The site was heavily damaged in the siege of Colchester in 1648 with the gatehouse stormed by Parliamentarian forces. The main abbey fell into decay and was demolished, leaving only the gatehouse. https://www.eastanglianwitchproject.co.uk/blog/colchester1 monthly 0.5 2026-01-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/326531e3-af95-4668-a987-9b5f172621ab/IMG_4828.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Colchester Castle: The Witches’ Prison - Recreation of a seventeenth-century cell at the Colchester Castle museum. Conditions in the gaol were dire. Part of the roof had collapsed a decade prior and exposed prisoners to the elements. Male and female prisoners were separated into two cells and kept shackled. They slept on straw or bare stone. Food was poor and basic cleanliness impossible. Many prisoners, including some of the women accused as witches, died of exposure, malnutrition, or disease. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/a3e40d74-1c6c-4f39-a59a-c381bd3b04b5/IMG_4829.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Colchester Castle: The Witches’ Prison - Display from Colchester Castle museum imagining the interrogation of Rebecca West (centre) by Hopkins (left) and a female searcher (right). Rebecca had already confessed and accused her mother, Anne, of witchcraft —Hopkins saw her as a weak point by which he might unmask the Manningtree “coven”. Hopkins isolated Rebecca from the other women and coerced a more elaborate confession from her. Rebecca now accused the other imprisoned Manningtree women of being witches and, shockingly, claimed she was married to the Devil. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/c3f9e835-a655-49cb-80d8-ffee1d0ae515/IMG_2789.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Colchester Castle: The Witches’ Prison Colchester Castle’s original interior does not survive and has instead been converted into a modern museum dedicated to the town’s history. The collection includes Celtic coin hoards, Roman artifacts, medieval paintings, and civil war armour. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/794cd074-194c-4aea-b0a1-f7f2fa11ac1d/IMG_4827.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Colchester Castle: The Witches’ Prison - The museum includes a section on the East Anglian witch trials (1645-47). There are information displays, a recreation of the cell the women would have been held in, and a creative dramatization of Rebecca West’s interrogation using shadow figures. Some of the museum’s information is slightly misleading. The display text pictured right implies Hopkins was personally responsible for the estimated 100 executions, when he was one of several witchfinders, albeit the most well-known today. Narration also states Rebecca West was a teenager, a common assumption in histories of the trials, but my own research would suggest she was slightly older in her early to mid-twenties. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/3cad27c5-452e-401b-94aa-b5aed1315c26/IMG_4825.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Colchester Castle: The Witches’ Prison - If you take the Roman Vaults and Castle Roof tour, ask to be shown the “witch’s mark” on the staircase. This witch’s mark is different from the one said to be found on witches’ bodies. This was a protective symbol carved into buildings to ward off evil. It’s exact date of creation is unknown, but my tour guide suggested it may have been carved in 1645 as a defence against any evil the thirty-six imprisoned witches might have brought with them. This witch’s mark is not on general public display and can only be seen on the Roman Vaults and Castle Rooftop tour. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/956deea6-cf55-45c8-90bb-09b361c4b12c/IMG_2792+-+Edited.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Colchester Castle: The Witches’ Prison A plaque was unveiled in 2018 remembering the women and men who had been accused of witchcraft in Essex in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A bouquet of flowers had been left at the memorial. The plaque is located in front of the castle. https://www.eastanglianwitchproject.co.uk/blog/manningtree3 monthly 0.5 2026-01-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/0914824f-1c94-4dc9-8f6f-493bafc062c2/IMG_2717.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Manningtree - Town Sign The Manningtree town sign features various images associated with the town’s history, including an engraving of Matthew Hopkins (top off-centre). Hopkins was one of the main proponents of the East Anglia witch trials and would be remembered in infamy as the ‘Witchfinder General’. Hopkins moved to Mistley (adjacent to Manningtree) as a teenager upon his mother’s remarriage. Hopkins was involved in the questioning of the first suspected witch, Elizabeth Clarke, in March 1645. He would go on to pursue alleged witches across East Anglia. Located across from Kiln Lane Car Park. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/f8b3f103-bdb0-4d0f-af93-4411c499bcef/IMG_2703.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Manningtree - Elizabeth Clarke Memorial This commemorative bench was unveiled in 2025 as part of the Tendring Witch Heritage Trail. It depicts the kitchen and imps (demon servants) of Elizabeth Clarke, the first woman to be accused of witchcraft in Manningtree in March 1645. Elizabeth was a thirty-nine year old disabled and poor woman with a young illegitimate daughter. She confessed after harsh interrogation that would be considered torture today. She was executed in July 1645 at Chelmsford. The memorial bench is accompanied by an information board and AR experience using the Zappar mobile app. Located in front of Kiln Lane Car Park. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/2b8d0056-d226-494e-9591-b84f52d4f4f9/IMG_2737.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Manningtree - Victims Plaque Plaque commemorating the local women who were executed for witchcraft in 1645. Nineteen Essex women in total were executed as part of the July 1645 Chelmsford trials — fifteen at Chelmsford (including Elizabeth Clarke) on July 18 and four at Manningtree on August 1. Located on the corner of High St and South St, beneath the ‘Manningtree Ox’ art installation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/24b72037-9694-4a31-b7b9-fd26f6c22c8a/IMG_2768.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Manningtree - No. 42a High Street (Former Site of the Church of St. Michael and All Angels) The church was built in 1616 and served as a place of worship for both accused witches and witchfinders in March 1645. Today, all that remains is the west wall and buttress, which has a plaque affixed to it. Located at 42a High St, across from Lucca Italian restaurant. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/5de9f2c9-b09f-4593-8448-f028cfc5ef22/IMG_1755.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Manningtree - Photo of Church of St. Michael and All Angels, 1910, from the Manningtree Museum. The church was torn down in 1966. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/ed5c2828-a3a7-453b-94ae-1f6b263a15ea/IMG_2740.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Manningtree - Manningtree Museum The Manningtree Museum is located inside the Manningtree Library. It is a small, but well-researched museum and features displays related to the town’s history. Visit the museum’s website for information about their opening times and displays. Located on the High Street. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/313db8ef-a455-4add-9c20-e63cc37dd530/IMG_2732.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Manningtree - Village Green (Possible Execution Site) No one knows exactly where the four women executed in Manningtree on August 1 1645 were hanged, but Alison Rowlands of the University of Essex has speculated the village green may have served as the execution site due to it’s central location. The women may have also been buried nearby. Located on South Street near The Red Lion pub. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/6691659b-7f83-4b0d-a6b7-62973e098bad/IMG_2728.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Manningtree - The Red Lion The Red Lion is Manningtree’s oldest remaining pub, having been established in 1605. It is one of a few pubs in the area that have claimed to be directly linked to Matthew Hopkins or the witch trials, with the Red Lion claiming that Elizabeth Clarke was arrested there, but this is more of a local legend than it is supported by historical evidence. It would have been standing in March 1645 as the initial investigations began in Manningtree, but we cannot be certain if or in what capacity it was frequented by those involved in the witch-hunt. Located at 42 South Street. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/e2118d19-cfcc-4cf7-ab63-a754547faf39/IMG_2693.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Manningtree - Mistley Heath Matthew Hopkins moved to Mistley when his mother remarried to the Mistley rector, Thomas Witham. As a teenager he lived in the parsonage near the Mistley Heath church along with his new step-family. This included a step-sister, Susan Witham, who would marry Richard Edwards, the Chief Constable of the Tendring Husband. Susan and her husband Richard had three or four children die within five years, a tragedy that left the grief-stricken parents convinced someone in Manningtree must be to blame for their misfortune. Susan and Richard Edwards, along with others in Manningtree including John Rivet, accused Elizabeth Clarke (and later other women) of bewitching their loved ones. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/0ffa1dee-02d3-4551-b517-4740db249f78/IMG_2694.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Manningtree - This means that Matthew Hopkins had a vested interest in Elizabeth Clarke’s interrogation because he believed that she had cursed his step-sister Susan’s family. His fascination with witchcraft would soon go beyond protecting his kin to hunting for witches far beyond Manningtree over the next two years. Hopkins returned to Manningtree in 1647. By this time, he was dying of tuberculosis. He was buried in August 1647 in the Mistley Heath church’s graveyard. He was around twenty-seven years old. There is a popular legend that Hopkins was ‘swum’ or executed as a witch, but this is not true. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/39f1b8ab-63dd-4a8b-97f9-96e51c27146b/IMG_2678.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Manningtree - The Mistley Heath church no longer exists. The St. Mary & St. Michael’s church that can currently be found on Mistley Heath is not the original church. It is unknown exactly where on the heath Hopkins is buried. His grave, like those of his victims, has been lost. Old Knobbley (pictured) is an ancient oak tree estimated to be eight hundred years old. It would have been familiar to Hopkins who lived nearby and to the Manningtree and Mistley women who were accused of being witches in a coven. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/f5cf667d-733e-49b1-adff-b2813c1dcf9a/IMG_2689.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Manningtree - When the witchfinder John Stearne was considering whether or not to have Elizabeth Clarke ‘swum’ as a witch, he may have been considering doing so in one of the nearby bodies of water such as Gamekeeper’s Pond. Local legend has it that Gamekeeper’s Pond is haunted by Matthew Hopkins. Voices do carry over the water in an eerie way. Mistley Heath is approximately ten minutes from Mistley train station, and then a further ten to fifteen minutes to reach Old Knobbley and then the Gamekeeper’s Pond. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/16380d79-6566-472e-aebc-79cbfb98020e/IMG_2653.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Manningtree - The Mistley Thorn Another pub that local legend has connected to the witch-hunt, The Mistley Thorn claims that The Thorn Inn which previously stood on the site was once owned by Matthew Hopkins, but there is no evidence to prove this. A plaque about Hopkins is located on the building’s side. Located on the High St in Mistley about two minutes walk to the left of Mistley train station. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/04e3a58b-3166-4e9b-9f06-b3b26a298a57/IMG_2743.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Manningtree - St Mary’s Church St Mary’s at Lawford was the site of a shocking scene in February 1645 when five-months pregnant Prudence Hart left the service early due to severe abdominal pain. She collapsed on the half-mile walk home and had a stillbirth. Prudence blamed Anne and Rebecca West for the loss. The rector of St. Mary’s, John Edes, interrogated Rebecca West and coerced her into confessing that both she and her mother were witches who plotted against Prudence Hart and her husband. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f8fb37ab212c6caa485f63/59b3f46e-91b8-4bc0-927f-2c8d98854666/IMG_2752.jpg East Anglian Witch Project - Visit Manningtree Anne West was executed at Manningtree on August 1 1645. Rebecca West was not made to plea on account of her turning prosecution witness. It is unknown what happened to her. The church features a sign near the door explaining the church’s history, but it mistakenly refers to eight women being executed as witches in the July 1645 Chelmsford trials — the correct total is nineteen executed, fifteen at Chelmsford and four at Manningtree. Located at the top of Church Hill, Lawford, approximately ten minutes walk from Church Hill bus station. 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