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Episode 48: Witchy Destinations in the UK
438 Plays2 years ago
Welcome back Witches! We're taking you on a trip to the UK this week to discuss a couple of witchy destinations. So get in losers, and lets travel to Cornwall and the Peak District.
We would be forever thankful if you left our podcast a 5-Star review. If you really loved the show and want more Get in Loser content, check out our Supercast & Buy Me a Coffee links below. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @GetinWitches, on TikTok @weredoingwitchcraft or email us at weredoingwitchcraft@gmail.com. You can support our show through our
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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio- The Witch
- Wikipedia. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Gawain_and_the_Green_Knight
- Wikipedia. The Peak District. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_District
- The Peak District Myths and Legends. https://www.peakdistrictonline.co.uk/myths-and-legends/
- The Peak District Fairies. https://www.peakdistrictonline.co.uk/fairy-stories-of-the-peak-district/
- Lockie, Rosemary (2001). The Bakewell Witches. https://places.wishful-thinking.org.uk/DBY/Bakewell/Witches.html
- Sherwood Forest. https://www.visitsherwood.co.uk/about-sherwood-forest/
- Notman, Kathrerine (2023). 15 beautiful places to visit in the peak district if you’re looking to get out of london. https://secretldn.com/places-to-visit-peak-district/
- The Cornwall Guide. King Arthur. (2022). https://www.cornwalls.co.uk/myths-legends/king_arthur.htm
- The Bodmin Witch Hunt. http://www.freemanart.ca/ghost_bodmin_witchcraft.htm
- Mack, Georgie. Discovering the Legend of King Arthur in Cornwall. https://rachelsruminations.com/king-arthur-in-cornwall/
- Wikipedia. Cornwall. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornwall
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Do you feel drawn to learn more about witchcraft in the occult but feel lost somewhere to start? Then welcome to Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft, a podcast all about what it means to be a witch and where to get started on your journey. Join us as we navigate through various witchy topics and share what we have learned about the craft. So get in witches for a journey to Cornwall and the Peak District in England.
Witchcraft Locations in England
00:00:43
Speaker
What are we talking about today? We're talking about my favorite places! I mean there's so many other like witchy destinations in England and just in the UK in general and this is like just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to some of these places.
00:01:02
Speaker
We'll do more like witchy locations because I feel like just England itself is a mass of hauntings and witchcraft and it's such a magical place. So, but yeah, we're talking about Cornwall and the Peak District and I love it. And I, have you been to either of these? I've been to both places. Have you? Okay. I was going to say I haven't been to any of them.
00:01:26
Speaker
So for me, for my portion on Cornwall, I started off with kind of looking up a little bit about Cornwall to share. So if there's anything that you think of to share at any point in time about this, like please jump in because I am definitely not the expert because I've never even been there. Yeah. And I'm definitely not the expert either, but it's beautiful. I love
00:01:50
Speaker
I love that area. The only thing that sucked about going to Cornwall or just a lot of places in England, I feel like as an American, when we drive and we go on a road trip or something somewhere, 10 hours in the car, that's not that bad. You know what I mean? We could do that in a day. In England, it is a whole nother beast. I wonder if it's the same in Germany, but in England, it was like
00:02:16
Speaker
Like from our house to Cornwall, I think it was like maybe five, six hours or something like that in the car, which that doesn't, we used to drive that on a weekend all the time to see Mike's mom in Alabama. It like takes this wind right out of you. Like it's only part of its highway. Then the other part is like windy roads and like, there's always traffic. It's just.
00:02:41
Speaker
it takes forever to get here. We always thought it was funny because, you know, in the States, like you said, we'll road trip all the time. And it'll be like, I mean, we go back to Arizona or we have been going back to Arizona every year for Thanksgiving. And that's like a 22 hour drive for us. Yeah. We just like drive, stay the night somewhere, drive, you know, like until we get there kind of thing. It's fine. Or, you know, we'll drive like a 10 hour or a 12 hour drive somewhere.
00:03:09
Speaker
When we were in Germany, we were planning the trip. We were like, oh my gosh, let's go to Rome. Let's drive to Rome, go do this, and then leave Rome, go to Venice, take a whole little detour. When we said we were going to drive, people thought we were insane out there. All of our German friends were like, you're going to drive 12 hours? Yeah.
00:03:28
Speaker
like, what's wrong with that? They're like, just all at one time, you're not going to stop and stay somewhere. And we're like, it's just 12 half works. Right. They thought we were insane. I probably would think you're insane now. We do that kind of stuff all the time. I don't mind, like, here's my thing. When it comes to road trips, like, I want to, like, if I'm driving six hours to go somewhere, I want to stay there at least three days before I have to get back in the car. And so, like,
00:03:58
Speaker
It was so hard for me sometimes like, because we would make plans to go for a weekend trip on the coast somewhere and I'm like, Oh God, we only have like one and a half days before we have to get back in the car and drive home. Like I'm kind of
00:04:17
Speaker
a baby when it comes to car trips. I'm not a huge fan of the car because I get cars that go like, so I can't read in the car. And then I'll have anxiety about like, I'm afraid if I fall asleep in the car, we're going to get into a wreck. So I can't even sleep in the car either. So I'm just like, Oh my gosh, no. Immediately I get in the car and I'm like, I'm taking that bib and he's like, okay, whatever. He puts on an audio book. I can't, I can't sleep in the car unless I'm completely overly tired and I just pass out. I can't sleep in the car.
00:04:47
Speaker
Oh my gosh. I have, yeah, it's a whole long story, but I have trauma associated with sleeping in the car and almost getting into a wreck and now I can't anymore. I literally can't. Every time I close my eyes, I think we're about to get into a wreck. Oh my lord. Anyway, all that to say, it, horrible is beautiful. Yeah. Only went there once because it was such a long drive to get there from where we lived. Okay.
Cornwall's Witchcraft History
00:05:11
Speaker
Well, to kind of get a picture of Cornwall, I went to the trusty old Wikipedia page because you know they have everything on there. According to Wikipedia, Cornwall is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England that is recognized as one of the Celtic nations. It's a peninsula that is bordered by the English Channel, the Atlantic Ocean and the County of Devon.
00:05:38
Speaker
and its population is just shy of 570,000 people. Records for the inhabitants of Cornwall go as far back as the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods, and it was later inhabited by the Celtic people during the British Iron Age. In the high Middle Ages, 10 mining was important in Cornwall, and this later expanded into copper mining in the 19th century.
00:06:04
Speaker
And as production declined, Cornwall's mining was basically no more by the 1990s. And throughout history, Cornwall has ties to witchcraft and magic, of course, the dreaded witch hunts and trials, and legends and lore that make this location the perfect place for some witchy exploration. And so where Sam went wrong on this one is she let me do this location, which covers Arthurian legend, which we have talked about on the podcast before already.
00:06:32
Speaker
but only like for the most part I think we only covered like Avalon itself so I didn't cover a lot of Avalon in this part just because we've already kind of done that. But I love King Arthur and all the legends and stories surrounding it so I hope you guys are ready to buckle your seatbelts and listen to all of this. So Arthurian lore and legend
00:06:58
Speaker
Like when we talk about this, you have to keep in mind that everything here is rooted in legend, and there are so many variations of the lore based on basically who was writing the story. While Cornwall is known for many things, the legends surrounding King Arthur are known worldwide, and while legends and lore are usually rooted in some form of truth, there's no actual evidence pointing at who Arthur truly was. Some theories surrounding Arthur point to the idea that he was a noble champion,
00:07:28
Speaker
a chivalrous knight, or that he was just a guerilla fighter. Other historians believe that he was simply just a fictional character that brought hope in dark times. Legend states that Uther Pendragon fell in love with Duke Gorla of Cornwall's wife, Egerna, and you guys are just going to suffer through these pronunciations with me because there are some wild ones.
00:07:54
Speaker
Basically, he has Merlin disguise him as the Duke one night so that he could sneak into her bedchamber at Tentacle Castle, while the real Duke, Gorwa, is away at battle. The real Duke ends up dying at battle the next day, and Uther quickly proposed and married Igerna. Arthur is believed to be their child. So Arthur's father dies, which is Uther.
00:08:19
Speaker
when he was 15 years old, and at this point in time, Arthur became king. As king, Arthur defeated the Saxons, the Picts, and the Irish while restoring his kingdom, and then went on to conquer Norway and France, defeat a giant, and then defeat his throne-stealing nephew, Mordred, a total of three times, though in the final defeat, upon slaying his nephew, he was mortally wounded with a poisoned spear.
00:08:47
Speaker
King Arthur is also where we get the story of the quest for the Holy Grail, which most of us know. The Holy Grail was said to have been guarded by Joseph of Eromatia's descendants, known as Fisher Kings, in their castle. The knights involved in this particular quest were Sir Galahad, Sir Lancelot, and Sir Percival. This and several other quest adventures and tales of King Arthur and his knights
00:09:14
Speaker
have served as inspiration to poets, authors, musicians, and artists throughout history. And while I absolutely love all the beautiful Arthurian inspired media, my favorite is definitely Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It is so fucking funny if you've never watched it, you're missing out. Since Arthur's death, there have been claims that Arthur leads the wild hunt down King Arthur's lane, stating that his hounds can be heard banging as they run the lane on the winter night. Have you heard that?
00:09:44
Speaker
I have never heard that and I came across this whole like article on how um King Arthur since his death has basically just like done the wild hunt once a year on a cold winter's night down Arthur's lane. And I was like yeah I learned something new it was really interesting it's in our show notes so if anyone wants to read it feel free to
00:10:09
Speaker
But this legend also exists in Wales and parts of France, which I found to be interesting. So it's not just in Cornwall, like there are other places that are like, oh no, this definitely happens. Yeah. Oh, I love that. Right. And then remember how I said that the legend differs depending on who wrote it. According to Joffrey of Monmouth, upon being mortally wounded, Arthur was taken to be healed on the Isle of Avalon.
00:10:36
Speaker
Avalon itself has a wishy-washy background adding to the allure of the legend as well. Some claim that the word Avalon comes from the Old English word avald, which means apple.
00:10:47
Speaker
In Welsh, its name translates to the island of apple trees. Avalon is also associated with Clastonbury, and others believe that the Silly Islands were actually the Isle of Avalon. Some legends believe that King Arthur will return to Cornwall one day through reincarnation, while others say that upon his death he turned into a crow and some say a raven to watch over Cornwall and his lands.
00:11:14
Speaker
The famous roundtable used by King Arthur and his knights is buried under a bossany mound, and it's believed that it will rise from the mound to signal King Arthur's return, but apparently, and I found this hilarious, in the 18th century a man tried to shoot down a raven, and he was scolded by an old man in the town, because the raven could have been King Arthur.
00:11:36
Speaker
Monmouth also connected Arthurian legend to Stonehenge, claiming that the stones were transported magically from Ireland by Merlin himself, and the earliest surviving images of Stonehenge are actually ones of Merlin placing the huge stones in their location. Another Arthurian legend talks about the lost land of Lyonesse, and while there's more than one belief surrounding this lost land, my favorite is that
00:12:02
Speaker
It's a forest that's now submerged underwater and hidden from man. Ooh. Yeah. I found so many different versions of that one. And I am going to talk a little bit more about Lioness when I get into Merlin stories. But I thought that was really cool, just like the fact that it's lost, but they're saying that it's actually just submerged in the water, but you can't see it. Yeah. Because it's hidden from man's eye, essentially. Cornwall still hosts pentacle castles
00:12:32
Speaker
remains along with the cave beneath it that's said to have been Merlin's cave. It is also widely speculated that Merlin haunts the cave to this day, so if you go visit it people have reported seeing Merlin or like crazy things happening like around it. I am disappointed he didn't make himself known to me. How? I've been there. You are him.
00:12:57
Speaker
And of course, we can't discuss King Arthur without at least mentioning Excalibur. So when Arthur was a young boy, he went out to Dawesmary Pool, which is actually more of a natural lake than it is a pool. This is also said to be the location where the famous Lady of the Lake lives and where she was guarding Excalibur for someone worthy enough to wield the sword.
00:13:20
Speaker
After King Arthur's death, Ser Bedivir threw Excalibur back into Tossmary Pool, giving it back to the Lady of the Lake for safekeeping until Arthur's return.
00:13:30
Speaker
So Merlin, who is probably like the most famous wizard in history, goes hand in hand with King Arthur. But his history prior to his ties to Arthur are pretty dark. And I actually didn't know any of this. Like I've never looked into like just Merlin himself outside of the King Arthur's tales.
Arthurian Legends Explored
00:13:51
Speaker
Yeah, me neither. I'm really excited about this. Yeah.
00:13:54
Speaker
So legend states that the devil and his demons were annoyed at God's interference in the way that he would forgive the souls of the people who would repent their evil ways and choose to live a godly life. And this is like back when Christianity was like trying to take over the world essentially. So what they did was they devised a plan to exact revenge on God and his Christian followers through bringing on the birth of the Antichrist. Their plan included a demon
00:14:22
Speaker
impregnating an innocent princess in Wales where the child would be born as the Antichrist. What they didn't anticipate though was that the princess would have the baby baptized immediately after birth and before the devil could pull the baby to the side of evil. Because of its demon heritage, the child was born with magical gifts and the ability to foretell the future and the baby was named Merlin. I never heard that before. I haven't either and part of me wonders if like, because especially if
00:14:53
Speaker
any part of the legends are true and Merlin actually existed. Like is this coming from people who were trying to like make him be like, well, he's this terrible person because he's actually part demon. Like, you know what I mean? Well, so the whole part that I didn't include all of it because this story was really long. Like the article portion of this was so fucking long that I had to just like parrot down
00:15:19
Speaker
as small as I could, because I mean, you know, my notes were really long. So essentially, because he was baptized, he chose to use all of his power for good. So he was never looked at as a bad person or like he was never considered a demon. Okay. Well, and of course, again, the legend differs from writer to writer or media to media. So there are some that do kind of portray him as
00:15:49
Speaker
not being the best person on the planet but for the most part he's not seen as like a anything evil or whatever. Okay so yeah. So going back to Uther, Merlin was said to have seen the future of a hero king and his knights as well as who would birth this hero and this is why Merlin helped disguise Uther to trick Igerna that night.
00:16:16
Speaker
because he had foreseen that it was the two of them that would bring King Arthur into the world. So he basically like saw this future of this hero that was gonna like do all these amazing things. And so he was like, this is kind of sus, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Let's trick her into sleeping with you tonight. She'll be your wife in the future, it's fine. Yeah, it'll all work out. And then I came across this and I thought it was really funny
00:16:45
Speaker
So Merlin was known to be a shapeshifter, sometimes being described as a shadowy and untamable figure, but never keeping one shape for too long. So one of the versions was that he was said to have once shifted into a deer that was basically like hunted and like killed and served to Caesar for dinner.
00:17:09
Speaker
And then after Caesar eats the deer for dinner, Merlin comes back to him that night as a wild man who interprets the Emperor's dreams. And I'm like, hold on. So he died. But then he came back to life after he was eaten. Sounds like a whole bunch of
00:17:33
Speaker
Maybe he like knows that part up and was like, and you know what? I'm like super high. What's dead? And someone 80. Not just anyone, but Caesar. Merlin aided Arthur and his court magically all the time.
00:17:52
Speaker
It's believed that Merlin used his magic to move the round table into place after it was noticed that the size and the structure of the table would not have allowed it to be moved into that room and like set there. Like basically this table, it took six weeks for them to make the round table. And the whole thing behind the round table is that they had to make the table round because at one of the meetings of the nights,
00:18:19
Speaker
Two of them got into a fight over who sat where at the table, like who was more important should have sat in like different order. And so this fight breaks out and then Arthur's like, fuck it, we're making the table round. So it doesn't matter where you sit. So they have this table constructed.
The Legend of Lyonesse
00:18:37
Speaker
Six weeks later, when the table is done, it gets moved into its location, but nobody knows how it got in there. So the idea behind that is that Merlin used his magic to get the table there.
00:18:49
Speaker
And then back to the lost land of Lyoness. So legend has it that during one of the three battles against Mordred and his men, Arthur and his knights had fled to Lyoness with their enemies in pursuit. Once they arrived safely, it's believed that Merlin used his magic to cause the water to come up and swallow Mordred's men whole.
00:19:14
Speaker
But it engulfed Lioness along with them after Arthur and his knights reached safety. And then at that point, now the land is lost. Nobody can find it. So it's this hidden land somewhere under the water. And it could be hidden from men's sight because that's one of the legends. Or it could just be down there and nobody's really looked for it. Or it could not have really existed at all. Who knows?
00:19:41
Speaker
I feel like everything with King Arthur is like, maybe could have, might've been. And then lore surrounding Merlin also ties him to fairies. And it's believed that his demise came at the hands of a fairy that he had become obsessed with. This fairy basically tricks Merlin into revealing all of his knowledge of magic to her. And then she uses one of his own spells to seal him in a stone tomb.
00:20:09
Speaker
though some other like lores say that it was actually an oak tree until the end of time. So that is a long but also small snippet of King Arthur legend from Cornwall.
Witch Hunts in Cornwall
00:20:21
Speaker
So being that this is England, of course there were witch hunts where many people, of course, mostly women were accused of witchcraft. Basically the same story, different location. So I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on this particular piece, but
00:20:37
Speaker
Majority of the accusations made were women accusing other women and oftentimes it was younger women accusing older women. And many accused were those who healed through herbal medicine, which blows my mind. Like, why would you want to rid your village or town or whatever, parish, whatever England called it at the time? Like, why would you want to get rid of your healers? What are you going to do when you're sick or when something happens? I've never understood that.
00:21:07
Speaker
In 1650, a woman who was accused of witchcraft indicated two dozen other supposed witches who were sent to Launston jail for practicing the quote unquote dark arts, and they were held there for trial. 17th century Cornwall then saw approximately a dozen witch trials following these accusations. Because all of the accused witches were held in a single tower,
00:21:34
Speaker
This became known as the Witch Tower, and it was known for its ties to the dark arts and mystical happenings, as well as claims of it being haunted. Another Cornwall parish with a notable dark history for witches is Bodmin Parish. So a young girl named Anne Jefferies lived just outside of Bodmin, and while she was described as being, again, quote unquote, a well-adjusted woman, which is
00:22:03
Speaker
preposterous. I hate that it's always like, it's never like a well-adjusted man. It's always a well-adjusted woman. She basically often suffered from fits, which later, you know, science and medicine
00:22:18
Speaker
found this to be epilepsy but at the time that wasn't a diagnosis so she just had fits. So during Anne's fits she said that fairies would come and take her away to far away magical lands and like basically she would just hang out with them and dance and dine with them and do all this stuff. So that's what like her story was of what was happening to her when she was having fits. She was also said to possess clairvoyant and healing powers and all of this labeled Anne as a witch.
00:22:49
Speaker
Another piece of evidence that was used against her was that to prove that she was being taken to magical lands by fairies, she quit eating human food. Like when she was in the human realm, she just didn't eat because this was going to, to her, prove to everyone else that no, like I'm telling the truth, fairies are taking me away and they're feeding me. So she just like quit eating food.
00:23:13
Speaker
So because she didn't die of starvation, many people believed that the only explanation was that she was definitely a witch and she was communing with the fairy realm, which they referred to as evil spirits. It couldn't possibly be that she had like a cake hidden under her mattress or something. Right? Let me get this. So like she gets arrested and she gets put under house arrest at the mayor's house.
00:23:38
Speaker
The mayor of the town was her jailer in his own house, which I thought was so weird. But because the mayor couldn't find solid evidence that Anne was a witch or that fairies were feeding her or whatever was happening, she was released and she actually lived into her 70s.
00:23:56
Speaker
she wasn't executed like most people would have been. Wow. Yeah, she actually like lived into her 70s and there were like rumors and accusations that still floated around her, but nothing ever like came of it. Bodmin is also home to mini ghosts and hauntings, especially Bodmin jail. But honestly, I feel like majority of these old towns and parishes, especially in like England and
00:24:22
Speaker
just Europe in general, have ghosts in haunted locations like pretty much everywhere. Yeah. Today witchcraft is still very prominent in Cornwall.
Modern Witchcraft in Cornwall
00:24:32
Speaker
There's a plethora of metaphysical shops, tourist destinations, and practitioners keeping the craft very much so alive. So if witchy travel destinations are your thing, you should definitely add Cornwall to the list and I'm sure that you can share places that you went while you were out there. But I just went and looked up a few
00:24:53
Speaker
So one of them is the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic. You can also go to one of Cornwall's many metaphysical shops, like the Spelljar Boutique, Rainbow-Spirited LTD, and TK Emporium. Did you happen to go to any of those? We went to TK Emporium, and then we wanted to go to, or I wanted to go to the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, but it was closed. No! And we were only there for a long weekend, and so I think,
00:25:22
Speaker
if in order to make it work, because Cornwall is such a large area, we would stay like way over here. And then on the last day, we wanted to go to St. Michael's Mount and then hit up the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic. Yeah. And I was like, so lame. You have to go back. Yeah.
00:25:45
Speaker
You can visit King Arthur's birthplace and home at tentacle castle, which is really cool. Oh yeah, it was really cool. The only thing we couldn't see there was, cause this was after there was like a huge windstorm in England and there was some damage done to tend to Joe castle. And so like you couldn't access Merlin's cave, but we could walk past it. And so I have like looking into it, but.
00:26:12
Speaker
We couldn't go into it because it was unsafe. And I was just like, no, you're like, let me be unsafe. It's fine. That whole area is it's so pretty and ancient. And it's a lot of steps. It's a lot of walking. It's definitely if you go.
00:26:29
Speaker
You need to bring like really good walking shoes because when you walk, like when you're done exploring and like you're overly tired, you have to walk up this hill to get up to the top and it's a workout, but it was a workout. You can visit Dullesmary Pool, which is again believed to hold the famous Excalibur and it's guarded in its depths by the Lady of the Lakes.
00:26:58
Speaker
You can go to Bodmin and maybe see the Ghost of Anne Jefferies, which is said to haunt a place, like a building that wasn't even built when she was alive. There's a whole crazy story around her ghost itself. But again, I already had a lot of information on my notes, so I didn't include it. But feel free to look it up.
00:27:21
Speaker
Warden George at the Bodmin jail or Selena Waj, who she was executed apparently for the murder of her illegitimate child. Like she killed her baby. That's terrible. Yeah, she got arrested and went to trial and was executed for it. And she said to haunt Bodmin as well. So yeah.
00:27:42
Speaker
Or you can also do, um, I just added something to the very end of your notes, but St. Michael's Mount, it's a historic castle on an Island just off the coast of Cornwall. And during low tide, you can walk to it. It's really cool. We couldn't go to it because all the tickets were sold out because of COVID like it. Yeah. But anyway, like learn from my, my experience visiting Cornwall. If you go.
00:28:10
Speaker
It is such a large area. Plan it out very well in advance and buy your tickets to things in advance because we really wanted to go to St. Michael's Mount. It was sold out. The witchcraft museum was closed and that would have been the perfect last thing to do before we left.
00:28:27
Speaker
Yeah. But while you are there, you have to try Cornish pasties. Like the whole area of Cornwall is known for these like little, it's kind of like a, I don't know how you would describe it, but it's, it's kind of like a hot pocket, but not like better. And they put like meats, like you can get them, um, like with like chicken or steak or like with potatoes and stuff in it, cheese. Like it is so good.
00:28:56
Speaker
Yeah. So if you go, you have to get a Cornish pastry. And just know that there are so many other things that I could have included in this episode for Cornwall, but I didn't want to be here for seven years because who wants to listen to me talk about Cornwall for seven years? I mean, I would be down. So if any of this interests you, definitely look it up because there is a ton more information that I didn't include on these topics that I did cover.
00:29:24
Speaker
And of course there are so many other like witchy things and legends and lore and hauntings and Cornwall that I could have included if I wanted to be here forever. Yeah. So, but that is Cornwall. Yes. And so let's travel a little bit more East to the Peak District.
Exploring the Peak District
00:29:44
Speaker
I'm excited to learn all about this because I only know that it has the Robin Hood stuff.
00:29:52
Speaker
But I don't know much about it outside of just this is like the Robin Hood legends and more yes Yeah, there's a lot and there's obviously to a lot that I didn't include just because I knew that this was gonna be a really long episode so Wikipedia defines a peak district as an upland area in England at the southern end of the canines and
00:30:13
Speaker
While the name of the Peak District leads people to think that there are many peaks around and like mountains, most of the landscape consists of hills, plateaus, valleys, and limestone forges. It's mostly located in Derbyshire. It extends to Cheshire and Stratfordshire, as well as West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. The Peak District has been inhabited since the Mesolithic era, and evidence has been found from the Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron Ages as well.
00:30:44
Speaker
was originally settled by the Romans and Anglo-Saxons and originally it was settled for agriculture but over the years it saw both mining and quarrying. So as far as like legends lore and magic associated with the Peak District there's a lot there's a lot of myths and legends and I only included some because again like there's just a lot and a lot of it has to do with like ghost stories and I think
00:31:11
Speaker
which was really interesting and I wish I would have known some of this stuff before we went there because it would have been cool to kind of see some of the things that were discussed. One story that I thought was really interesting, it's a story about Winet's Pass. This is located just outside of Castleton in the Peak District and Winet's Pass is said to be haunted by two lovers who tragically lost their lives in the 1700s. The story go, I know it's really bad,
00:31:39
Speaker
The story goes that Alan and Clara were riding to the peak forest to be married at runaway church. And I meant to look up more about runaway church because now I was intrigued because it said it was like infamous. And so this is like a place where people would often like run away to get married and like elope.
00:31:55
Speaker
Yeah, I mean that would make sense so I forgot to go back and and look at it more but on their way they stopped at an end for rest and while they were there a group of miners saw that they had a lot of money with them so when they left the end to continue on their journey the couple were followed by the miners robbed and Murdered and that terrible that is horrible Yeah, their bodies were hidden and they weren't discovered for many years after but
00:32:25
Speaker
Karma always comes back around. Their murders received retribution. One of the murders broke his neck in Winitz. A second was crushed by falling stones. The third committed suicide. The fourth went mad. And the fifth made a dead bed confession to the murders, because it was just he couldn't get over the guilt and the shame and everything associated with the murders.
00:32:52
Speaker
So Clara Saddle is still said to be on display in the Speedwell Cavern at the entrance of the pass, which would have been kind of cool to see. And there's also a tie to King Arthur in the Peak District. So there's a legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight from Arthurian times. And it's linked in the Peak District more specifically in the Stratford Moorlands at an outcrop called the Roaches.
00:33:21
Speaker
So in this story, Sir Gawain accepts a challenge from the Green Knight who challenges him to strike him with an axe if Sir Gawain accepts a return blow in one year and one day. And I never heard of this little story. Apparently it's like a whole thing.
00:33:38
Speaker
And there's a lot to it, but I only included like kind of a little snippet of it, but. Yeah. Um, circle Wayne strikes the green night, which beheads the green night. And instead of dying, the green night just picks up his head and then remind circle Wayne of their agreement. Oh my God. He only agreed to it because he's just like, Oh yeah. I mean, well, I'm going to kill you with this ax. And then, I mean, whatever happens happens.
00:34:05
Speaker
He wasn't expecting him to just pick up his head and be like, remember a year from now. And then just walk away with his head. It just makes him think of in Monty Python when they're trying to get through the forest and the night's like, you can't go bad. He just starts chopping off his lenses.
00:34:23
Speaker
He's like, tis but a flesh wound. I wonder if that's from that. That's what it made me think of. I can't remember. I'm going to have to watch Wine and Python because I can't remember who was with Arthur when he fought him. Yeah, that's hilarious. I need to watch it again, too. But basically, this whole myth or legend surrounding Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, it's a test of Sir Gawain's chivalry and loyalty because he does end up, even though he doesn't want to, he faces
00:34:52
Speaker
the Green Knight a year and a day after that happened. And then one of the most famous legends from the Peak District involves Robin Hood.
Robin Hood and the Peak District
00:35:04
Speaker
So Robin Hood is probably one of England's most famous legends and folk heroes. It is said that Robin Hood and his merry men would defend the rights of the poor and fool the law. It was said he was a frequent visitor of the Derbyshire landscape.
00:35:19
Speaker
And one of his companions was Little John, who was said to be a giant and born in Hathorsage in the Hope Valley and was a nail maker by trade. His grave is still visible today and cared for by the ancient order of the foresters, even though there's actually no definitive proof that Little John actually ever existed. But they do have a grave there that marked that.
00:35:43
Speaker
So maybe it's the same with Arthur. I didn't include any of that in there. There is a grave marker where Arthur supposedly died after that third battle with his nephew. And it's the writing on it is in Latin. And it was always said to have been like Arthur's grave marking. But you know, as as we have like evolved and have learned how to like translate all these things.
00:36:10
Speaker
This one was in Latin. And so when they translated it, it wasn't even like anything about Arthur. I forget exactly what it said, but it was like a whole nother person. It was like George. Yeah. It just leads to that. Like maybe he was a real person. I don't know. Who knows? He might have been, but probably not. But maybe. Yeah, maybe. I mean, this story, like you said, it has to come from someone. There has to be some truth in some of these stories.
00:36:40
Speaker
Yeah, it's just interesting to see how much things have evolved over time. Yeah. So one of the biggest ties to Robin Hood has to do with Sherwood Forest. And so Sherwood Forest is not exactly in the Peak District, but it lies between the Midlands and the Peak District. So it's like right outside the Peak District, just a little bit more to the east.
00:37:05
Speaker
Its name was first recorded as, I'm going to screw this up because I looked it up and there's no pronunciation for this word on the internet, but scare you to maybe, maybe not. I don't know. But this was from the 10th century and this meant the wood belonging to the Shire Sherwood forest. Yeah. Isn't it? I mean, I like that, but every time you look up that word, like when I was looking, it just tells you what it means and not how to say it. And I'm like,
00:37:33
Speaker
I know what it means. I feel like, and there have been times that I've looked up pronunciations, but I know you would know how to say it. So I'd be like, is that right? And you're like, not even close. I think there was some French ones that I was like, I don't know. And you were like, no, that's not right. I'm like, that's what Google told me. So who knows? Who knows? But Sherwood Forest predates the Normans and the area was shaped by the people who lived around it.
00:38:00
Speaker
by at least the era of Roman occupation of England. This ancient forest is real and is rumored to be at the heart of the legend of Robin Hood because this is where Robin and his Merrymen would hide. And so if you go to Sherwood Forest today, there's so many like little stories and legends about Robin Hood hidden throughout the forest. And they have like a whole, like, I mean, they have like shops and stuff named after Robin Hood, dedicated to Robin Hood. And it's really cute.
00:38:31
Speaker
Sherwood Forest is full of hundreds of ancient oaks, which in itself, oak trees have many ties to the occult. And the most famous tree in Sherwood Forest is the major oak, and it's estimated to be around 1,000 years old. And it's this huge, beautiful tree. It's supported now with beams and ropes and stuff because it is so old. It's following it on itself.
00:38:56
Speaker
Poor thing. I know, but it's so gorgeous. He's like, just let me die. Absolutely not, sir. You have to stay alone forever. And the area itself around Sherwood Forest is said to be very haunted as part of the forest was used as a medieval burial ground at one point.
Historical Justice in the Peak District
00:39:17
Speaker
So one of my favorite stories, though, about the Peak District, and this is something I did not know about and I wish I had known,
00:39:24
Speaker
was surrounding gibbets in the Peak District. There are many places in the Peak District where the word gibbet is in the name. And a gibbet is actually a scaffold where a corpse of a criminal would be hung as a deterrent. And what is even worse about this is criminals were gibbeted and left to slowly starve to death, so they were put up there alive
00:39:48
Speaker
and left to slowly suffer as a deterrent to keep other people from being like, I'm going to murder you. Birds come and peck at this. Oh, that's awful. And it sounds like the worst way to death. Literally. Because at least by the way you burn to death or just hung, it's pretty quick. At least it's over at some point. I'm not just slowly starving to death. Yeah, that could take months. Yeah. It's terrible.
00:40:17
Speaker
There's also Legend of Fairies in the Peak District.
00:40:20
Speaker
And there are quite a few stories of fairies, giants, and mermaids surrounding this area. I didn't include a lot of them, but what I did include was the legend of the Easter mermaid. And there's this little pool in the Peak District called the Mermaid Pool, and it said that this pool is linked to the Atlantic Ocean, and the water allows a mythical mermaid to come into the pool. And she has the ability to grant long life, but only to those who comes to see her at midnight on the eve of Easter.
00:40:50
Speaker
But there's also a cautionary tale, too, because there is also lore that states that the mermaid will pull you down into a watery grave if you are not careful. So I guess if you want to go see the mermaid, just be careful with the eve of Easter and ask for a long life.
00:41:10
Speaker
Be careful because it might be a very short life. Don't get too close. And of course, like with everything, there is legends and history of witchcraft in the peak.
The Bakewell Witch Trials
00:41:23
Speaker
Witches are featured heavily in the Peak District throughout time. People used to carry twigs of Rowan to ward against witches.
00:41:31
Speaker
This story is actually a little bit sad, but two women in Bakewell were executed for being witches in 1608. The story involves Mrs. Stafford and her possibly sister or friend. It wasn't sure, like no one really knows who this extra person was, but I'm just going to refer to her as her friend because I mean, I don't know.
00:41:53
Speaker
Yeah. So Mrs. Stafford would take in lodgers to make a living. She was probably a widow and this was really her only source of income. And she unfortunately had to evict a tenant for not paying rent. And when she did this, she didn't give him back his belongings.
00:42:12
Speaker
Yeah, so this could have been completely a different outcome had she given him back his belongings, but- But at the same time, she's like, you owe me money, so no. Exactly, right. Literally, if she was a man, this would have made sense and nothing would have happened, but because she was a woman, of course, all this shit happened.
00:42:32
Speaker
Of course she's a witch. Yeah, of course she is. So the tenant that she evicted went to London and told the London magistrate that he arrived in London by magic as he had been asleep in Bakewell when he awoke to Mrs. Stafford and her friend chanting a spell in the room below him and he could see it through like the cracks of the floorboards is what he said.
00:42:55
Speaker
He was then whisked away to a seller in London, still in his night clothes, which is proof that, of course, his story is real. Why would I travel here in my night clothes, sir? Right. Because you didn't pay your rent and you got evicted without any vision. Yeah, you didn't get any of your clothes. Yeah.
00:43:15
Speaker
And he said that whenever he was whisked away to London, the two women, so Miss Stafford and her friend were with him as well in this cellar, but they were carrying overflowing goods. Their arms were overflowing with goods and silk and shit from the house's
00:43:32
Speaker
between Bakewell and London that they like as they were flying over the houses they would like I guess beam up like silk and shit like I don't know how he thought this was happening but do you remember this this was in New World Witchery there was a portion yeah there was a whole portion about how people people said that they would wake up in cellars or whatever and they would be locked in and so they were like this scapegoat the witches would magic them there
00:44:02
Speaker
steal all the goods and then leave them behind so it looked like they did it. Yes. Okay. And then I was like, Oh my God, this was in there. Yeah. Yeah. So basically everyone believed this man and his story was proven because Mrs Stafford kept his belongings.
00:44:18
Speaker
So obviously that must mean that must mean that he had been whisked away in the middle of the night because why else would he be walking around in his undercarments? It meant that he owed her fucking money. Yeah. So yeah, it just is terrible. So of course they were both killed. And I mean, there's some people say they were burned at the stake. Some people think they were hung. Really don't know, but it's a really sad story of like two
00:44:47
Speaker
innocent women killed because this man did not pay his rent. Yeah, which is terrible. What a dick. Yeah. And then and just Sherwood Forest in general, there's a history of witchcraft in the forest, as it was said that during the 18th and 17th centuries, witches would gather and perform magic in the forest.
00:45:08
Speaker
which I like, but who knows if that's just a tale. And then I liked this tale. I didn't want to summarize everything. I just included a direct quote from the Peak District online, but it's referring to a wizard's tale.
00:45:23
Speaker
I thought this was interesting. So it says, according to a strange old tale about Bradwell, the presence of a wizard was used to help exercise a ghost and the story goes that sometime in the distant past, the body of a young girl was found beneath the staircase of a local house. She had almost certainly been murdered in the village and the village began to be terrorized by nightly appearances of her ghost. An eccentric character said to possess strange influences could even control the planets or so it was rumored,
00:45:50
Speaker
willingly entered the haunted house with an assortment of paraphernalia. Surrounded by a nervous crowd, he knelt inside a chalk circle and concentrated so hard that perspiration poured down his face. All of a sudden the floor moved up and down several times and the exorcist got to his feet calling, arise, arise, I command thee. The spirit materialized and was immediately ordered to transform itself into a fish and make its home in the mouth of Lum Brook.
00:46:22
Speaker
So now each Christmas it said that a fish will transform itself into a bird and fly out of Lumley pool. And there has been no sighting of the ghost girl since. Oh my gosh, because she's a ghost fish.
00:46:44
Speaker
So I've included some places to visit as well. If you were to take a holiday in the Peak District. So the first one of course is Bakewell. Famous for the poor women who were executed for being witches, but Bakewell itself is a gorgeous historic little village. It's known as the heart of the Peak District and famous for its Bakewell tart, which is delicious. So please go eat it if you are there. And then this is a village name that I'm going to screw up and I did not.
00:47:13
Speaker
It's not even anyone's fault, but my own, because I didn't look up how to say it, but I'm just gonna say E-M, and it's spelled E-Y-A-M if you want to Google it, but this is an Anglo-Saxon village known as the Plague Village. The story goes for this village, a flea-infested bundle of cloth arrived from London for the local tailor. Within a week, people were dying from the outbreak because, of course, the flea-infested bundle of cloth had fleas that had the plague in them, and then, of course, you know,
00:47:42
Speaker
Whatever. And they've like reproduced like crazy. Yeah. So as the outbreak continued to spread, their local rector tried to mitigate the spread by introducing measures like having family members bury their own dead and relocation of church services to a natural amphitheater at Kuklet Delft. And the entire village was quarantined to stop the spread to neighboring areas.
00:48:06
Speaker
After 14 months, when everything was all said and done, 260 villagers out of the 350 were dead, only leaving 83 people in the whole village surviving. Oh my god. Yeah, crazy. But also, when you were reading this, I was like, Jesus, for 14 months, they had a plague? And then I'm like, oh.
00:48:27
Speaker
We have also been in a pig for years. Yeah. Yeah. I guess like 83 people, but also like the fact that this man had the peace of mind to be like, okay, we need outside like natural air and to quarantine ourselves away from any neighboring villages so that it doesn't spread. And people did it. Yeah. And people did it. Yeah. I'm like now where they're like,
00:48:58
Speaker
You can't tell me how to live my life. I have a religious exemption. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. I have to go to church. Props to this rector for being like, okay, we need to take some measures because obviously what we're doing is not working. For the people to be like, okay. Yeah, I trust you and let's do that. You got it, dude. But there was a story too of this. And so here's the thing too with this village is there's so much
00:49:25
Speaker
commemoration to all these villagers that perished. And so on the houses, there will be plaques. These are the same houses from the medieval plague times. On the houses, they'll have plaques of who lived there and stuff. And one of the houses, I thought it was really sad, there was a woman. She was the lone survivor of her family. She had to bury her husband and all of her kids. Oh, no. She worked by herself. No one to help her. And I'm just like, wow, that is so sad.
00:49:53
Speaker
So there's lots of stories like that from this village, but it could have been so much worse if they were like, oh, you know, God will, this is a plate from God to strike down anyone who doesn't believe. So go your way. Like Oklahoma when COVID first hit and they shut the state down for one day to pray.
00:50:14
Speaker
Did you not hear about that? I did not hear about that. Yeah. So I like, I remember my grandparents were like calling to see how things were here and how we were doing with like everything. And my grandma was like, Oh yeah, well we're not going to be able to go anywhere tomorrow because Oklahoma is going to shut everything down so we can, you know, pray for COVID. And I was like, what the fuck? And they just like for one day everything closed and I was like,
00:50:42
Speaker
Maybe we should close so that people don't get bit. It's like a fever dream is what Oklahoma is. Like how did I come from this place? Yeah. But other notable places to visit while you're in the Peak District, Hathorsage, which again, I mentioned is known for Little John and it's also the setting for Jane Eyre, Thor's Cave.
00:51:10
Speaker
is absolutely beautiful. It has an incredible view of the Peak District and it's huge. The mouth of the cave is like 60 feet tall. It's humongous, but there's really nothing you can do inside the cave. It's just great for taking pictures. And then the nine ladies stone circle in Stanton and Peak. Laura says that the stones depict nine women who were turned to stone as a penalty for dancing on a Sunday.
00:51:36
Speaker
How dare they dance on a Sunday? That's the Lord's Day. That's the Lord's Day. And then, of course, one of my favorite places that we visited while we were there is Chatsworth House. This is in the Derbyshire Dales, and it's a gorgeous estate tied to Pride and Prejudice. It's in this cute little, right outside this cute little village that you, in order to get to the house, you have to go through this long walk through, I don't know, fields of sheep
00:52:05
Speaker
and these weird deer-looking things that weren't deer. And it is just gorgeous. It's a really long walk to get up to the house, but it is worth it, and it's beautiful. And yeah. Nice. Anyways, that's the Peak District. There's a lot more, but that is, this episode is already super long, so. Yeah, yeah. We picked a long topic today, guys. You guys love it. You love it. Yeah.
00:52:34
Speaker
anyways that's it
00:52:49
Speaker
That's it for this episode of Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft. You can find our source material for this episode linked in the show notes. If you love this episode, we would be forever thankful if you leave us a five-star review on wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you really love the show and want more Get In Loser content, check out our Supercast link provided in the show notes or search the Supercast website for Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft.
00:53:12
Speaker
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