The West Yorkshire town of Pudsey, about halfway between Leeds and Bradford, famously gave its name to Pudsey the Bear in the BBC Children in Need charity campaigns. But it also gave its name to a far more sinister figure that haunted the nightmares of many: the Pudsey Bitch Daughter… You find yourself suddenly awakeContinue reading “The Pudsey Bitch Daughter”
Category Archives: Witches
The Valentine’s Day Slash Hook Murder
It was 80 years ago today that one of the country’s most sensational unsolved murders occurred. The violent slaying of Charles Walton in the tiny Warwickshire village of Lower Quinton spawned dark rumours of witchcraft and revealed a bizarre network of deadly apparent coincidences involving murder, black magic and ghostly black dogs… On Valentine’s DayContinue reading “The Valentine’s Day Slash Hook Murder”
Old Mother Damnable: A Christmas Witch Story from 1734
All About our Coal Fire: Christmas Entertainments (1734) is an influential and charming comic portrayal of all the customs of Christmas. The book describes feasts, silly games, drinking and scary stories around the hearth. It was popular for many years and probably influenced Dickens. The stories and legends in the book (such as the oneContinue reading “Old Mother Damnable: A Christmas Witch Story from 1734”
Yorkshire Serial Killer Witch’s Chicken Lays Doomsday Egg
In 1806, the good people of Leeds were preparing for the end of the world. Millenarian sects warned of the coming apocalypse and many were convinced they were living through the Last Days before the second coming of Jesus Christ. There were strange signs and wonders that portended End Times, and one of these cameContinue reading “Yorkshire Serial Killer Witch’s Chicken Lays Doomsday Egg”
The Halifax Witch Bottle
In February 1844 a woman called Nancy Houldsworth and an unnamed friend burst into the newspaper office of the Halifax Guardian. Nancy proceeded to tell the astonished journalists a true ‘tale of mystery’.[i] A tale of love, death, curses and witchcraft. The story begins in 1841 with two sweethearts, Mary Wilson and Samuel Bottomley, bothContinue reading “The Halifax Witch Bottle”
Paul Weatherhead 