Witch of Scrapfaggot Green
Historical Documents Evidence Witchcraft Was Once a Capital Offense
During the WW II years, the villagers still remembered the execution and interment of the Great Leighs witch, but they weren't ready for what would be unleashed.
According to historical records, Alice Molland, of Exeter, was the last witch to be executed in England. She was hanged in 1684. Legend, possibly fact, has it a woman, who was a witch in Essex County, was killed in the 1600s or 1700s (sources vary as to which century) by being burned at the stake and interred where she met her fate, at the crossroads of Scrapfaggot Green. “Scrapfaggot” is a variation of “scratchfaggot,” an archaic word for a witch. A large stone was place over her grave to keep her there. All was bucolic until the 1940s years of World War II.
Autumn 1944
The American Army went into Great Leighs village to help the Allies. Drachett Lane, which went over the crossroads, was too narrow to allow passage of its vehicles. Orders were given by someone unfamiliar with local tradition to widen the road. The GI who drove the bulldozer moved the Witch’s Stone.
The events that followed were reported in the October 8th and 15th 1944 issues of the Sunday Pictorial and in the October 23rd, 1944 issue of Time Magazine.
Harry Price, the famous controversial psychic investigator, was consulted.
Paranormal Happenings
- Church of St. Mary the Virgin’s tenor bell tolled in the early morning. Sundays, the chimes tolled in reverse. The clock struck midnight at 2.30 AM and lost an hour every day
- Corn stalks disappeared, to be found later in adjacent fields
- Farmers’ haystacks toppled in the night
- Cows in calved prematurely
- Hens stopped laying eggs
- Sheep went through unbroken hedges
- Geese mysteriously disappeared
- A skeptical tavern owner found a large boulder outside of his door one morning
- Scaffolds and tools were scattered
- A rabbit was found sitting on eggs in a chicken coop
- A woman’s books exchanged jackets one night
Psychical Investigation
Harry Price, an experienced paranormal investigator, was asked to investigate. While he was flamboyant, a showman who adored being in the headlines and derided by some people because he said and did controversial investigations and produced provocative writings, he was respected by many.
By 1944, Price had done many investigations. Two of his most famous cases are Eleanore Zugun, Poltergeist Agent or Possessed? and Borley Rectory and Its Ghosts: Harry Price, Controversial .... Zugun was a human poltergeist agent and the rectory had poltergeist phenomena. He theorized the Scrapfaggot activity was caused by a poltergeist and suggested the stone be replaced over the witch’s grave. After a boulder was placed on the grave, activity ceased.
Debate Ongoing: Real Events or Folklore?
Some believe the Witch of Scrapfaggot Crossroads did exist, that she was a practitioner of witchcraft and executed for it. There is some evidence there was a Witch's Stone in Great Leighs. The boulder, found outside the tavern door, remains. It’s claimed to be the original one that appeared in the 1940s. There are credible media articles written at the time of the occurrences.
Historical records of a case of witchcraft that happened in Boreham, which is near Great Leighs, exist.
Those who say the crossroads witch is folklore point out the fact there are no historical records to prove her existence; however, not all events are publicly documented as they happened. Personal diaries, correspondence and people’s memories are testimony to this.
Related articles:
Curse of the Evil Witch of Yazoo City
North Berwick Witches' Persecution
Source:
Doreen Valiente, (St. Martin’s Press, 1973)
An ABC of Witchcraft Past & Present,
