Essex Witches
"Essex is also famous for its involvement in the witchcraft trials that took place around 400 years ago. More witches have been hung in this county than any other in all of England. Mostly convicted on precarious evidence and confessions attained in unreliable circumstances, up to ninety witches were hung between the late 16th and early 17th century in Essex alone. When Matthew Hopkins, known as the Witch finder General, visited the county of Essex a staggering 19 witches were hung in one single day just on his accusation alone." -
In 1566 the very first of the major witchcraft trials in England took place in Chelmsford, Essex. The accused were Agnes Waterhouse, her daughter Joan Waterhouse and another woman who was known to them named Elizabeth Francis. The women all came from the village of Hatfield Peverall and all were accused of colluding together in witchcraft
Attitudes to death in the Middle Ages:
'Hell was the destiny for those guilty of mortal sins, while eternal life in Paradise was the reward for the good. The idea of Purgatory, a place where the souls of moderately bad sinners would go for a period of purification before being allowed into heaven, was accepted as a doctrine of the Catholic Church in the 1200's, and this idea came to shape much of the religious culture of the later Middle Ages. The living were encouraged to offer up prayers for the dead to lessen their time in Purgatory. This image of angels at the top of this page shows the death and funeral of Lucy de Vere, the first prioress of the Benedictine nunnery of Hedingam in Essex. When she died, around 1225, her successor sent the roll - over 19 feet long - to other religious houses, asking them to pray for her soul. As it passed around East Anglia and back and forth across southern England, each of them added an inscription asking for reciprocal prayers'. - See more at: https://www.bl.uk/the-middle-ages/articles/death-and-the-afterlife-how-dying-affected-the-living#sthash.TbG2trNu.dpuf
Reflection:
Finding out that Chelmsford was a hot-spot for Witch Hunting, and having it my home town creates a strange correlation between my heritage and my beliefs. I have always sensed a feeling of unrest within the City and it has only been through further investigation into historical events that have transpired there, am I able to start to discover the cause for this negative energy that still remains within the foundations of the city. Within my artistic practice I have started performing rituals to heal the land. I do this in a number of ways, creating site specific rituals to disperse negative energies. Not just from historical injustices but from personal traumas steamed from the area. I have deduced that Chelmsford will need extensive healing to restore the balance of positive and negative energies.
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