Witchcraft in Shropshire
As a child, I was fascinated by witches. From Nanny Ogg to ‘ The Worst Witch ’, narratives of witchcraft and its intricacies added colour to my world. There was something so special about it, so tangible to me as a person often on the fringes of acceptability. Far from mysterious or filled with profane wisdom, my witchcraft was practical, introverted and highly connected to the natural world. It whispered of mud, wood and stone. It was animism and ancestors, reciting, remembering, for history is a type of magic in its own right, and it was highly connected to my sense of place. This fascination has continued well into my adult years, and I often say that however muddled my belief system is, it is shaped by life under the Wrekin. It would be fair to say that witchcraft in some form or another features heavily within the history and folklore of Shropshire. Certainly, at times such practices were so intrenched into the lives of the Populus, that it would be hard to separate or define t
