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Witches, Monsters & Fairies in British Folklore

A fairy, painted by Sophie Gengembre Anderson

Here you will find grouped together articles and features about witches, fairies and monsters in British folklore.

The Pendle Witches
Perhaps the most notorious witch trial of the 16th Century.  In the year 1612 at Lancaster gaol, ten people were hanged for the crime of witchcraft. They became known as the  Pendle Witches...

Witches in England   True stories of the persecution of witches in England. Not for the faint hearted! 

Helen Duncan - Scotland's last Witch  Spiritualist, medium (well large actually, she weighed in at over 22 stones (that's over 300 lbs to any reader from the USA)) and the last person in Britain to be tried and sentenced under the 1735 Witchcraft Act...

The Pittenweem Witch Trials  In 1705, as a result of some wild stories told by a 16 year old boy, three people died and others were cruelly tortured...

Do you believe in fairies?   Stories about fairies abound throughout history - but in the 21st century, surely we don't still believe in them - or do we?

The Loch Ness Monster  The first recorded account of 'Nessie' is that of an eyeball to eyeball confrontation with the Irish saint, St. Columba in the 6th century...

The Legend of the River Conwy Afanc  The Afanc was a legendary Welsh water monster, likened, some have said, to the Loch Ness Monster. The Afanc lived in Llyn-yr-Afanc (The Afanc Pool) in the River Conwy...

Spring-Heeled Jack  He terrorised Victorian society, but who was this 19th century Batman?

Folk remedies, charms and potions   Or thank goodness for the National Health Service!  Who were the 'Quake doctors', how do you cure warts and  what was the King's Evil? Read on...

A Whiter Shade of Fey  Many plant-based myths seem to involve protection from, or for, witches and fairies. Today’s Wiccans hold white to be the colour of the Goddess...

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