On the eve itself Helen Backhouse, Lucy Haslam and I are having a little event in our Facebook group where we take everyone on a virtual trip up Pendle Hill. Pendle was the home of the famous Lancashire Witches; the trials of the Pendle Witches at Lancaster Castle in 1612 are amongst the most famous witch trials in English history. Helen can see Pendle from her home and I'm about 20 minutes drive away, so it's a very real place to us, and has been since I read Harrison Ainsworth's 1849 novel The Lancashire Witches when I was about 11.
So we've been making witchy things, and these are one of mine - The Hagstones. Hagstones were stones with natural holes in them, nailed up over stable doors in order to stop the hags (witches) from riding their horses out. And they're still in evidence today on many farms. Old superstitions die hard.
The spikes and gilded 'hagstone' connectors are ceramics by the one and only Petra Carpeau - who better, for gothic grunge? With Lucy Haslam's tangled earwires, swarowski crystals and gold seed beads.
Come and join us on our journey - it should be fun! The Very Nice Group at 4pm GMT on Wednesday.
See you again next week.
Lindsay x
