1May 2023
The transcript of this video, from the famous series Billy Connolly’s World Tour of England, Ireland and Wales shows his whistle-stop tour of Newchurch in Pendle, a mere step from our holiday cottages. You can follow the link below to the video and see for yourself the beautiful countryside that we enjoy and understand at least one of the many reasons why this area is worth a visit. The peace, the tranquillity and the history are all around you in Pendle.
“Well this is Pendle ostensibly where the witches came from. This big hill here that you can see in front of me is Pendle Hill. In those days it was forested like a lot of the hills in Britain and there was two prominent witches in the area Demdykes and Chattox was their names and they had followings.
They were like communes who lived in two forests here.
Now Demdyke’s granddaughter Alice Device was accused of killing somebody. It was a local, a peddler guy who sold stuff, and she supposedly put a curse on him. But you know, how easy is it to accuse somebody of that; you know if you don’t like them?
But the 12 women witches were marched 43 miles along this road; it was a cobbled road then, to Lancaster Castle. They were tried, found guilty and all but one was hanged. I feel really, really sorry for them it was a terrible period of extraordinary injustice and misunderstanding.
This is a grave of Alice Nutter and her family well that’s what they say on here but she probably isn’t in here because she was hanged as a witch and witches tend to have unmarked graves. They wouldn’t put her in here but Alice Nutter got lumped in with all the other witches because she had land and the magistrate who was conducting these trials had fights with her and arguments about the land so you can see the corruption.
And if you look at witchcraft all over the world and witchcraft trials you’ll find a lot of this corruption and I think poor Alice fell into that you know. She was picked on and her land stolen.
I think most of them were like herbalists and they knew cures and stuff so they’d be accused of killing people because the cure didn’t work they were just trying to do nice things. This pointy hat and green face with a big wart in your nose has gone a bit far I think.”
You can watch the video here https://youtu.be/6rM9CiqyWuY on Billy’s official Billy Connolly Youtube Channel.
Why not come and see Pendle Hill, Newchurch in Pendle and the surrounding landscape for yourself by visiting us here in Barley and staying at Pendle Holiday Cottages?
If you book directly with us you can save 10% on the price of your holiday and have a really good, Michelin starred meal at one of our local eateries on the money you save. The White Swan at Fence is only a matter of a mile away from our beautiful cottages.