Pendle Witches

Every year tens of thousands of people visit Pendle to take in the spectacular countryside and spellbinding story of the Pendle Witches, the most famous witches in the land. 

Over four hundred years since the imprisonment, trial and deaths of the Pendle Witches people are as fascinated as ever and some people even remain on the summit overnight just to take in the atmosphere.

In Lancashire, the victims include two rival families led by two, poverty-stricken old women, Demdike and Chattox. The path to disaster for these two, and the rest can be traced to a day in March 1612 when old Demdike's granddaughter Alizon Device, begging on the road to Colne cursed a pedlar. Device then ordered a black dog that suddenly appeared to lame him. Device was brought before the local magistrates when she confessed to being a witch and implicated others.

“The Pendle Witches were accused of selling their souls to familiar spirits or devils who appeared to them in human and animal form. In return for their souls, it was believed that the witches received the power to kill or lame who they pleased....” (Quote from www.pendlewitches.co.uk).

Places connected to Pendle Witches:

• St Mary's Church, Newchurch
• Lancaster Castle
• The Pendle Witch Experience
• The Witches Galore
• Pendle Heritage Centre
• Judges' Lodgings
• Moorhouses Brewery Tours