Charms against Witches at Bridlington

A Bridlington correspondent of the Table Book, writing on 30 July 1827, recalled the ways people in that part of Yorkshire kept witches off. A smooth beach pebble with a natural hole through it was tied to the key of a house, barn or stable to protect all inside; sailors nailed a horseshoe to the foremast and jockeys one to the stable door, but it had to be a shoe found by chance. On meeting a suspected witch you turned each thumb into your palm and gave her the wall side of the path, never let her have anything worn next to your skin, and carried a bit of witch-wood or a hare’s foot; nobody left the house in the morning without a bite to break their fast. When a pig bought by someone in the neighbourhood fell ill, nine elder buds were laid in a row under an upturned ash-wood dish overnight, to show by their disorder whether it was bewitched.