A People Bewitched: Witchcraft and Magic in Nineteenth-Century Somerset

The author of the Oxford Illustrated History of Witchcraft and Magic unveils the history of witches in one of southwest England's most spiritual sites.

The belief in witchcraft and magic was widespread in nineteenth-century Somerset. Witches were blamed for causing the ill health and death of people and their animals. Those accused of witchcraft often found themselves being ostracized and beaten by their neighbors. Magical practitioners known as cunning-folk drove a thriving trade not onl...