Pinned Hearts and Witches Hands

In Somerset, even today, there are some strange customs, traditions and superstitions. Witchcraft has in the past, and probably today (there are still practising witches in Glastonbury) played a role in everyday life. You don't have to be an expert on the occult to realise it played a large part of our history. Simply going through archived newspapers, you quite often come across an article mentioning a witch or other supernatural creature.

I was fascinated by the article from The British Newspaper Archive covering a story of the mummified hand of Mary Holt, a witch from Pulborough, Sussex. Apparently Mary Holt's name does not appear in the records of those tried for witchcraft in Sussex, so it is unlikely that it is her hand. It may have been the hand of a common criminal which she had acquired and used for as a healing charm. 

The article also mentions “A heart pierced with pins, which was guaranteed to be a certain witchcraft cure in Sussex about 1790”. This type of cure was also used in Somerset and I suspect countrywide if not in many parts of Europe. 

Extract from The Western Daily Press - Wednesday 23 January 1935

The following extract is taken from Somerset Folklore Vol. VIII, 1965. 

                                                                                Hearts and Pins

'Witches can't come droo walls, but only down the chimbley, droo windows and doors.' - So a bullock's heart stuck full of pins, points outwards, was hung up the chimney to scratch her as she came down – no witch would risk this. Such hearts were found at Litton in the nineteenth century (Kettlewell, p. 39) and at Taunton and Wellington in old houses now pulled down. These were protec-tive charms – but bullock or pigs' hearts and pins have been discovered put to a malignant use. In these cases the initials of the victim are formed by the pins, or the heart is nailed behind the clavel tack to suffer slow scorching and suffocating smoke, or it is placed in a sealed jar or jug and set beside the fire to roast. The destroying formula is that quoted in the Wellington version ---- “Tis not this heart I mean to burn' etc. As the heart roasted or suffocated or smothered so did the victim. The worse witches used to remove the jar at times and allow the sufferer a blissful surcease from agony -- and then renew it by replacing the jar by the fire. Some hearts have been found cut from black cloth with pins across them, and on the Blackdowns an onion stuck full of pins is as deadly as a heart. There are two of these bewitched hearts in Taunton Museum, one from Ashbrittle, Blackdown Hills, and one from East Quantoxhead, Quantock Hills, but in some farms there are still to be found the shepherd's charms already mentioned.
    These are all known cases:

Litton	Mendips	1840
Taunton	Mid	1890
Wellington	South-West	20th century
Ashbrittle	West	20th century
Bridgwater	West	1900
E.Quantoxhead	Quantocks	20th century
Crowcombe	Quantocks	20th century

                            ~~~~~~~~~~~

It makes you wonder where these ideas came from!

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