Your sister, brother, mother and grandmother have confessed to witchcraft - and you must give evidence against them! That's what happened to nine-year-old Jennet Device in 1612.

Jennet was the star witness in one of three cases being tried known collectively as the Lancashire Witch Trials - that took place at the summer assize at Lancaster Castle. 

Lancaster Castle (photo by Susan Brownrigg)

Those accused of witchcraft included a group of twelve people who lived around Pendle Hill, three women from Samlesbury, near Preston, a woman from Padiham. near Burnley and another from Windle, near St Helens.

The accused were kept together in a pitch black dungeon in horrendous conditions without access to lawyers. Coercion and torture were used to extract confessions that could be used as evidence against them - and neighbours and family members were made to testify against them.

PENDLE WITCHES

Jennet's sister, was 19-year-old Alizon Device - she was walking across a field when she came across a peddlar (someone who sells items for a living) called John Law. She asked him for some metal pins - it's unclear if she was begging or wanted to buy them - but he refused her. She was so cross that she cursed him, and soon after he had an attack that caused some kind of paralysis - probably a stroke.

Things quickly snowballed - when Roger Nowell the justice was brought in to investigate, Alizon not only confessed but incriminated other members of her own family and the rival Chattox family.

Nowell quizzed more members of both families.

Alizon's grandmother - known as Old Demdike - admitted she had a familiar or devil spirit called Tib. She also confessed to killing a man and a child - saying that making clay figures was the speediest way to take a man's life away.

Depiction of Old Demdike with familiars

on display at Pendle Heritage Centre

The head of the other family - Anne Whittle, known as Old Chattox also confessed to having a familiar or devil spirit - this one called Fancie. She also said she had killed men and children, making clay images for hurting life and limb - and to bewitching milk and ale and bewitching and killing two cows.

Anne Whittle's daughter Ann Redfearn denied being a witch - but she was sent to face trial alongside the other three women.

Not a week later, on Good Friday,  20 or more supporters of the women gathered for a special meeting at Malkin Tower. It is said they fed on stolen mutton. Nowell heard about it and resumed his investigation - believing it was an example of a witches' sabbath - a Midnight meeting for witchcraft.

Nowell questioned the Device family and Jennet and her brother James incriminated their mother, who confessed to being a witch, having a familiar, making clay figures and killing two men.

James himself confessed to crumbling a clay image of a woman and causing her 'lingering' death after she had accused him of stealing peat for his fire. He also said he had a familiar - Dandie who appeared as a brown dog or hare.

He also said the meeting had been arranged to discuss blowing up Lancaster Castle, murdering the gaoler and freeing the four women imprisoned there.

Statue of Alice Nutter in Roughlee

 (photo by Susan Brownrigg)

Jennet named a number of people at the meeting including Alice Nutter, a gentlewoman (and a Catholic) from nearby Roughlee.

Now Jennet's brother, James, her mother, Elizabeth, Alice Nutter and four others from the meeting were sent to the dungeons at Lancaster Castle to face trial for witchcraft too.

Old Demdike died in the dungeon and her grandson, James was so traumatised that it was said he could neither speak, hear no stand at his trial.

The court proceedings were recorded by the court clerk, Thomas Potts, who later published his account as The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster. 

The accused had no defence lawyer. Jennet was called as a witness - even though she was too young to normally be admissable.

She again incriminated her sister, brother and mother - and identified Alice Nutter as a witch by taking her hand. She described witches mounting ponies and flying into the air.

Jennet's mother was dragged out of court screaming at her daughter and shouting curses at Nowell.

Why did Jennet condemn her family? Historians think having no family to care for her, she was trained so that she would give evidence against those accused.

Some of those accused likely considered themselves witches, the two families may have competed for business. Claiming to have magical powers was a way of bringing in extra money.

King James I, who was on the throne at the time, definitely believed in witches. He was convinced that a coven of Scottish witches had tried to murder him and his wife by causing terrible storms as they travelled by ship from Denmark. He was so convinced by the power of witchcraft that he wrote a book on the subject called Daemonologie.

GUILTY

The judge found all but one of the group guilty. They were sentenced to hang by the neck until they died. The execution took place on Gallows Hill.

No-one knows what became of Jennet Device. 20 years later a Jennet Device was found guilty of witchcraft. Could it have been the same person?

Susan Brownrigg is a Lancashire lass. She is the author of Kintana and the Captain's Curse, and the Gracie Fairshaw mystery series. (Uclan Publishing)

Find out more at susanbrownrigg.com

The Grim Reaper - a history by Jenni Spangler

 

I was always one of the spooky kids – my bedtime reading was filled with ghost stories and my teenage fashion choices leaned towards goth. My mum took me exploring in graveyards and my uncles gave me books on poltergeists and real life ghost hunters. Maybe it was inevitable that I’d write a book with death front and centre.

Valentine Crow and Mr Death is about a foundling boy who, due to a clerical error, is apprenticed to the Grim Reaper. The challenge was finding a narrative about death that was the right sort of spooky for middle grade readers.

It was daunting. I was writing during a pandemic, watching my own children learn about death in a scary and sudden way. I didn’t want to sugar coat things – kids can see right through that – but I also didn’t want to terrify anyone.

We’re not very good at talking about Death in our culture – we distance ourselves from it, and it’s taboo to talk about in many circles. But for as long as we’ve been telling stories, we’ve been telling stories about death. We need stories to get our heads round the stark truth: one day, we won’t be here any more. As simple and as incomprehensible as that.

I read a lot of traditional folk tales in my research and found that stories about death tend to have two key messages – firstly that death is inevitable and necessary, and secondly that everyone is equal in death.

The Three Dead, from the Taymouth Hours, 14^th century

One of my favourites – which I borrowed to create a character in Valentine Crow – is ‘Mother Misery’. An old woman tricks Death into climbing an enchanted fruit tree which traps him in its branches. Initially her neighbours are pleased but over time they begin to suffer, as the very sick and old can no longer pass on to the afterlife. She lets him down only once he promises never to come for her, which is why we will always have misery in the world.

Another story tells of a young man who imprisons death to save his mother. But when he tries to cook their supper, he can neither pick vegetables nor kill a chicken, as animals and plants can no longer die. There’s a strange sort of comfort in these tales, because however dark they get (and some of them get VERY dark) they offer us a ‘why’ for death.

Illustration by John B Gruelle, of the story
‘Godfather Death’, Grimms Fairy Tales 1914

Turning death into a character scales it down to something easier to understand – once it has a face and a voice, it’s something we can interact with, bargain with, rail against.

The earliest depiction of death as a cloaked skeleton carrying a scythe was in the 14^th century, as the black death swept through Europe and cut down victims swiftly and indiscriminately, as a farmer cuts down a field of wheat at harvest time. The name ‘The Grim Reaper’ came much later, in 1847, and both name and image have stuck with us as the instantly recognisable figure of death.

Illustration by Noel le Mire of Death as a skeleton

with a scythe, from “la mort et le mourant”

At around the same time a motif called the ‘danse macabre’ became popular in medieval art. Grinning skeletons dance hand in hand with living people – kings, bishops and beggars alike - leading them merrily towards their demise. It works as a comfort to the poor and a warning to rich: whatever your status in life, we’re all going to the same place in the end.

 These are often surprisingly playful and comical images, and I love them for that. They’re not (only) an expression of the terror of death, but also evidence of dark humour in the face of unpleasant reality. The urge to take something ugly and scary and turn it into art and laughter.

Illustration of the Danse Macabre from the Nuremberg

Chronicle, by Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514)

It’s still with us, in our zombie movies and haunted house rides and on Halloween, when we dress our precious children up as ghosts and skeletons and ply them with sugary treats. An acknowledgment of death, and a defiance of it: we see you there, reaper, but we’re going to celebrate anyway.

Writing challenge – The Grim Reaper is a personification of death. Create a personification of a different abstract idea or concept (hope, truth, power etc). Think about how they might look, speak and move and how they might interact with other characters.

Jenni Spangler is the author of The Incredible Talking Machine, The Vanishing Trick and Valentine Crow and Mr Death.

Theatre school drop out, ex-999 operator and occasional forklift driver, Jenni writes children’s books with a magical twist. She loves to take real and familiar places and events and add a layer of mystery and hocus-pocus.

She was part of the first year of the ‘WriteMentor’ scheme, mentored by Lindsay Galvin, author of ‘The Secret Deep’. As well as her magical middle grade novels, Jenni writes short contemporary YA stories for reluctant and struggling readers, including Torn and Wanted for Badger Learning. Jenni has an Open University degree in English Language and Literature, a 500 metre swimming badge and a great recipe for chocolate brownies. She lives in Staffordshire with her husband and two children. She loves old photographs, picture books and tea, but is wary of manhole covers following an unfortunate incident. 

You can find out more about Jenni and her books at www.jennispangler.com and follow her on twitter and instagram

The history of glass by Susan Brownrigg

Glass is all around us - it is used in windows, lightbulbs, mirrors, bottles, drinking glasses, for our TVs and mobile phones as well as in decorative vases and paperweights. So common place we don't often stop to wonder at the skill taken to produce this versatile material.

Glass has always been found in nature – for example obsidian (volcanic glass) was used by stone age people for cutting tools while Libyan Desert Glass was carved into a scarab beetle as the centrepiece of a gold and jewel decorated breastplate found in King Tutankhamun’s burial chamber.

Pectoral found in King Tutankhamun's burial chamber

Human crafted glass has been around for around 4000 years, often attributed to the people of Mesopotamia, the Ancient Egyptians also made glass beads and jars in about 2500BCE.

Glass was made by mixing sand, soda and lime and heating at a very high temperature in open molds.

This lump of translucent blue glass found by archaeologists

in Iraq is one of the oldest surviving glass objects (British Museum)

Glass portrait thought to be of Amenhotep II
(Corning Museum of Glass, USA)

This glass portrait may be of Amenhotep II, who ruled Egypt about 60 years before Tutankhamun. Glass making may have been introduced during his reign. This head was originally blue but has faded to tan after being buried for a long time. It belongs to the Corning Museum of Glass in America.

About 100BCE a Syrian glassmaker invented the blowpipe and the art of glassblowing using a long tube was created. The glassblower picks up a gob of molten glass at the end of the tube, turns, swirls and rolls it, while blowing air into it.

Another 100 years later, the Romans were producing elaborately decorated drinking glasses – they were especially skilled at carving or etching glass.

The Romans are also thought to be the first to use glass in windows, while the Anglo Saxons also created stained glass windows. Fragments of coloured window glass from the 7th century have been found at excavations of former monasteries in Northumbria.

Stained glass window at Bede’s World

featuring excavated glass.

The stained glass window (above) was reconstructed from pieces of glass excavated from St Paul’s Church, Jarrow, Northumbria. Scientific analysis of the glass revealed that it was made from a combination of recycled glass and chunks of new glass which had been imported from the Levant – present-day Lebanon and Syria.

In Medieval Times glassmakers were so skilled that they could create huge windows of stained glass for churches and cathedrals. The oldest (in-situ) glass from this time can be seen at Canterbury Cathedral.

The Parable of the Sower (Stained Glass window, Canterbury Cathedral)

One of the most famous places for glass making is Venice. In 1291 a law was passed that said Venetian glassmakers had to work and live on the island of Murano.

Barovier Goblet, Murano

This was said to stop the risk of fire spreading from their furnaces to the mainly wooden buildings of Venice, but historians believe it was also to stop them sharing trade secrets – and in 1295 the glassmakers were forbidden from leaving the city!

In the 1900s glass became easier to make, less expensive, and stronger.

Glass windows and containers became everyday features of most homes.

 

Susan's grandfather was a glass carrier

My grandfather worked as a glass carrier for Pilkingtons – known locally as Pilks – the St Helens glass manufacturer. 

I visited the World of Glass Museum, St Helens, to learn more about glassmaking and the history of the Pilkingtons company.
Find out what I discovered by watching this week's Youtube video.

WRITING CHALLENGE:

Choose a glass object pictured in this article as the starting point for a story. It could be the Libyan Desert Glass scarab, a medieval church window or a Murano goblet.

Susan Brownrigg is a Lancashire lass and the author of three historical children's books for ages 8+ - Gracie Fairshaw and the Mysterious Guest & Gracie Fairshaw and the Trouble at the Tower are seaside mysteries set in Blackpool. Kintana and the Captain's Curse is a pirate adventure set in Madagascar.

Susan's books are published by Uclan Publishing. 

They are available from bookshops and online retailers.

susanbrownrigg.com

@susanbrownrigg

susan brownrigg facebook author page

First in Flight by Catherine Randall

I was recently lucky enough to spend a few days on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the United States. The Outer Banks are a long string of barrier islands stretching along the coastline, with the Atlantic on one side and the sheltered waters of the Sound on the other. These days the Outer Banks are a popular holiday destination, due to their long, unspoilt sandy beaches and it was these same beaches and dunes which made the Outer Banks the site of one of the biggest breakthroughs in human history. It was here in December 1903 that the Wright Brothers made the first ever successful powered flight.

The Wright Brothers Memorial on Kill Devil Hill, North Carolina

The dream of achieving human flight is probably as old as humanity. Throughout the nineteenth century, a succession of inventors and engineers had worked on solving the three great problems of aircraft design.

LIFT – generating an upward force greater than the weight of the plane

THRUST – propelling the plane forward

CONTROL – stabilising and controlling the plane’s flight

By the end of the 1890s, progress had been made on the problems of LIFT and THRUST but nobody had worked out how to control an aeroplane once it was in the air so that it didn’t roll from side to side or pitch forward, or continually veer from right to left.

It was American brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright who in 1899, after observing the flight of birds, realised that stabilised flight could be achieved by warping the wings of the plane, inventing a system which allowed the pilot to twist the tips of the wings, as a bird does, through a system of pulleys and cables.

The Wright Brothers - Wilbur and Orville

The Wright brothers ran a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, but from 1899 onwards they devoted themselves to the goal of human flight, spending their summers on the coast of North Carolina, where the huge sand dunes just south of the town of Kitty Hawk, at a place memorably called Kill Devil Hills, were the ideal setting for hundreds of experiments with kites and gliders. The location provided three things that they needed – plenty of wind for lift, sand for a soft landing, and privacy. They didn’t want other people copying their design!

Reconstruction of their 1903 Flyer, viewed from the back

In 1901 they built their own wind tunnel so that they could collect their own scientific data on aereodynamics. In 1902, after hundreds of test glides, the brothers felt sure that they had cracked the problems of lift, control and stability. The following year they designed their own engine and the first effective aircraft propellers and in December 1903 they returned to Kill Devil Hills, finally ready to test out their new flyer.

The pilot in the 1903 Flyer was positioned lying down, between the wings

On 17 December 1903, surrounded and supported by men from the local lifeboat station, Orville Wright climbed into position in the flyer. The flyer was designed so that the pilot lay down between the wings, controlling the machine with a stick and a lever, and controlling the warp of the wings by swinging a cradle with his hips. On the first flight the flyer only stayed aloft for 12 seconds, going 36 metres before pitching into the sand. The brothers took it in turns to make three more flights, getting used to the controls. Each time they spent longer in the air, flying further, until on the fourth flight, Wilbur piloted the flyer for a distance of 260 metres in 59 seconds.

The lift-off point of the first flights is marked by the First Flight Boulder on the left, with four other boulders marking the length of the first four flights

Today, this site is the Wright Brothers National Memorial. The First Flight boulder marks the lift off point for the four flights, and the four flight markers show the length of each successive flight. You can also see reconstructions of the sheds where the brothers lived and worked each summer, and on Kill Devil Hill – like the surrounding area, now sown with grass – there is a huge monument to the brothers, rising up impressively above the flat surroundings. In the Visitors’ Centre, you can see a reconstruction of the original flyer, and on the other side of Kill Devil Hill is a sculpture of the complete scene of the very first flight, complete with sculptures of admiring locals, including the man taking the photograph that is shown here! He had apparently never used a camera before.

The photograph taken of the very first flight. Orville is in the Flyer, Wilbur running alongside

Of course, the Wrights’ achievement was just the beginning for human flight. If you are interested in the history of flying, there are loads of other people you can research, including the French aviator Louis Bleriot, the first man to fly across the English Channel, and the pioneering American aviator Amelia Earhart. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932. Five years later, she disappeared with her plane during an attempt to fly around the globe – but that’s for another blog!

WRITING CHALLENGE: For your writing challenge this week, imagine that you are Wilbur or Orville Wright and write a letter to a friend back in Ohio, telling them about this incredible thing that has  just happened – you have achieved the first ever powered flight! You might want to tell them how hard you worked and the problems you had to overcome. Will you confide in them what you plan to do next?

 Alternatively, imagine you are one of the local people watching – how does this make you feel? Does it make you want to be part of the adventure of human flight? Has it ignited a dream for you too?

The White Phoenix by Catherine Randall is an historical novel for 9-12 year olds set in London, 1666. It was shortlisted for the Historical Association’s Young Quills Award 2021.

Published by the Book Guild, it is available from bookshops and online retailers.

For more information, go to Catherine’s website: www.catherinerandall.com

World Book Day special - The beauty of traditional typesetting and printing by Jeannie Waudby

The book is finally ready to go to the printer’s, word-perfect and with a beautiful cover. This is where it finally becomes an object that many people can hold in their hands and read. Nowadays typesetting is computerised and printing is mechanised. We are all typesetters, converting our thoughts into letters on our phones and laptops, choosing the typeface we want to use. But let’s have a look at how it worked before computers.

For hundreds of years books or scrolls were written by hand, for example the 7^th century Lindisfarne Gospels and the 9^th century Book of Kells.

 

 

A scribe at work 

 

These books were very beautiful, but only a few people could read or own them so of course they were very expensive.

 

A way of printing from stamps began in China in the 5^th or 6^th century and mass printing from woodblocks in 907. In Europe, woodblock printing goes back into the 14^th century. Each page was carved  onto a woodblock and then printed. This happened in Europe too.

 

 

A woodblock  

 

This made it possible to print many copies very much more quickly, but the process of carving the woodblock was still very slow. 

 

A woodblock print

 

Printing was really revolutionised with the invention of moveable type. Again it was first invented in China in the 11^th century, with individual characters made out of clay, and in Europe in the 15^th century with letters of metal.  

 

 

 Type 

 

When I was young I worked as a typesetter in a printing works that had somehow managed to stay in the nineteenth century.  

 

The frame where the typsetter stands, with cases of type below. 

 

All our type was movable, and to set it we used a stick  

 

A compositor’s stick 

 

The letters sit on little metal shelves called leads to sandwich them together. When a block of text is ready it can be tied up and put in a galley. When the whole page is ready it is all assembled on the ‘stone’ using different sized pieces of wood and metal, called ‘furniture’. Eventually this is all screwed tightly together in a metal frame, the ‘chase’, and can then be lifted onto the press.  

 

 

The forme on the stone, ready to print

 

My experience has been very handy for the book I am writing, which takes place in a printing works in the 1800s. Here is my character’s name, set in capitals with a print from it.  

 

 

When books are printed, several pages are printed on one large sheet and then cut and folded. This is a tool for folding so that the edges are crisp – it’s called a bone.  

 

A bone 

 

The pages could be put together and sewn in bundles before being bound with a cover made of cardboard, leather or cloth. They would then be pressed in a bookbinding press like this one. 

 

 

A bookbinding press 

 

19^th century books were sometimes sold with the edges still folded so that the reader would have to cut the pages to open the book.

 

Modern printing is completely different from the old days of hand or foot operated presses.  

A  hand-operated printing press 

 But we can find traces of the old ways – in the words: upper case and lower case, typesetting, the spacebar on a computer which comes from the old spacers that were put between letters, and most of all, if you hold a new hardback book up to your nose you can still capture the delicious smell of ink.

The Time Tunnellers are five authors who write historical novels for
children and young adults -
Susan Brownrigg, Barbara Henderson, Catherine Randall,
Ally Sherrick and Jeannie Waudby.

Every Thursday we share a new blog article on a different topic
and a youtube video with a writing challenge for young people and teachers.

 

World Book Day special - How to get published by Susan Brownrigg

This week on the Time Tunnellers blog we look at the different stages a book goes through from manuscript to bookshelf!

How do books end up bookshelves?

How do you find a publisher for your book? by Susan Brownrigg

So you've finished writing your novel - Congratulations! Make sure you celebrate this amazing moment because it can be a bumpy road to publication for writers.

What next? Have you edited your book or is it still a first draft? Writers will often re-read their book many, many times looking for spelling mistakes, errors, plot holes and ways to make their writing brighter and tighter! 

It is of course very hard to spot all your mistakes or to see where readers might get confused by your story. This is where it can be great advice to find someone you trust to read your book and give you honest feedback.

Think carefully about who you ask to do your 'beta read' - a family member may tell you 'I loved it. It's perfect,' because they love you, think you are incredibly clever for finishing a book (you are!) 

A good place to get honest feedback is at a writing group.

If you write for children/young adults like the Time Tunnellers there is the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI.)

Once you have your edited book it will be ready for submission. This is what sending your book to an agent or publisher for them to read and consider is called.

Most publishers will not accept unsolicited submissions direct from authors - this means if they have not asked you to send your book they do not want to see it.

Beware of any publishers who want you to pay towards the cost of the publication - this is called vanity publishing. If you are unsure about a contract offer, you can join the Society of Authors who will offer you free legal advice. 

So many authors will try to find an agent who will represent them.  Agents pick the very best books (often the ones they think are very commercial - e.g will sell in big numbers!) they are sent (from the 'slushpile.'. They will then submit the book to editors they think will like the book as much as they do.

Agents take a cut of the money the author is paid, usually 15%.

Agents are very busy people and they haven't time to read everyone's complete manuscript, so most will only want to read the first three chapters and a synopsis (usually a one page breakdown of the entire plot.) You can find a list of agents and publishers in the Writers & Artists Yearbook and by doing a google search.

Agents and publishers will often have a page on their website that gives precise details on how to submit to them. Make sure you follow them to the letter. 

Some agents and publishers have certain dates when they are open or closed to submissions. Look out for competitions too as they can offer publication as a prize or an opportunities to meet with agents and/or editors. Examples include SCBWI's Undiscovered Voices competition and Slushpile challenges and publisher Chicken House's annual competition and 'open coop' submission day.

You will need to include a covering letter - make sure you address it to the agent by name and not Dear Sir! Your letter should explain what your book is about, how long it is, what type (genre) it is e.g sci fi or mystery and why you wrote the book - especially if you have a personal connection to the theme. When submitting my book Gracie Fairshaw and the Mysterious Guest I wrote about my love of Blackpool, and explained that Gracie has limb difference like my great grandfather. 

As I mentioned earlier, agents are very busy and often they will state that if they have not replied withing 8 weeks then they are not interested in representing you. If you do get a reply, it may well be a rejection, and often a standard or 'form' letter. 

 

Some of my rejection letters

If your reply includes comments specific to your story you may want to follow the advice given if it resonates with you.

Some writers are lucky and get a yes the first time they submit their books, but many more successful authors received lots of rejections before their first book was accepted for publication. 

I clocked up lots of rejections for five books before I was offered a publishing deal by Uclan Publishing. 

Writers need lots of resilience and perseverence if they want to become an author - but dreams can come true! 

The Time Tunnellers are five authors who write historical novels for
children and young adults -
Susan Brownrigg, Barbara Henderson, Catherine Randall,
Ally Sherrick and Jeannie Waudby.

Every Thursday we share a new blog article on a different topic
and a youtube video with a writing challenge for young people and teachers.