Museum
Of Witchcraft
After The Floods - June 2005
By Moonshadow
A Brief History
- The Museum
Of Witchcraft was started by Cecil Williamson who was then
partnered with Gerald Gardner, it has been housed in several different
locations in its past including the Witches Mill on the Isle of Mann
where it first opened in 1951. The partnership dissolved, and Williamson
sold the building to Gardner and took his collection off to Windsor,
from there the museum went to the Cotswold village of Bourton-On-The-Water.
There Williamson received death threats, the museum was fire bombed
and dead cats were hung from trees. In 1960 the museum moved to Boscastle
and has been there ever since, Williamson ran it until Samhain 1996
when at midnight he sold the museum to it's current owner Graham King.
Willamson died in 1999 at the grand old age of 90, the museum still
houses his collections to this day.
Back in 2004 Ariadne de Berg submitted her review of the Museum
Of Witchcraft, I read her article and wanted to go see for
myself, but I was either ill or busy and that summer I didn't get
the time. A few months after reading her review, disaster struck the
small village of Boscastle, where the Witch Museum resides, and I
feared that I'd never get the chance to see the Museum after all and
all I'd ever see of the museum was Ariadne's photos.
On August 16th 2004; a date which has since been entered into the
history books as one of the worst floods in modern British history,
the rains hit Boscastle with a vengance. Heavy, thundery downpours
started at midday across south-west England, the showers forming bands
which aligned themselves with the wind helping to maintain the heavy
rain across certain areas of north Cornwall for several hours, Boscastle
was hit badly, livelihoods were lost, homes were devasted and the
Witch community held it's collective breath whilst they awaited news
of the fate of the museum.
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Anybody
that saw the media coverage over that week will remember how
devasting it was. For those that didn't the photo to the left
will give you an idea of the severity of the floods. Devon and
Cornwall are no strangers to flooding, on August 16th 1952 the
small village of Lynmouth in north Devon was hit by floods,
when a total rainfall of 22.9cm fell on the village causing
devastation and loss of at least 14 lives. Boscastle had approximately
20.5cm of rain causing over 3 metres of flood water to sweep
through the village, leaving destruction and debris in its wake.
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The
museum was severely damaged in the floods, over 2 metres of
water filled the entire ground floor. Throughout the museum
on my visit I took note of the small photos pointing out the
levels of the flooding, in parts it was taller than me, now
that was a sobering thought! The cry went up for help and support
and the Wiccan and Pagan community sent donations of money and
items to replace those lost or damaged. For a while it was unclear
when or if the museum would re-open. Amazingly, some would say
'as if by magic' over 90% of the original collection was saved,
the items that were lost were stored in the archive section
in the storeroom at the lower level of the building. Restoration
work began and on March 25th 2005 the doors to the museum were
once again opened to the public.
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The
newly refurbished museum has a rather futuristic doorway as
its entrance now, this is designed to minimise the damage should
flooding ever occur again. On arrival Graham King took our money
which was a mere £2.50 per adult, incredible value for
money, and money well spent. We chatted briefly, he asked if
I'd been to the museum before. I told him I hadn't, and had
only seen it from the photo's in Ariadne's article and via his
website, he was rather pleased to hear about Ariadne's article,
and the one that I was planning, and asked for the links when
all was complete. Our chat over the tour began. When you go
through the doors the first display you see is 'What is Witchcraft?'.
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The
next display is entitled 'Images of Witchcraft', there
are oodles of witch figures, posters from the media, in the
photo above Simon poses next to the film poster for the 1942
film 'I Married A Witch'. I was interested to see the campbells
soup poster, and some other advertising posters that seemed
to give being a witch the thumbs up, imagine the 'shake and
vac' lady with a besom and pointy hat and you'll get an idea
of what I mean. Better still go visit the museum and see for
yourself! But I digress, back in the 60's after the repeal of
the Witchcraft act in 1951 it seemed to have become fashionable
to be a house witch instead of housewife, the hoover and flash
were the magical tools of the 1960's housewives day. I guess
we have the likes of the TV series Bewitched to thank for that
particular moment in history.
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The tour
leads on to 'Persecution of Witches', Ariadne covered
this in her 2004 review and as this article started out gloomy
I'll move swiftly on to the next display. All I will say is
as I stood in front of all those names and the methods of torture
I sobbed, there but for the grace of the Goddess......
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The
next display is a stunning 'Wheel Of The Year', beautifully
painted by Vivienne Shanley, the museum sells wonderfully glossy
art cards of this wonderful wheel. Visitors are encouraged to
'turn the wheel' for themselves and there is information on
the eight sabbats.
Incidentally the yellow arrow in the picture points to one of
the flood level indicators I mentioned earlier. Moving on, you
walk past a mock up of a sacred stone circle, displays of sacred
stones and sites followed by a section on herbs and healing.
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The
next display had to be my favourite, the museum guide describes
it as "a typical late 19th century Wise Woman's cottage",
the wise woman sitting here is called 'Joan'. I was fascinated,
so much to see and take in and from what I could see this was
one of the displays that had changed from when Ariadne did her
review. The display was enhanced by the addition of a soundtrack
of Joan chanting and chatting. After this display the tour leads
upstairs to another set of displays. Some are the same as in
Ariadne's review and there are some new displays.
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I've
decided not include photos of the upper level and the remainder of
the lower level of the museum, the areas that cover spells and charms,
modern witchcraft, ritual magic and the Golden Dawn and the myriad
of other displays on those levels. I want to leave something for future
visitors to discover for themselves. I'm so glad that this wonderful
place was brought back to life, it's a Witch's treasure, if you haven't
visited I urge you to make the effort, you won't be disappointed,
I know I wasn't.
Moonshadow gratefully acknowledges Graham King, owner of the Museum
of Witchcraft for granting us permission to take the photos which
are in this article and for taking the time to chat about the museum
and its development. The review has been written based on my own observations
and notes, and with the help of the Museum of Witchcraft's guidebook
for the references to the museums history and some of the information
on the Boscastle floods.
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