Witch 400 – Jennet Device – the “new” Malkin Tower Traditional Cache
belbincolne: Clearly gone = and as the series has now run its course time to archive.
Witch 400 – Jennet Device – the “new” Malkin Tower
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Witch 400 – Jennet Device – the “new” Malkin Tower, Barley
2012 is the 400th anniversary of the execution of the Pendle Witches so I thought it appropriate to place a series of caches as close as possible to the places with which they are associated. You would need to be a very hard walker (and driver) to do them all in one trip! Many can be done as near drive-bys but you will need to study the footpaths on the South Pennines map OL21 very carefully.
The full facts are related over thousands of pages in a dozen books so you’ll appreciate that what appears here is incredibly abbreviated. Possibly witches were basically the herbal practioners, midwives and abortionists of their day who found it convenient to cast spells and claim results to enhance their reputation. We know little about most witches but the Pendle ones have become particularly famous because the clerk to the court wrote a book factually setting out the details of the case. A tiny bit of potted history is put in for each cache. On occasion it is not entirely reverent I’m afraid!
The witches (and their victims) all seem to have lived on farms most of which remain although in nothing like the form they were in 1612. Mostly they have changed out of all recognition and none have been kept as a tourist haven such as, say, the Bronte Parsonage. What little I know is recorded here.
By today’s standards the trial was a farce. Uncorroborated evidence from a child of 9 and a boy of weak intellect was accepted but the witches were their own worst enemy condemning themselves and the others with abandon so it is hardly surprising that they were found guilty in the climate of that particular time in history. For more details I can recommend the website (visit link)
A naughty little girl of 9, too young to be tried herself despite claiming responsibility for the death of three people, she was still allowed to give evidence against both her mother and brother which was in a large part responsible for their conviction. Even worse (because they were doomed anyway one suspects) the magistrates acceptance of her evidence led to the American judges in Salem ruling that as a British judges had accepted evidence from such a young person they were entitled to do so as well with all that that led up to. In 1633 she was herself tried as a witch but the plaintif withdrew his allegations so she was found not guilty but still spent many months in Lancaster gaol.
She lived at Malkin Tower so it’s appropriate to place her close to the newest discovery of its whereabouts. She was too young to be a witch and this building is too young to be Malkin Tower so it all makes perfect sense. The cache is on the track signed to Blacko and from it you can look down on the ruin - below the reservoir and beyond its outflow. Another path leads right past it if you want a closer look.
Since the cache was placed the site has been re-covered (now doesn't that prove just how important it was!) so I'm afraid that, unless you knew exactly where it was, it's gone again!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
haqre fgbar va jnyy pbeare
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