The Manningtree Witches: How many screaming faces can you see in this short video?
Manningtree is a peaceful town, not too far away from me on the other side of Essex. On the surface, it feels calm, almost gentle. Yet beneath that stillness lies one of the darkest chapters in England’s history.
In the 1640s, Manningtree became a hunting ground where Matthew Hopkins, the 24 year old self-styled “Witchfinder General” murdered innocent women.
During a time of civil war and religious upheaval, this ominous young man claimed the authority to identify witches — those he believed were responsible for illness, misfortune and – according to Google, moral decay.
The accused women were poor, elderly, outspoken, disabled, freckly or socially isolated. Hopkins landed ‘confessions’ through torture, exhaustion and intimidation, and ‘justice’ was swift, very public and unforgiving.
These women were hanged. One tree in particular, known locally as Old Knobbly, has become a lasting symbol of these events. Between Christmas and new year, I visited this ancient tree. It stands at the edge of a small wooded area where cute little dogs were running around wearing Santa jackets and children were shrieking with laughter.
The tree survives as a quiet witness to the horrors of centuries past — a living reminder of lives lost to suspicion and moral panic.
Standing beside Old Knobbly, it was hard not to feel the weight of that history. The gnarled bark seemed ingrained with faces. We wandered around the thick trunk pointing out features that looked eerily like screaming women and frightened animals. Someone had laid red flowers in a crevice; I gently placed a stone in the same way we’d lay one on a Jewish grave.
I’d definitely have been hanged or burned at the stake. There but for the grace…
Hopkins’ campaign is thought to have led to around 100 executions, nearly half of all witchcraft deaths in England. Thankfully, he died a couple of years later. The most intense witch hunt in English history was driven by someone who was barely out of childhood, a stark reminder of how youth, authority, fear and ideology combined during a period of national instability.
Perhaps more frightening today is the reminder of how fear can be legitimised, how power can disguise itself as righteousness, and how easily humanity can be stripped away.
Rest in peace ladies.