October 2nd 2018 ​
Ritual Protection Marks (or “Witch Marks”)
Andy Weaver

​​“Witches’ marks” - ritual protection symbols or apotropaic marks - can be found carved into the structure of many historic places, medieval churches and houses, barns and even Shakespeare’s birthplace.
The marks date back to times when belief in witchcraft and the supernatural was widespread. Magical symbols and ritual objects were a common part of life from ancient times but seem to have spiked around the 16th to 17th centuries. “Witches’ marks” are a physical reminder of how our ancestors saw the world. They can teach us about commonly-held beliefs and rituals. Ritual marks were cut, scratched, carved and even burned into our ancestors’ homes and churches in the hope of making a very dangerous world into a safer, less hostile place.

They were such a common part of everyday life that they have largely been overlooked as the idle doodling of bored choirboys and apprentice carpenters. Apotropaic marks can be found in medieval houses to insure against fire, in kitchens to ensure food safety standards and near cellar doors to protect the precious beer from going off! More often they are near windows, doors and chimneys and any other possible entry points for malevolent spirits. Hence the term “witch marks”; in times when the unexplained petty household disasters and not so petty catastrophes such as the Black Death were attributed to the earthly manifestations of the Devil there was a real need to get insurance against such depredations from the only available source, one’s religious and ritualistic beliefs. So this is counter witchcraft, or white magic.

As part of the SCAG survey to investigate hidden timber framed buildings in Southwell, we started to come across numerous ritual protection marks. As we continued to record them, they began to grab the imagination as they offer a glance into the minds of the people who crafted them. These are not the records of the political, economic or religious elites, rather the voice of the ordinary people of mediaeval and post-mediaeval society which are singularly lacking except where they came into contact with authority via the courts. Since then and it has become a bit of an obsession, to the extent that whenever I go into an old Inn, church or house I tend to start examining the hidden nooks and crannies with the aid of torch in order to locate the existence of any possible “witch marks”.

Andy Weaver

Personal background:

I am a retired Head of 6th Form/History teacher having taught most of my career in the mining villages of north Nottinghamshire and a stint in Darwin, Australia. Specialist A Level teaching subjects were Spanish Civil War, Weimar and Nazi Germany and the Impact of War on Society.
I have a degree in Archaeology and History from Nottingham University where specialist subjects were Medieval Timber Buildings, Medieval Church Architecture and Crusader Castles. Main archaeological experience as an undergraduate was on Mesolithic settlement sites in north Somerset.
​Since retiring from teaching I have become actively involved in a local amateur charity, Southwell Community Archaeology Group (SCAG). With Trent and Peak Archaeology we have conducted a series of Heritage Lottery Funded archaeological excavations in Southwell to investigate mediaeval settlement of the town. Under the supervision of Nottingham University and Historic England we have excavated and surveyed ( using GPR and drone aerial thermal photography) the Roman villa site adjoining Southwell Minster, which is possibly of national importance. In conjunction with Nottingham University SCAG are surveying the surviving timber framed buildings in the town and detailed analysis of the Tudor wall paintings in the Saracens Head Inn.

More information can be found at www.southwellarchaeology.org.uk or  facebook:  Southwell Community Archaeology Group.