ALEX SANDERS HIGH PRIEST “KING OF THE WITCHES ” & HIGH PRIESTESS WIFE MAXINE “QUEEN WITCH ” FEATURED HERE ON DISPLAY IN AND AMONGST THE ” WITCHCRAFT AND THE OCCULT COLLECTION ” AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL , UK

ABOVE & BELOW : Pictured here are some of our Alexandrian Wiccan Casting Circles which form part of our exhibition area.

Alex Sanders ( 6 June 1926-30 April 1988).  Born Orrell Alexander Carter, who went under the craft name Verbius, was an English occultist and High Priest in the Pagan religion of Wicca, responsible for founding the tradition of Alexandrian Wicca during the 1960s. Raised in a working-class family, he was introduced to esoteric ideas by his mother and grandmother from a young age, and as a young man began working as a medium in the local Spiritualist Churches before going on to study and practice ceremonial magic. In 1963, he was initiated into Gardnerian Wicca before founding his own coven, through which he merged many aspects of ceremonial magic into Wicca. He claimed to have been initiated by his Grandmother as a child, though evidence for this is lacking. Throughout the 1960s, he would court publicity in the press, appearing in a number of documentaries, marrying the far younger Maxine Sanders, and being declared to be the “King of the Witches” by his followers, something that led to other prominent Gardnerian Witches, such as Patricia Crowther and Eleanor Bone, attacking him in the press. In the late 1970s and 1980s, he went on to work with a ceremonial magical group known as the Ordine Della Luna, prior to his death. The tradition he founded with Maxine Sanders became known as Alexandrian Wicca.

Below : An intriguing video footage on the seemingly bizarre life of Alex Sanders

Below : One of the collage features on display within Littledean Jail’s “Witchcraft, Paganism, Wiccan, Satanism, The Occult, The Illuminati and Secret Societies Collection ” .

 

Below : Alex Sanders initiation into the sacred Mysteries

Below : One of the collage features on display within Littledean Jail’s “Witchcraft, Paganism, Wiccan, Satanism, The Occult, The Illuminati and Secret Societies Collection ” .

Above: Original painting by Paul Bridgman on display here at Littledean Jail of Alex Sanders , Maxine Sanders during the initiation of Janet Farrar, the wife of High Priest husband Stewart Farrar.

Above: Original painting of High Priest Stewart Farrar and his High Priestess wife Janet , here on display at Littledean Jail

Below: Baphomet Ouija board on display at Littledean Jail

 

Below: Original paintings by Gloucestershire Artist Paul Bridgman depicting Alex Sanders and his High Priestess wife Maxine,  along with Baphomet… The Horned God , both on display at the jail

 

BELOW: ‘BEAKY BLINDER’ OUR MYSTICAL AND SPIRITUAL RAVEN- GUARDIAN AND KEEPER OF LITTLEDEAN JAIL

Below : Collage of newspaper clippings featuring Alex Sanders on display at Littledean Jail

 

Original painting by Gloucestershire Artist Paul Bridgman depicting Gerald Gardner, and High Priestess’s Monique Wilson and Patricia Crowther  on display at the jail

LP Album cover of Alex Sanders  ” A Witch Is Born ” on display at the Jail

Original painting by Gloucestershire Artist Paul Bridgman depicting Aleister Crowley ,   on display at the jail

Below: Various images and a brief insight into an Alexandrian Casting Circle, Baphomet Horned God, Witchcraft Altar etc , here on display at Littledean Jail, Forest of Dean , Gloucestershire, UK .

Above and Below : Original oil paintings by local artist Paul Bridgman depicting our Alexandrian Baphomet “Horned God” on display in and amongst our exhibition areas.

DARK TOURISM UK…. WHERE FANTASY MEETS REALITY HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL. BELOW IS A BRIEF LOOK AT OUR EXHIBITION ON WITCHFINDER GENERAL- MATTHEW HOPKINS, WHICH EMBRACES BOTH THE ORIGINAL HISTORY ON THIS BRUTAL AND SADISTIC WITCH HUNTER BETWEEN 1644 – 1646. THIS WAS LATER TO BE THE SUBJECT OF THE 1968 BRITISH CULT HORROR FILM … “WITCHFINDER GENERAL”, STARRING VINCENT PRICE

ABOVE: A unique and certainly very rare, excessively large  French Witchfinder General promotional film poster here on display at Littledean Jail

Matthew Hopkins (c. 1620 – 12 August 1647) was an English witch-hunter whose career flourished during the English Civil War. He claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that title was never bestowed by Parliament. His witch-hunts mainly took place in East Anglia.

ABOVE : A rare adapted, hand painted, fantastic resin model figure based on one of the scenes from the iconic 1968 British Cult Horror Film  “Witchfinder General”. Matthew Hopkins played by Vincent Price and Hilary Dwyer as Sara…. (you try and find one  as very few in circulation ??) . This believed to be the only one on public display as can be seen here at the jail .

BELOW:  A model of the head of Vincent Price who starred as The Witchfinder General in the 1968 film with the same name

Hopkins’ witch-finding career began in March 1644 and lasted until his retirement in 1647. He and his associates were responsible for more people being hanged for witchcraft than in the previous 100 years, and were solely responsible for the increase in witch trials during those years. He is believed to have been responsible for the deaths of 300 women between the years 1644 and 1646. It has been estimated that all of the English witch trials between the early 15th and late 18th centuries resulted in fewer than 500 executions for witchcraft. Therefore, presuming the number executed as a result of “investigations” by Hopkins and his colleague John Stearne is at the lower end of the various estimates, their efforts accounted for about 60 per cent of the total; in the 14 months of their crusade Hopkins and Stearne sent to the gallows more people than all the other witch-hunters in England of the previous 160 years

Above and Below : Portrayal of Matthew Hopkins – Witchfinder General and his first known victim, Elizabeth Clarke.  She was was accused of witchcraft  and hanged to death. This loosely based on Vincent Price’s adaptation of him in the 1968 film “Witchfinder General ” directed by Michael Reeves . This being part of a historically informative insight into the 17th Century well documented infamous Witch Hunts .

 

A disturbing tale of evil set during the English Civil War. When Matthew Hopkins is appointed Witchfinder General by the Puritans under Cromwell, he is empowered to travel the countryside with his henchmen and collect a fee for each witch from whom he extracts a confession – a policy which is exploited to the full.Above : One of the many informative exhibition pieces on display in and amongst out “WHERE FANTASY MEETS REALITY ” feature on the true story of the infamous Witch hunter  Matthew Hopkins , known as The Witchfinder General. Subsequently played by Vincent Price in the 1968 film “The Witchfinder General ” …. which was also retitled “The Conqueror Worm ” for release in the USA.

Above : An image of an original 1968 film poster for Witchfinder General  on display at The Crime Through Time Collection, in and amongst The Witchcraft, Satanism, The Occult , The illuminati, The Paranormal and Beyond Exhibition .

ABOVE: A unique and certainly very rare, excessively large  French Witchfinder General promotional film poster here on display at Littledean Jail 

Original film poster entitled ” The Conqueror Worm ” for the release of the original British made  “Witchfinder General” film  in the USA

 

Below: A brief video clip from the 1968 film – Witchfinder General…. based on a true story in the fact that this was the first execution of an alleged witch Elizabeth Clarke in 1645 ….One of a great many women who were subsequently sadistically executed on the orders of Matthew Hopkins , for  allegedly being witches .

An original 1968 magazine advert for the film .

 

Below: An original oil painting by Gloucestershire artist Paul Bridgman depicting Vincent Price as The Witchfinder General – Matthew Hopkins  in the 1968 British Horror cult film .

 

Below:  Documentary insight into the real Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins

Below Original oil painting by Paul Bridgman depicting what was claimed to be an early woodcutting image of the original Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins in the presence of two seated witches and their imps

  

An original 1968 magazine advert for the film .

 

Above : Another short clip from the 1968 film

Above and below: Original oil paintings by Paul Bridgman depicting various scenes from the film, on display at the jail.

GERALD GARDNER (1884 -1964) FATHER OF MODERN WITCHCRAFT . FEATURED HERE IN AND AMONGST THE WITCHCRAFT, PAGANISM, WICCAN, THE OCCULT, SATANISM, THE ILLUMINATI AND SECRET SOCIETIES EXHIBITION AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL , FOREST OF DEAN, GLOUCESTERSHIRE,UK.

Gerald Gardner in one of his many naked ceremonial initiations and Wiccan gatherings.

Above: Original painting of Gerald Gardner on display at The Crime Through Time Collection, Littledean Jail , UK , in and amongst the Witchcraft, Paganism, Occult, The illuminati and Secret Societies Exhibition areas .

Gerald Brosseau Gardner (1884–1964), also known by the craft name Scire, was an English Wiccan, as well as an author and an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist. He was instrumental in bringing the Contemporary Pagan religion of Wicca to public attention, writing some of its definitive religious texts and founding the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca.

Original painting of Gerald Gardner along with High Priestess’s Patricia Crowther and Monique Wilson , by Gloucestershire artist Paul Bridgman. Here on display in and amongst the Witchcraft and Occult Collection at The Crime Through Time Museum , Littledean Jail , Gloucestershire , UK .

Born into an upper-middle-class family in Blundellsands, Lancashire, Gardner spent much of his childhood abroad in Madeira. In 1900, he moved to colonial Ceylon, and then in 1911 to Malaya, where he worked as a civil servant, independently developing an interest in the native peoples and writing papers and a book about their magical practices. After his retirement in 1936, he travelled to Cyprus, penning the novel A Goddess Arrives before returning to England. Settling down near the New Forest, he joined an occult group, the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship, through which he claimed to have encountered the New Forest coven into which he was initiated in 1939. Believing the coven to be a survival of the pre-Christian Witch-Cult discussed in the works of Margaret Murray, he decided to revive the faith, supplementing the coven’s rituals with ideas borrowed from Freemasonry, ceremonial magic and the writings of Aleister Crowley to form the Gardnerian tradition of Wicca.

Moving to London in 1945, following the repeal of the Witchcraft Act of 1736 he became intent on propagating this religion, attracting media attention and writing about it in High Magic’s Aid (1949), Witchcraft Today (1954) and The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959). Founding a Wiccan group known as the Bricket Wood coven, he introduced a string of High Priestesses into the religion, including Doreen Valiente, Lois Bourne, Patricia Crowther and Eleanor Bone, through which the Gardnerian community spread throughout Britain and subsequently into Australia and the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Involved for a time with Cecil Williamson, Gardner also became director of the Museum of Magic and Witchcraft on the Isle of Man, which he ran until his death.

Gardner is internationally recognised as the “Father of Wicca” among the Pagan and occult communities. His claims regarding the New Forest coven have been widely scrutinised, with Gardner being the subject of investigation for historians and biographers such as Aidan Kelly, Ronald Hutton and Philip Heselton

A brief video introduction into the life and times of Gerald Gardner

Below : Various images of Gerald Gardner at his Witches Mill , Isle of Man

Above and Below: Various insight into some of the many collage displays here at Littledean Jail.

SATANIC DECORATED RAMS HEAD SKULL ON DISPLAY ALONG WITH A GREAT MANY  OTHER INTRIGUING ITEMS  WITHIN THE WITCHCRAFT AND OCCULT EXHIBITION  AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL , FOREST OF DEAN , GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UK .

Above and below : Various paintings on display in and amongst The Witchcraft and Occult Collection here at Littledean Jail .

Above & Below : Pictured here are our Alexandrian Wiccan Casting Circles, Stone Altar and Stone Baptisim Font  on display at the Jail .

 

Above and Below … Various original paintings here on display at Littledean Jail featuring some of the most so say controversial though world famous High Priests and High Priestess’s  …. to include Alex and Maxine Sanders and Stewart Farrar with his wife Janet .

Below: Various images and a brief insight into an Alexandrian Casting Circle, Baphomet Horned God, Witchcraft Altar etc , here on display at Littledean Jail, Forest of Dean , Gloucestershire, UK .

Above and Below : Original oil paintings by local artist Paul Bridgman depicting our Alexandrian Baphomet “Horned God” on display in and amongst our exhibition areas

ELLEN HAYWARD “OLD ELLEN” THE LAST WOMAN IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE TO BE CHARGED FOR WITCHCRAFT . TRIED HERE AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL IN 1906 ….

ABOVE :Superimposed  image of how ” Old Ellen ” would have looked in and around 1881 – 1912 at the well

AN ALLEGED CUNNING  WITCH , WISE WOMAN AND HERBALIST FROM  THE FOREST OF DEAN. SHE WAS  TRIED FOR WITCHCRAFT HERE AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL AND AS A RESULT OF A GREAT MANY LOCAL FRIENDS SUPPORT AT THE TRIAL SHE WAS  SUBSEQUENTLY FOUND NOT GUILTY . 

ABOVE: COPY OF FOREST OF DEAN NEWSPAPER REPORT ON ELLEN HAYWARD 

 

ABOVE AND BELOW …… A BRIEF LOOK AT SOME OF THE EXHIBITION MATERIAL THAT FEATURES THE FOREST OF DEAN FOLKLORE TALE ON THE CUNNING WITCH OF THE FOREST OF DEAN … ELLEN HAYWARD 

ABOVE AND BELOW … COPIES OF THE ORIGINAL 1881 CENSUS RECORDS THAT SHOW THAT ELLEN HAYWARD LIVED AT 30 PEMBROKE ROAD ( NOW PEMBROKE STREET) , CINDERFORD . ALSO THAT SHE LIVED THERE SEEMINGLY AS A WIDOW AGED 39, ALONG WITH HER SON EDWARD THEN AGED 9 ,  HER DAUGHTERS RUTH AGED 5 AND FLORENCE AGED 3.

ELLEN’S YOUNGEST DAUGHTER  FLORENCE WAS PLACED AT WESTBURY-ON-SEVERN WORKHOUSE, PRESUMABLY BY HER MOTHER, AFTER THIS 1881 CENSUS RECORDS AS SEEN HERE ABOVE  .

SHE LATER DIED AT THE AGE OF 8 AND AS INSCRIBED ON  ELLEN HAYWARD’S HEADSTONE  IS BURIED ALONG WITH HER MOTHER IN THE SAME  GRAVE. (SEE HEADSTONE INSCRIPTION ON IMAGE BELOW .)

Parliamentary Questions

MR. MACVEAGH (Down, S.) I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the practice of witchcraft at May Hill and other parts of Gloucester; whether he is aware that, in the case of a family named Markey, four members last week lost their reason and one attempted to commit suicide at a place called Blakeley, as a result of these practices; and whether, in view of the alarm in the locality, he can state what action will be taken by the authorities to suppress witchcraft. 

MR. AKERS-DOUGLAS I have made inquiry into this very curious case. I find that Markey and his wife consulted a supposed witch about some money which they believed to have been stolen, and that subsequently three members of the family became insane, while the wife left the house and remained concealed in a wood for nearly four days. If sufficient evidence is forthcoming to justify a prosecution, proceedings will be taken by the local police against the woman who was consulted. Hansard : 31st May 1905

She was known throughout the Forest as Old Ellen, and famed as a healer and “wise woman”

Ellen Hayward was born at Arlingham, a village across the River Severn and opposite Newnham, in 1839, the daughter of Charles and Mary Ann Hayward. Her home was at Pembroke Road, Cinderford.

As a herbalist she used potions to cure ailments and dress sores of both animals and human beings. Her herbs were gathered by moonlight and dried across the rafters in her cottage. She would cure forestry men, whose only protection against the elements was often only a sack split open and tied round them, of their chronic rheumatism. Farmers from Hereford used to ride over in their gigs seeking her help.

She was known to treat free of charge servant girls from Cheltenham, who suffered from housemaid’s knee after washing stone corridors every day, free of charge. She normally charged no fees for her help and advice but simply accepted what her customers offered her. She also called herself a phrenologist. Phrenology is the science which studies the relationship between a person’s character and the morphology of their skull. She appears to have been liked and respected by Forest of Dean residents. When sent for to treat a woman with a serious varicose ulcer in Mitcheldean her first action when entering the bedroom was to throw open the window and instruct the patient to keep it open. She cured the ulcer but would not let any man see what she was doing.

She had come to national attention in May 1905. Ellen was at that time visited by John Markey of May Hill who was worried that £50 had disappeared from a drawer in his house. Ellen advised him to go home and rest as she felt that he was unwell.

Within a week of this visit, three members of the Markey family had become violently insane. A daughter and granddaughter had to be taken to an asylum and his wife disappeared. After days of searching, she simply reappeared holding a hazel stick which, she claimed, was to protect against witches. Her son George, who had been involved in the search for his mother, then became violent and managed to impale his eye with a spike. After this ‘bootless and hatless’ he ran away and had to be detained by the police. He was later certified as insane.

 

In the villages of May Hill and Huntley people started carrying hazel sticks around as tales of what had happened to the Markey’s spread. The newspapers got hold of the story which then spread nationally. Questions were even asked in Parliament as to what action the authorities were going to take to suppress witchcraft. In the midst of all this furor a letter was published in the Dean Forest Mercury in which Ellen denied pretending to be a witch but accepted that she was well known as a phrenologist. This letter, written either by Ellen herself or, more likely, on her behalf went on to explain that this “cruel attack” by the papers had left her unable to make a living and asked readers to send donations. The house in which the Markeys lived, now called ‘Counties View’, still stands in Folly lane.

In May 1906 Ellen Hayward (67) was summoned at Littledean Petty Sessions, Forest of Dean, for using, between November 21, 1905, and March 1, 1906, “certain craft, or means, or device, to wit, by pretending witchcraft, to deceive or impose upon one of his Majesty’s subjects, to wit, James Davis.”  

The prosecutor was Sergeant William Packer of Cinderford police. Our photo below shows him after his promotion to Inspector in 1909.

The son of a farm labourer, he was born at Southrop,Gloucestershire in 1860. He joined the Gloucestershire constabulary in 1878 and after serving as a sergeant at Painswick and Stroud was posted to Cinderford around 1903. Inspector Packer retired in 1919 after serving for 41 years. He died in 1929 and was buried at Cinderford’s St. John’s Churchyard, the same cemetery as Ellen Hayward.

Since 1854, Littledean gaol had been used as a police station and remand prison. In 1874 the east wing was remodelled as the Forest’s petty sessional court.

The Dean Forest Guardian reported on May 21st 1906 – “The old lady, attired in black, with a big warm muffler round her neck, and carrying a large handbag, was accommodated with a seat. She pleaded not guilty.”

James Davis, a 66 year old hurdle (fence) maker from Pauntley, Redmarley, had purchased a store pig at Newent Market for two guineas in September 1905. It was delivered to him on Gloucester’s Barton Fair day. The pig was OK for three weeks and then was taken ill. He felt that someone had a spite against him, suspecting a neighbour, Mrs Amos, of putting a charm on it. He had not seen her on his premises or spoken to her for ten years but thought she was often around there. Davis had two store pigs suffer in a similar way a year earlier and also two cows had been sick.

He somehow came into contact with a ‘travelling woman’ who informed him that the animals were being charmed and it was indeed a woman named Amos who was responsible.He explained to the court that having heard about Ellen Hayward’s experience at May Hill he asked his sisterHannah Elton to write to her enclosing a postal order for two shillings and sixpence and explaining his problem.

 

COPY OF ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH OF ELLEN HAYWARD ALONG WITH HER 3 CHILDREN , EDWARD , RUTH AND FLORENCE AND OTHERS . PICTURED HERE STANDING OPPOSITE HER HOME IN PEMBROKE ST , CINDERFORD . CIRCA 1881

Before receiving an answer and still quite distressed, he decided to visit Ellen at Cinderford. He explained his concern and asked her to fix the pig’s problem. He related that she told him he must wait till the moon changes; “the pig will come alright soon”. He then paid her five shillings and she said that would do very well, and then gave him some further advice which resulted in the pig recovering.

Unfortunately at the end of November the animal had a relapse. He again sent a letter, written by his sister, to Cinderford enclosing a postal order for ten shillings. He received a written acknowledgement.

In December he himself became seriously ill so he went again to Cinderford and told Ellen Hayward his symptoms and asked her to put him right. He handed her a gold sovereign but she said that was too much. He then said “Be you satisfied? I want you to put me right – I dont want to have to come to you any more. She replied ” Its influenza. Dont come again till February.”

At the end of February he returned to Cinderford. Mrs Hayward asked him “How be you?” He then asked her to remove the charm affecting him and if she did’nt take it off soon he would ‘put it in the Government’s hands’ and in the end, that was what he did.

James Davis made a report to the police and Sgt William Packer from Cinderford interviewed him on the 7th of May 1906.

In her own statement, made the next day, Ellen Hayward explained that she was a herbalist by profession and had nothing to do with witchcraft or palmistry. She remembered Davis coming to her house and complaining of what the keeper had done to him. She told him that neither the keeper, nor her, nor anyone could do him harm in that way. They had no such power. She acknowledged receiving the money, which was very helpful to her, and had written a letter sending her best love to Mrs Elton. Ellen said that she had advised them to keep very quiet and not to let anyone know how the pigs were.

At the end of the hearing, the court retired. On their return, the magistrates, who had received thirty letters in support of Ellen Hayward, dismissed the charges.

Ellen Hayward described as a “widow and herbalist” died of a stroke in September 1912 and was buried at St. John’s Church, Cinderford. Her grave carries the inscription “erected by her friends in loving memory.”

In 1991 I interviewed in Cinderford a Mrs Lily Mills who had been treated as a small child by Mrs Hayward. She had no recollection of the encounter herself but had been told of it by parents. Mrs Hayward, no doubt embittered by the court case, had greeted them at her door by saying: ‘Oh, you be come to th’ old witch, are you?’ She was wrinkled and bent. Chickens roamed freely round her living room. Little Lily’s parents had taken her because doctors said her leg would have to be amputated. Mrs Hayward supplied a homemade salve which did ‘the world of good’, and Lily still had her legs almost eighty years afterwards. The Folklore of Gloucestershire by Roy Palmer. (A highly recommended read)

BELOW:  A few shots of  the main entrance to Littledean Jail in 2016 with a witch weathervane above the main gateway.

…………………………………………….

HERE BELOW …. CUNNING WITCH  ELLEN HAYWARD AND OTHER FOREST OF DEAN FOLKLORE HISTORY …..

        ST ANTHONY’S WELL , LITTLEDEAN,  FOREST OF DEAN

MEDIEVAL HOLY GRAIL OR SACRED SPRING ???

 

SITUATED APPROXIMATELY 1.25 MILES AWAY FROM LITTLEDEAN JAIL

THIS WAS A POPULAR HAUNT AND SPIRITUAL SETTING  DATING BACK TO THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD.ELLEN HAYWARD WOULD REGULARLY VISIT  TO COLLECT THE NATURAL SPRING WATER TO  USE FOR HER ALTERNATIVE HERBALIST AND REMEDIAL TREATMENTS. POSSIBLY ALSO FOR SOCIAL GATHERINGS WITH HER GOOD MANY FOLLOWERS  WHO LOOKED UPON HER FOR TREATMENT FOR THEIR AILMENTS AND SPIRITUAL NEEDS. IT ALSO HAS A  LONG HISTORY FOR BEING USED FOR PAGAN , WITCHCRAFT, OCCULT AND OTHER GATHERINGS THROUGHOUT THE CENTURIES .

FOREST OF DEAN WISE WOMAN, HERBALIST AND ALLEGED WITCH … ELLEN HAYWARD HAD LONG BEEN LIVING,WORKING AND TRAVELLING BETWEEN CINDERFORD, LITTLEDEAN , MITCHELDEAN , FLAXLEY AND WESTBURY-ON-SEVERN. .

Superimposed original images of how ” Old Ellen ” would have looked in and around 1881 – 1912 at the well.        

The well, which is said to have miraculous healing powers and was once used for public baptisms, the occult, Pagan Weddings and has been used for witchcraft past and present. .
” Old Ellen ” would almost certainly have used the well.

ABOVE AND BELOW : IMAGES OF THE MEDIEVAL  ST ANTHONY’S WELL BUILT BY THE MONKS FROM NEAR BY FLAXLEY ABBEY .

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THE CRYSTAL CLEAR SPRING WATER LAKE FILLED WITH WATER FROM ST ANTHONY’S WELL

Occult dabbling at ancient Gloucestershire well… for more information click HERE

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BELOW : COPY OF ORIGINAL RARE PHOTOGRAPH OF ELLEN HAYWARD’S COFFIN PRIOR TO BURIAL . KINDLY SOURCED BY MARK TURNER , CINDERFORD TOWN COUNCILLOR FROM IAN POPE . THIS PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN 1912 COULD WELL BE EITHER AT THE LOCAL  UNDERTAKERS RUNCICLES PREMISES OR POSSIBLY IN THE OUTBUILDING SHED AREA AT ELLEN’S HOME ADDRESS AT 30 PEMBROKE ROAD (NOW PEMBROKE STREET ) CINDERFORD . IN THOSE DAYS COFFINS WERE PUT ON DISPLAY AT THE HOME’S OF THE DECEASED FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS TO VISIT PRIOR TO BURIAL AND WITH ELLEN BEING A VERY POPULAR LADY IN THE FOREST OF DEAN AT THIS TIME , IT COULD WELL HAVE BEEN PICTURED AT HER HOME?

 BELOW :  COPY OF ORIGINAL RARE PHOTOGRAPH OF ELLEN HAYWARD’S HEADSTONE AND GRAVE TAKEN BACK IN 1912 . KINDLY SOURCED FROM IAN POPE  VIA MARK TURNER, CINDERFORD TOWN COUNCILLOR

ABOVE : RECENT PHOTOGRAPH (JULY 2016) OF ELLEN HAYWARD’S HEADSTONE AT ST JOHNS CHURCH GRAVEYARD , CINDERFORD .

BELOW : ORIGINAL HAUNTING, GHOST- LIKE PAINTING BY GLOUCESTERSHIRE ARTIST PAUL BRIDGMAN , OF ELLEN HAYWARD ( OLD ELLEN ) OVERLOOKING HER GRAVE AT ST JOHNS CHURCH , CINDERFORD WITH A SILHOUETTE IMAGE OF THE ENTRANCE TO  LITTLEDEAN JAIL IN THE BACKGROUND , WHERE SHE WAS TRIED FOR WITCHCRAFT IN 1906. ON DISPLAY HERE AT THE JAIL.