Mysterious 'witch marks' revealed at 17th Century manor

In the hills west of Bradford is a 17th Century manor house where residents once feared evil spirits so much that they made special marks to protect themselves - and they made these marks so permanent that they are still being discovered to this very day.

Previously a medieval estate, East Riddlesden Hall near Keighley was built by Halifax wool merchant James Murgatroyd in the 1640s for his eldest son, John.

Now a National Trust property, historians at the site continue to uncover a series of these mysterious marks left behind by previous residents in an effort to ward off unwelcome spirits.

"These are things that have been around for many centuries and were what people who were building the house put in there to protect themselves from evil or witches or bad spirits entering the home," explains Amy Gregory, collections and house officer at East Riddlesden.

"They are things we've known about for quite a while, although we do keep finding more and more, which is quite exciting."

Some of the marks at East Riddlesden can be found on what were known as the "thresholds", places where it was thought evil spirits might enter the home.

For example, on the windowsill of an upstairs bedroom is a daisy wheel, also known as a hexafoil or a witch mark.

Carved into the wood with a needle or compass, the unbroken loop was believed to catch and trap wandering or malevolent spirits in an infinite maze, keeping the household safe.

"It's meant to protect the inhabitants inside from any evil spirits trying to come in, so they put them on their thresholds," explains Gregory.

"This windowsill until about two years ago was completely covered in thick brown paint.

"So we had a furniture conserver remove it because we just wanted it to go back to the wood again - then he came and told us he'd found a daisy wheel on there.

"It's something he thought we might have here because of the age of the building, so he was looking out for them."

Gregory says that another windowsill on the ground floor of the hall, which is still covered in thick brown paint, may well prove to be another location for witch marks.

"Maybe at a future point we'd quite like to remove that to see if there are any more daisy wheels inside the house," she says.

It is not only mysterious marks which can be found at East Riddlesden Hall.

Three strange carved heads above the fireplace in the Great Hall are not just there for decoration, says Gregory.

Known as archaic heads, the figures have been found on field walls, bridges and houses across West Yorkshire – with one even found on the Hebden Bridge aqueduct.

They are thought to have been used as a protection against bad luck.

"They were quite a prevalent thing in Calderdale and James Murgatroyd was from Calderdale," says Gregory.

"They were supposedly put either on the outside buildings or inside buildings to protect the inhabitants from misfortune.

"Murgatroyd had about £2,000 a year, which in today's money is probably several hundred thousands of pounds

"He was quite wealthy and he built at least seven houses, most of them in the Halifax area."

Meanwhile, as well as daisy wheels, there are also further odd marks and markings to be spotted around East Riddlesden.

Deliberate burns can be found along wood panelling which it is thought were put there to protect from fire, and graffiti can be seen in the medieval tithe barn calling for the protection of the Virgin Mary.

"These are called Marion marks and they are Christian protection symbols," Gregory says.

"They're meant to be invocations of the Virgin Mary, so through religious inhabitants they would have put these marks on as a way to protect themselves.

"It's often thought they put them in barns to maybe protect the harvest in here.

"These marks still remain there today, so they've kind of stood the test of time."

Gregory insists the marks must have worked because, despite rumours spread at the end of the last century, there are no reported ghosts at the hall.

"There are ghost stories of the house, but they were all invented in the 1990s, so we think that at the time the house steward was quite interested in ghost stories.

"But I'm in the house quite a lot and I don't see anything."

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