Extract from Rhymes From Ashlington: Redvale Verses and Stories ed. Robert Raine (Aisling Press 1973)
Halloween is a good time for witches, and next we have a story and a poem about a wicked witch who lived in the Redvale.
Once upon a time, in the olden days, when we were all shorter and lived nearer the water, there was a witch in the village of Haggleton. She was called Marianne Hemdyke and she lived all alone in a tumble-down cottage near Thistledown Forest.
She grew herbs and made potions and lotions that could cure sick people or poorly animals. But on stormy nights she could be seen up at the standing stones on Ringstone Hill, calling strange names. And other folks claimed she was often in the graveyard by the old chapel late at night, apparently talking to someone. Or something. One farmer said he had seen her in the forest talking to a monstrous toad with horns and a burning black crown.
When people began to go missing in the village, folks said enough was enough, and called on the local judge to arrest her. Stout men stormed into her cottage and found bones and skulls, and other horrid things.
She was clapped in irons, and the judge said she was to hang. They took her to Thistledown Forest and found a strong old oak to carry out the execution. And so she was hanged.
But something came out of the dark woods, a huge tall slimy thing, with a great many arms and hooves. And it plucked the screaming witch from the rope, and carried her off into the gloom of the forest. She was never seen again, and folks say that the Devil himself had come and carried her off to Hell!
What a spooky story! And the wicked witch is remembered all over the Redvale with the following poem too.
Do not tarry in the wild woodlands,
For there are witches in the trees,
The crooked branches are thier hands,
And they whisper amid the leaves.
Do not tarry in the woodlands wild,
For witches in the shadows deep,
Are waiting for an unwary child
To tangle in their dreaming sleep.
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