The trials of 1612
The Pendle Witch Trials took place amid the tensions of Jacobean England. Twelve people from the Pendle area were accused; one died in prison, one was tried at York, and ten were tried at Lancaster Assizes and executed in August 1612.
Much of the surviving account comes through Thomas Potts’s published report, The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster. Like any record made for authority, it must be read critically and in context.
Pendle Hill
Pendle Hill rises above east Lancashire, long serving as landmark, working landscape and source of local identity. Its settlements and farms formed the geography around which the accusations unfolded.
Malkin Tower
Malkin Tower was associated with the Demdike family and a meeting on Good Friday 1612 that became central to the prosecution case. Its precise location has not been conclusively established.
History, folklore, fiction
Folklore changes as it is retold. The Pendle Circle draws atmosphere and questions from that tradition, but marks invention as invention. The accused were real people subjected to prosecution; they should not be reduced to Halloween figures or treated as proven supernatural witches.