Special Halloween Series: What lurks behind the post office

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Kevin Wallace
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  Only a guardian spirit can keep a witch at bay.

This was one thought in East Anglia during the 1600s, so it's not overly shocking to find a mummified cat in the wall when demolishing an old Anglican building.

Many believed witches drew their powers from the devil through small animals, or familiars, which were more susceptible to convey dark powers.

Ironically, non-witches would often brick a living cat into their walls during construction, believing that when the cat died in those walls, its spirit would attach itself to the home and protect it.

You've just entered the RAF Mildenhall Fright Zone, and the story you're about to hear are actual accounts of local residents.

Tales of witches have always been connected to this area. More than 700 witches were tried and executed over the course of a century in East Anglia alone.

Was one executed on RAF Mildenhall?

The facts are fuzzy on the matter but for generations, people have told the tale of the Mum's Witch, believed to have been staked to the ground and left to die in the small patch of woods behind the post office.

According to Alex McWhirter, a Bury St. Edmunds museum employee who wrote a dissertation on the differences between witch hunts in England and continental Europe, witches were sometimes staked to the ground through their knees and elbows.

"Christian belief was that during revelations, the dead will be reincarnated and walk again," said McWhirter, who explained the logic behind staking was to prevent that from happening.

McWhirter couldn't confirm that a witch was executed on RAF Mildenhall but said he wouldn't discount the rumor either as many witch trials were held in the local area.

According to an article written by Andrew Woodger, BBC Suffolk, 18 people were hung during the largest single witch trial in England, which took place in Bury St. Edmunds in 1645.

The laws against witchcraft were repealed in 1736, but mob violence against believed witches continued for years after.

"There was a popular belief that witches could do you harm," said James Sharpe, professor of early modern history at the University of York. "There [was] also the theological belief in witchcraft - an educated belief that sees the witch in the service of Satan and willing to make war on the Christian commonwealth."

Where witches rampant in Suffolk, or was the inquisition more prevalent here than other areas?

Opinions vary on the subject.

Perhaps an evening walk through the woods behind the post office will be enough to set anyone's mind to rest on the matter.

... or, could doing so invoke something much darker?

Stay tuned as the 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs office brings you the next RAF Mildenhall Fright Zone. This special series will run until Halloween 2011.