Essex village to host re-enactment of woman's witchcraft trial

John Worland, who served as an Essex Police officer for 21 years, pursued local history in his retirement and was soon fascinated by the case of Elizabeth Lowys. 

The so-called witch was held in Colchester Castle before her execution in Chelmsford in 1564.

She was the first to be hanged under a new law passed two years earlier which made witchcraft punishable by death in Great Britain.

Historian – former police officer John Worland, 74 (Image: Submitted) Hundreds more women suffered the same fate after being held and tried at Colchester Castle, with most alleged witches later hanged in Chelmsford.

Women were still being prosecuted for witchcraft 163 years after the first execution in the UK, and the Witchcrafts Acts were not repealed in England and Scotland until 1735.

The case of Elizabeth Lowys was of particular interest to Mr Worland, 74, who went to Essex Records Office as part of his research and found it was the only witch trial case where copies of out-of-court testimony still exist.

He said: “At the time, thousands of people, mostly women, were falsely accused and forced to confess under torture.

“The Lowys case is the only one where we have the original witness depositions.

“I actually held those documents in my hands at the Essex Records Office and realised that the last time they were handled would have been for use at the trial.

“The records I read described how even pigs had allegedly become ‘bewitched’ by Lowys, who was charged with the murder of three people.

“She shared a cell with many others at Colchester Castle and she lived in absolute squalor until her trial.”

Mr Worland will next month give a talk to members of the public about Elizabeth Lowys’s trial and execution, and will show videos of the re-enactment depicting Lowys’s trial at a church in Great Baddow.

Film – the re-enactment will be shown to visitors next month (Image: Submitted) The event will take place on Sunday, May 11, at 2.30pm at St Mary’s Old Church in Hall Road, West Bergholt.

Entry and parking will be free, and donations will go towards the 1,000-year-old church’s restoration.

Mr Worland, of West Bergholt, added: “This case was quite momentous – before the Elizabethan law, there were few prosecutions that resulted in execution.

“Essex has the dubious distinction of convicting the first woman in England for witchcraft.”