A Wicked Witch Tale We have two versions of this story. One might be true, the other certainly is not. Version One: Let us begin with the pig. A massive, muck-rooting snout. Tusks tearing away at shrubs. Heavy footed, it drags a filthy belly through mud and leaf mould. Wise to the ways of the pig, small creatures of the Depth scurry to cover. For this is no pink and sweet porker coming up the valley. This is a fearsome Beast and it inhabits that sombre cleft in the earth known as the Depth o’ Lumb. It pleases Padge Barber. She deems it fitting that no lesser folk will come near. Let them keep away. The Depth and the pig are her domain. Fools are not required.
At the kinder end of the steep valley, a few neat cottages line the road. Country folk, working with their hands. In one, Anne and William. Still young, and not long wed. She, capably tending to the garden and the house, he sturdily working for their bread. Hoping for children one day. Planning to add an extra row of beans. Neighbours smile as they pass the house. It is always good to see a handsome couple looking content. People call Padge Barber a witch. Everyone knows she is there, in the Depth, wishing them ill. At the kinder end of the steep valley, a few neat cottages line the road. Country folk, working with their hands. In one, Anne and William. Still young, and not long wed. She, capably tending to the garden and the house, he sturdily working for their bread. Hoping for children one day. Planning to add an extra row of beans. Neighbours smile as they pass the house. It is always good to see a handsome couple looking content.
Padge walks freely around roads and hamlets. She glares at each well-kept cottage she passes, mutters a special curse for the happiest. She says whatever she pleases, to whoever she pleases. Is it fear, or is it pity, which eases the way for her? Some manage to avoid her, but none will turn her away. Well brought up, Anne attends to her from both charity and the respect due to her elders. Padge steadily drops morsels of spoken poison. Hints that William is not to be trusted. Warns Anne about the behaviour of men. Padge lingers by each wall. Plants tales of deceit and waste wherever she finds an ear. Tuts and shakes her head at the sound of Anne’s name.
By Autumn, discord has come to the cottage. Shouting, violent tears. Anne runs into the night, turning this way and that, soon lost in the dark, never found. Without her, William sinks into drink. The weather turns stormy. A nervous, twitchy time. Rumblings and grumblings grow among the neighbours. Together they are bold. They march into the Depth. It will be a confrontation. Enraged squealing, a galloping, heavy tusked charge, shouts of alarm. Out of terror for themselves, they fight and win, leaving the dead pig by the stream. Further into the gloom they go, fearfully approaching Padge’s dismal home. It is empty. Puzzled, stumbling wearily, they return with the pig. Nobody wastes protein. The pig is butchered. In that bloated belly, they find a wedding ring. Padge Barber is never seen again.
Version Two We are not going to write this here because someone else has already written it so beautifully. Instead, we refer you to Charles Willott’s ‘Belper and its People’ (1894). If you like reading Victorian works, treat yourself to a visit to Belper library and enjoy. If you have trouble getting hold of this book, Charles’s tale is similar to the one above, but longer, more detailed and without pig or posse. Both are tales of isolation and malice born of jealousy, and both end badly for all involved. They differ in that version one hints at some supernatural agency, whereas in version two, it is just about human nastiness. Wicked Tales We should be clear which witch we are talking about in this next section. We won’t discuss here the adherents of nature religions or believers in magical practices. We are talking about witches as they appear in local stories. In ‘The Lore of the Land’, Westwood and Simpson offer a description of the folklore witch as a person, generally a woman, who uses magic to cause harm and whose powers come from the devil. They explain that common features of witch stories include the following:
The witch can change into an animal.
The witch has an animal familiar spirit.
The witch can fly or sail on water by magical means.
The witch has power over animals.
The witch can curse people.
In our first version of the Padge story, the pig may be a familiar spirit, or even Padge herself in another form, but this is implied rather than stated, and she does not show any other attributes of the folklore witch. In Version Two, which is probably the original (and maybe true) story, Padge does not perform any supernatural tricks at all, but she is believed to be a witch by the other people living nearby. We would suggest that Padge does exhibit some witchy characteristics not listed by Westwood and Simpson:
She is an old woman.
She is socially isolated.
She is poor.
She has a nasty disposition.
It is sad but true that social outsiders who share some of those characteristics have so often been treated with suspicion, and this continues even in modern times. Padge was guilty of telling wicked tales. You don’t have to be a witch to do that.
