Do evil spirits still linger at St James's?

Apr 7 2009 by The Journal

It's not only Newcastle United players who suffer abuse for their performances at St James's Park. In years gone by it was where local witches were put to death, as a new book about the North East’s supernatural history, reveals. Mike Kelly spoke to its author.

WHEN the devil went down to Cresswell, he was looking for a soul to steal. However, unlike the famous song, it was not a fiddle player but a tailor he was trying to tempt to eternal damnation. But in both cases, Satan failed.

It’s one of the interesting snippets in the book Mysterious Northumberland about the supernatural, paranormal and generally spooky things going on in the region.

Author Rupert Matthews takes up the diabolical tale. He said: “The devil was seen in Cresswell in 1752 where there was a tailor who was reckoned to be the best in the county.

“The devil tried to tempt him with the sin of pride after turning up as a wealthy businessman and offering to buy one of the suits.

“Because he was a stranger the tailor became suspicious and contacted the local vicar. In the end the devil disappeared in a ball of flame.”

Like a lot of his material, Rupert gathered it from folk tales, old history books and public records – the devil incident was first written about in 1810.

And from his research he worked out that Northumberland, which for the purposes of his book also includes Newcastle, was a hotspot to live if you were a witch.

Apart from Norfolk, it had the highest number of recorded executions of them in the country – a total of 23.

Rupert explained: “I think this was because there was so many of them. Northumberland and the surrounding area including where Newcastle is now was heavily settled by the British in the post Roman period. They were big on other spirits, particularly pagan deities, before Christianity came.

“Witchcraft wasn’t illegal – harming people through witchcraft was.”

One case he unearthed had a woman tried after a neighbour claimed she had sent her ‘familiar spirit’ – an animal shaped imp who serves witchery – to ransack her house.

The witch’s defence amused Rupert. He explained: “She said I don’t know how to do familiar spirits. I haven’t learnt to do them yet.”