CNN
—
A “staggering array” of witches’ marks have been discovered on the walls of a Tudor property in England.
The carvings, which are formally known as apotropaic marks, were at the time believed to provide ritual protection against evil.
News of the discovery, aptly timed to coincide with Halloween, was released by English Heritage, a charity that looks after hundreds of historic monuments, buildings and sites.
Gainsborough Old Hall is a manor house in the eastern county of Lincolnshire that was once visited by Henry VIII and his then Queen, Catherine Howard, according to an English Heritage press release Tuesday.
The markings were discovered by Rick Berry, an English Heritage volunteer who spent two years mapping around 20 carvings inside the grand building, according to the release.
These include a “staggering array” of designs, according to English Heritage, though there’s a notable concentration in the servants’ wing of the hall.
Among the marks found were simple circles that ordinarily would have been expected to have a six petal design inside – known as a hexafoil – to trap demons.
One theory is that the petals may have faded away or that drawing them would have been beyond the skills of the carver, an English Heritage spokesperson told CNN in an email.
Also found were overlapping Vs – known as Marian marks as they’re believed by some to be a call for protection from the Virgin Mary – and a pentangle that was used to protect against evil.
Berry told CNN in an email sent by English Heritage: “I have been working as an English Heritage volunteer at Gainsborough for nearly 20 years and I know this property extremely well. So I was astonished when I noticed a previously undocumented protection mark a couple of years ago.
“I decided to see if I could spot any more and I just keep finding them. The last one was a small pentagram and that was a few weeks ago, but who knows how many more there are still to find.”
A curse appears to have been put on former owner William Hickman, who owned the property from 1596 as his name was found written upside down, the release adds. Defacing someone’s name was widely believed as a means to curse that person – though it is a practice more commonly associated with the Roman and Anglo Saxon period and has never previously been found at an English Heritage property.
About 100 burn marks, which were thought to protect against fire, were also uncovered at the property.
Reason for high number of carvings ‘a mystery’
Kevin Booth, head of collections at English Heritage, said in the release: “It is astonishing that centuries on the amazing old buildings in our care still have secrets waiting to be discovered.
“The Old Hall has undoubtedly had a tumultuous past, not least under the ownership of the apparently unpopular William Hickman, but why it’s the scene of quite such a high concentration of protective carvings remains a mystery.”
The meaning of apotropaic comes from the Greek for averting evil. The marks are usually found carved into stone or wood, usually near entrances, doors, windows and fireplaces. Their purpose was to supposedly protect inhabitants and visitors from witches and evil spirits.
In 2019, hundreds of witches’ marks were found scratched into the walls of an English cave system in the East Midlands, central England. Other apotropaic marks have been found in houses built between around 1550 and 1750.
Experts say similar signs were scribed into churches and homes, as well as other caves, and were used to ward off sickness, death or poor harvests.