Malkin Tower is the site of perhaps the best-known alleged witches' coven in English legal history. It was the home of Elizabeth Southerns and her granddaughter Alizon Device, two of the chief protagonists in the Lancashire witch trials of 1612. A pedlar collapsed soon after refusing to sell Alizon some pins. She and her grandmother were summoned to the home of local magistrate Roger Nowell on suspicion of causing harm by witchcraft, and were thereafter detained in the gaol at Lancaster Castle. Friends met at Malkin Tower on 6 April 1612 (Good Friday), allegedly to plot their escape by blowing up the castle. Nowell learned of the meeting and concluded that it had been the scene of a witches' coven. Eight of those attending were subsequently arrested and tried for causing harm by witchcraft, seven of whom were found guilty and executed; the house may have been demolished shortly after the trials. The only firm evidence for its location comes from the official account by the clerk to the court, who places it somewhere in the Forest of Pendle(pictured). Archaeological excavations in the area have failed to discover any confirmed remains of the building. (Full article...)
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