Don’t scare the horses: Unpicking 17th-century protective graffiti at Bolsover Castle’s Riding School

In the medieval and early modern period, the malign influence of supernatural beings was a very real concern. The prevalence of protective symbols (more generally known as ‘apotropaics’) like witch marks, hexfoils, pentangles, compass circles, taper marks, and mesh designs recorded in county surveys across the length and breadth of the UK shows just how fearful of evil spirits past populations were. Compass-drawn designs often appear in a church porch, or at the base of a church tower (or, as at St Mary’s church in Newark, Nottinghamshire, on the lock of the tower door). Many roof beams and fireplace lintels are adorned with taper burns, a teardrop-shaped scorch mark created by holding a naked flame against the wood at a 45° angle for around 15 minutes. But perhaps most common of all is the ‘double-V’ witch mark or, if inverted, a ‘marion mark’ like a capital M – a design found in the thousands across the country.

The thinking behind these symbols appears to be steeped in superstitious beliefs. Placing a taper burn on the roof of a building or in a church tower will protect against fire from lightning strikes, literally fighting fire with fire. A compass design or mesh pattern will ensnare any unwitting demon or malevolent spirit, metaphorically ‘pinning’ them against the wall, as will an incised pentangle. And a double-V calls forth the protection of the Virgo Virginum (Virgin of Virgins): Mary, mother of Jesus.

These marks can be viewed as counter-spells in the same vein as the so-called ‘witch-bottles’ (see p.51), shoes hidden in chimneys, and other such ‘physical’ traces of this practical magic that we have in the archaeological record. They can date from anywhere in the medieval period into the 17th and early 18th centuries, though beyond this point there is a noticeable drop-off in evidence – perhaps due to the dawn of the ‘Age of Reason’ and the Enlightenment, when increasing scientific understanding began to edge out superstition. (Such beliefs did not die out entirely, however; see this month’s ‘In Focus’ for an inscription reflecting rather more malevolent magical practices in 19th-century Wales.)