Witches and witch hunts are only for TV. films' apparently not. The 1600's saw a huge increase in hanging and burning which claimed thousands of lives, all in the name of religion. The bounty hunters of the day became witch-finders and made a huge fortune finding the witches.
One unfortunate north east woman became famously known as the Washington witch. Jane Atkinson an apparently innocent old woman was blamed for a disease which had wiped out all the cattle in the village. Believing the reclusive old woman had cast a spell on the cows, the villages caught the old woman tied her in a sack and threw her into the village pond. Superstition of the day said she would float if she was guilty and she would sink if she was innocent.
The first time I saw Jane sink to the bottom of the pond, but the villager's were not happy with the 'verdict' and tried again, once more she sank. Still not happy the villager's tried a third time, this time the poor old woman was pulled out, dead. According to the superstition Jane should have been found innocent because she had sank and drowned, but the villages claimed she must have been guilty anyway. Jane was buried in Washington Churchyard in 1696, her name recorded in the burial register with the word witch next to it.
The village pond where Jane Atkinson died is now the site of the War Memorial.
