Guilsborough

Guilsborough
Northamptonshire
Location
Grid reference:	SP6773
Location:	52°21’19"N, 1°-0’37"W
Data
Population:	662
Post town:	Northampton
Postcode:	NN6
Dialling code:	01604
Local Government
Council:	West Northamptonshire
Parliamentary constituency:	Kettering

Guilsborough is a village in Northamptonshire, a modest village which at the time of the 2001 census had a recorded population of just 660.

Guilsborough is at the centre of an area of rural villages between the towns of Northampton, Daventry, Rugby and Market Harborough. There is a secondary school, fire station, pub, a new village shop (formerly the doctor's surgery) and a doctor's surgery. The secondary school is on the edge of the village.

Parish church

St Etheldreda's

The parish church is St Etheldreda's, and was possibly a minster of Brixworth, which is one of the oldest remaining Anglo-Saxon churches. There are Saxon remnants among the Norman architecture of Guilsborough church. There are rumours that it may have been founded by Saint Wilfred; however these probably belong to the realm of myth and legend.

This church was originally dedicated to St Wilfred and it is unusual to see a renaming in favour of a new saint. However, Wilfred and Etheldreda's paths are said to have crossed when Wilfred supported the Queen's decision not to grant her second husband conjugal rights. Despite having been married once before, it is said that St Etheldreda (also known as St Audrey) remained a virgin.

The church has six bells and there is an anomaly in that the second bell is heavier than the third.

Stained glass window of St Etheldreda and St Wilfred

History

Remains of Roman wall

Today, the housing estate Church Mount stands where Guilsborough Hall once stood. The mount is separated from the main road by a large embankment which is the remains of a Roman wall. The wall was part of a Roman fort, an outpost of the settlement at West Haddon. The encampment is believed to have been the work of Publius Ostorius Scapula, under the reign of Claudius. The larger part of the camp walls have long since been removed and it is noted that, when the south bank was removed in the 19th century, many skeletons were found. No one is certain what became of these remains.

Ethel and Eleanor Renton, mother and daughter, were prolific local historians writing in the 1920s. To commemorate the millennium, their work was republished as: The Records of Guilsborough, Nortoft and Hollowell, originally published in 1929 by T Beaty Hart Ltd.

The Rentons were also heavily involved in the local Women's Institute and were responsible for the tapestry of the witches in the village hall.

Folklore

The Guilsborough Witches

On 22 July 1612, four women and one man were hanged at Abington Gallows in Northampton for the crime of witchcraft, also known as the Northamptonshire Witch Trials. Of those five, Agnes Brown and her daughter Ioane/Joan Vaughan (or Varnham) were from Guilsborough.

They stood accused of bewitching a local noblewoman, Elizabeth Belcher (née Fisher) and her brother-in-law Master Avery and of killing, by sorcery, a child and numerous livestock. For a full account of these tales see: A Brief History of Witchcraft Relating to The Witches of Northamptonshire Reprinted by Taylor & Son 1867. Facsimile by General Coe Ltd, Wilbarston, Northants; April 1967, Witchcraft and Demonianism by C. L'Estrange Ewen 1970 or Witchcraft in England 1558-1618 edited by Barbara Rosen 1991.

WI tapestry in the village hall

Although the hangings can be legitimately traced back to actual historic events, the story most commonly repeated is of less certain origins. The tale goes that there was an elderly witch called Mother Roades, who lived just outside the neighbouring village of Ravensthorpe. Before she could be arrested and tried for her crimes of sorcery, she died. Her final words told of her friends riding to see her, but that it did not matter because they would meet again in some other place before the month was out.

Her friends were thus apprehended riding on the back of a sow between Guilsborough and Ravensthorpe and were taken into custody and hanged, thus they were all reunited in death.

Although Agnes Brown remains a constant upon the pig's back, in different tellings of the story her companions swap names. Three witches were on the pig, but the potential riders, other than Agnes Brown (who appears as one of the riders in all versions), are: Kathryn Gardiner, Alice Abbott, Alice Harrys and Ioan/Joan Lucas.

It would appear from records that all of these accused stood trial together, however the reporting only covers the hangings of one day in 1612, so the fates of the others are not known.

Pell's Pool

Guilsborough used to have its own version of Black Annis who lived in Pell's Pool. This was a deep pool which stood off Cold Ashby Lane and was used by the local fire service as a water supply for many years. The pool has now dried up and a house stands there. Young boys and girls were told not to go walking by the pool at night otherwise a witch would drag them down into the water.

Village sign

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Guilsborough)

• Exploring the Guilsborough Witches: essay on the folklore of Guilsborough