The Witches of Selwood Forest: Witchcraft and Demonism in the West of England, 1625-1700
The ancient forest of Selwood straddles the borders of Somerset and Wiltshire and terminates in the south where these counties meet Dorset. Until now, a comprehensive study of its exceptionally rich history of demonological beliefs and witchcraft persecution in the early modern period has not been attempted. This book explores the connections between important theological texts written in the region, notably Richard Bernard’s Guide to the Grand-Jury Men (1627) and Joseph Glanvill’s Saducismus Triumphatus (1681), influential local families such as the Hunts and the Hills, and the extraordinary witchcraft episodes associated with Shepton Mallet, Brewham, Stoke Trister, and elsewhere. In particular, it focuses on a little-known case in the village of Beckington in 1689, and shows how this was not a late, isolated episode, but an integral part of the wider Selwood Forest witchcraft story.
Andrew Pickering is a graduate of the universities of Birmingham, Keele, Bath and Leicester, UK. He is the Programme Manager for a Plymouth University BA(Hons) degree in History, Heritage and Archaeology delivered at Strode College in Street, Somerset. This is his fourth book on the history of witchcraft and witch-hunting.
"The subtitle Witchcraft and Demonism in the West of England 1625-1700 presents a new aspect of the history of our ancestors, so this in-depth study of a rather short period in time might strike a chord with those who had once heard of a ‘family rumour’."
Colin Dean The Greenwood Tree, 42:3 (2017)
"Readers expecting a brand new approach to the study of witchcraft will not find what they are looking for. But Pickering did not promise that, and his book solidly and interestingly does what it did promise: to offer a detailed, well-researched and informative account of the witches of Selwood Forest. Occasionally the book could benefit from a more thematically-organised structure, or a quicker progress through a mass of contextual material, but again that is not a major criticism. Pickering began the book as an account of the Beckington case, which dominates the narrative, and he successfully demonstrates that it was more than a footnote in the history of witchcraft. Instead it belongs to a longer story of its locality, which he tells with care and enthusiasm. Readers should find new information and conjecture, thoughtful analysis and stimulating insight in this book."
Marion Gibson Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures, University of Exeter, The Seventeenth Century, 34:1, 138-140 (2019)
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