All About History - Issue 111, 2021_

O

n an August day in 1682, three women

condemned as witches were led to

the scaffold in Exeter. Temperance

Lloyd, Susanna Edwards and Mary

Trembles lived on the margins and

died in disgrace, convicted of the most

deplorable acts by the social class on which

they had relied for charity. These women

in their 60s or 70s – immortalised as the

‘Bideford Witches’ after the prosperous

town they lived in – were the last people

known to have been executed for witchcraft

in England. Their tragedy is presented with

erudition and compassion by John Callow,

who has built on generations of scholarship

and studied important primary material

including parish papers, charity records

and court proceedings to document the

lives (and afterlives) of Lloyd, Edwards and

Trembles. As, respectively, an abandoned

wife, a widow and a single woman, all living

in poverty, they had few avenues of support

open to them when they became the

subjects of community suspicion and fear.

Callow, rightly, makes no attempt to

provide a simple explanation as to why

these women were targeted, instead

weighing up potential factors including

a decline in the middle classes’ sense of

duty to the poor, a power vacuum in local

governance, and the idea of a minority

group turning on another. The Last Witches

of England is an important work of social

history that presents valuable insights into

the workings of life, death, and belief in  a

cosmopolitan 17th-century town. BW

THE LAST WITCHES OF ENGLAND

Author John Callow Publisher Bloomsbury Academic

Price £25 Released Out now

Three women are forsaken by their community

Reviews by

Martyn Conterio, Beth Wyatt, Catherine Curzon

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A

jaunt through thousands of years of

British culture awaits readers of this

new title by the British Library. The

British History Puzzle Book challenges

enthusiasts to put their knowledge

to the test across 42 rounds encompassing

social, cultural and political approaches to the

country’s past. Themes include royalty, battles,

theatre, architecture, empire, sport, medicine

and industry. What was the bloodiest battle

fought on British soil? Which dynasty in English

history has had the highest proportion of

female monarchs? Who is the only musician to

have been given a state funeral at Westminster

Abbey? The book eschews an Anglocentric focus

by including additional rounds quizzing readers

on their knowledge of Scottish, Welsh and

Irish histories, and it covers periods including

prehistoric, Roman, medieval, Tudor, Stuart,

Victorian and modern Britain.

The book also includes spectacular imagery,

with each round accompanied by photographs

and illustrations from the British Library’s

archive. Striking medieval manuscript pages

and maps feature alongside architecture

prints, artwork from literature including Alice’s

Adventures in Wonderland, and modern posters

and photographs. The British History Puzzle

Book is an enjoyable read that will keep history

enthusiasts well entertained, and perhaps

prompt some lively debate over the Christmas

dinner table. BW

THE BRITISH HISTORY

PUZZLE BOOK

Author: Philip Parker Publisher British Library Publishing

Price £14.99 Released 1 April 2022

An entertaining book packed with cultural facts