Molly Leigh and her North-South grave

In 1685 an unfortunate child was born in a hovel on the windswept moors of Burslem in Staffordshire. She was reputed to have “the sight” and at a time when all Englishmen and women wore amulets and whispered charms for protection against witchcraft, this was a handicap indeed. In addition, she was rumoured to have refused her mother’s milk in favour of suckling farm animals in a fearful display of independence. And because she was horribly deformed with a terrible squint she was greatly feared and shunned. Naturally she grew up to be a lonely and bitter woman with a malicious temper. She made a living by selling milk into the local markets and such was the fear of her that local people were too frightened to buy elsewhere, but it was rumoured that they then disposed of it in the roadside ditches.

After many years of crushing misery and loneliness she began to befriend animals, especially a blackbird who roosted in the hawthorn bush outside her cottage. But this blackbird, which the locals were convinced was Molly’s “familiar”, had a particularly evil character and would look balefully at all passersby. Together they were deemed to be responsible for many local disasters such as failed crops, still born cattle, random fires during the heat of the summer. More seriously they were held responsible for wholesale sickness when the beer in the Turk’s Head Inn turned sour. It was this episode which made a particular enemy of the local Parson, Parson Spencer. He was a regular at the Inn and on one particularly torrid afternoon shot the blackbird. But it immediately recovered and flew off back to Molly’s cottage.

Things were getting to an intolerable impasse, but then Molly died. So this should have been the end of it all. But it wasn’t.

Molly was buried in the village graveyard but the blackbird remained and began to terrorise the villagers. So was the witch really dead?

Parson Spencer and some Vicars from nearby villages went to Molly’s cottage which was now empty as nobody could be found to take on the lease. They wished to conduct a service there to settle her soul; now she was gone they could afford to be charitable. But they found her sitting, rocking in her chair by the fire with the blackbird on her shoulder. Four evil eyes gave them a glacial look and they fled in terror.

So what was to be done?

Late at night, the villagers under the authority of the Parson moved into the graveyard. They exhumed the grave and moved it onto a north-south axis. This axis was believed to anchor the spirit as at that time Christian burials were laid east-west so the deceased could see the dawn and the coming of the Christ on his return to earth. And to make the matter final, the blackbird was caught and entombed in the grave with Molly’s remains. That should have been the end of it as the north-south axis should prevent her ghost from wandering.

But Molly is still said to be seen walking the streets of Burslem. And one further mystery is that she died a pauper. It is not known who paid for her extremely expensive tomb; it is constructed of stone and stands about four feet high.

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In Association with the Western Gazette 

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