Paul and I headed out to Botley to investigate the legend of the witch of Botley for our magazine. It was another deceptive, almost spring morning where I foolishly left my coat behind because the sun was out and I assumed it was warm. Wrong! I always take Tabitha’s coat and make sure she’s wrapped up but somehow I think I’m invincible (you’d think I’d learn especially as I am definitely NOT invincible as proved by the ongoing tooth saga).
The witch of Botley was actually the witch of Curdridge, barely a village a few miles along the road. There seems to be a few local legends of shape-shifting witches in the area and this witch is no exception. It is said that locals got fed up with her so shot her with a silver bullet made from a half crown (because silver bullets are the only way to kill a witch, don’t you know!). But she changed into a hare to escape but got hit and died anyway.
There’s more to the area and legend as we’ve found out (I am such a research addict). But I’ll save that for another time!
We stopped off at St. Peters church to look at the gargoyles on the tower. It was my first churchyard combined gargoyle visit this year – omg, how I’ve missed them!
This is the legendery giant Ascupart captured in wonderful gargoyle form:
I loved these little flowers – life springing forth from an old grave. Beautiful!
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