24/10/2026
👻 It’s spooky season and what better place to go than Worsbrough Mill to see how the millers who lived there left their own supernatural marks.
👀 See if you can spot them.
🧙♀️The earliest part of the Mill dates from 1625 - a time when people feared witches and evil spirits and so they made witch marks to fend off the supernatural. If you look at the fireplace on the upper floor of the Mill you can see initials marked on as well as some dates- but look closely and you will see a funny M marked in near the top right of the mantle - the mark invokes the Virgin Mary to keep the house safe. Downstairs the door lintel bares scratches that look like Ws and Ms, again typical 17th century witch marks.
🕯️Back upstairs and the main beam also has scorch marks - two oval burns scraped into the wood - these would have been made to ward off evil spirits.
🎎 Another strange find is the ceramic head of a doll, found in a bundle of rags when a fireplace was renovated in the 1970s. The builders placed her in the door frame on the ground floor for safe keeping- perhaps she was just a play thing, but the strangeness of where she was found inspired superstition.
🤔 Whether there was any truth to the usefulness of witch marks remains to be proved but the practice was widespread across 17th century Britain, perhaps next time you are in an old, old building look closely at the fire places, doors, windows and beams to see whether you can spot any.
🔍 Free entry to Worsbrough Mill Thursday- Sunday 10am-3pm
