Memorial to Honour the Victims of the Witchcraft Trials in Bury St Edmunds Unveiled

A first memorial to honour the victims of the witchcraft trials in Bury St Edmunds has been installed at Moyse’s Hall Museum.

The commemorative sculpture features the names of all the known victims of the witchcraft trials in Bury St Edmunds which span nearly 100 years from 1599 to 1694.

Amongst them are the names of the 16 women and 2 men, one of whom was a vicar, hanged in a single day in 1645, and Rose Cullender and Amy Denny whose 1662 trial influences the famous witch trials of Salem 30 years later in the United States.

West Suffolk Council which runs the museum approached town artist Kate Jackson, to carry out the work as part of a project backed with more than £15,000 of funding from The Bury Society and £500 from The Friends of Moyse’s Hall Museum.

“I knew this was something that both as a woman and an artist I had to do,” said Kate. “The history of the witch trials is largely a history of the oppression and persecution of women, particularly of women who did not fit into societal norms. These women were falsely accused on the basis of gossip and hearsay, perhaps because they were known healers, midwives or herbalists or simply because they were old, widowed or alone.

“The design of the monument depicts women at the three stages of life, as the maiden, as the mother and as the crone. Their arms are stretched upwards and they rise triumphantly from the flames of gossip and injustice, despite being held back by the ropes used to hang them. It is an image of defiance rather than one of suppression and horror. Central to the monument is the unborn child who is cocooned and protected by the mother. The child is representative of all of us and warns us of the dangers of hounding minorities.”

Kate said it was important that the piece was created out of wood, the material that was fundamental to everyday life at the time of the trials - and used to make the scaffold from which victims were hanged.

She worked with Bury St Edmunds carver John Williams to create the piece from a damaged Lime Tree at Nowton Park.

“We were both immediately attracted to sections which clearly showed why the Lime had been culled; violently ripped apart by a sudden wind or other unexplained environmental event,” said John.

“It so obviously echoed the suppressed violence this memorial needed.”

The challenge was to incorporate the maiden, mother and crone while keeping the “violent texture” of the torn tree.

“Somehow the whole opportunity to say something profound about something so truly awful in our local past seemed somehow to propel both of us on through it’s constant, ever-changing challenges,” said John

“I came up with the totally counter intuitive notion to carve the whole memorial “negatively”. Hollows where all features go “away” from the viewer. The Italians call it “intaglio”. It is as if the three had been present, leaving an impression or a mould. A footprint. One of the more surprising products of working in reverse is that all faces with their features follow the viewer. Keep your eyes on them as you pass and spookily, they will follow you. If you stoop or stand on tiptoe, their features follow. It is called, “the hollow mask effect.”

Cllr Ian Shipp, West Suffolk Council’s Cabinet Member for Leisure and Culture, said: “This sculpture is an emotionally charged and thought-provoking reflection on such a violent, and unjust period of persecution in our local, national and international history. It may be more than 300 years since it took place, but the lessons that history teaches us are as relevant as ever. My thanks to Kate and to John for producing this commemorative sculpture which will now be on permanent display at Moyse’s, and my thanks also to the Bury Society and the Friends of Moyse’s Hall Museum for their support.”

The commemorative memorial features alongside the crime and punishment displays at Moyse’s Hall, which includes A Tryal of Witches, At the Assizes Held at Bury St Edmunds for the County of Suffolk, a 310-year-old account of the 1662 trial of Rose Cullender and Amy Denny. The book was obtained after The Bury Society and the Friends of Moyse's Hall Museum each gave £1,500 to secure the purchase.

For how to visit the memorial visit the Moyse's Hall Museum website.