Our October meeting was a “packed house” in the Community Centre, together with our Members we had 25 visitors who had been attracted by the subject matter for this “Halloween” month.

Richard, our Chairman welcomed all present and introduced our speaker for the evening, Morgan Ditchburn a lady who has been to the Society before and no doubt we will see her again.

Morgan started with the history of Witches in the Middle Ages, Wales was very laid back about witchcraft as against the persecution that occurred in England ,Scotland and the rest of Europe, and even after the Act of Union in 1536 Wales tended to stick to their previous method of dealing with so called witches.  Most of the accusations were of a family or neighbour problem and were settled out of court.

Women were more likely to be called a witch and the national dress of Wales, with the black pointed hat, also looked the part !.  The acquittal rate was high in Wales and as a result there are no records on these, but North Wales was the only area in Wales where there were 5 executions for witchcraft. Gwen ferch Ellis from Llandyrnog became the first to pay the ultimate price, condemmed by William Hughes the Bishop of St.Asaph she was hanged in Denbigh in 1594.

The courthouse in Beaumaris saw the trial of Margaret ferch Richard convicted in 1655 and executed and in 1622 a family of 3 siblings, Lowri ferch Evan Agnes ferch Evan and Rhydderch ap Evan, a yeoman, were found guilty of witchcraft and duly hanged.

During the 16^th and 17^th centuries there were only 37 witchcraft prosecutions in Wales and out 8 found guilty only the previously mentioned 5 received the death sentence.