Remembering the Maidstone Witches
Plus the IP Man returns, upcoming Kent events, news in brief, and more
A Maidstone councillor is leading a campaign to erect a memorial to women of the town who were tried for witchcraft in 1652. We’ve been talking to her to learn more about why she believes it’s necessary. Further down, we continue our conversation with Kent’s legendary comic book writer and novelist Dan Abnett, look at the best upcoming Kent events, news in brief, and more.
Remembering the Maidstone Witches
Claire Kehily is a Maidstone borough councillor for the Green Party. We spoke with her about a petition she submitted as a resident, looking to create a memorial to a centuries-old injustice…
Claire deliberately submitted a petition when, as a councillor, a motion was an option, because she wanted to reflect that this wasn’t just her, it was friends and residents who were interested in this as well. “I wanted it to be completely transparent, and raising awareness of what had happened.” As well as being a Green Party councillor since May 2024, representing Coxheath and Farleigh ward in Maidstone, Claire is also a funeral celebrant and works for the Winter Shelter in Maidstone. “I do a variety of things,” she says.
As a councillor, you can attempt to ‘pass a motion,’ which Claire describes as “a terrible turn of phrase.” However, Claire and the friends she was working with decided a petition was the way forward for them. A petition must have at least 100 signatures from people in the borough. “They have to live in the borough, work in the borough, or of significant interest to them in the borough.”
“Electronic petitions these days are quite easy to share, and it raises awareness.” A friend of Claire’s who was involved was Richard, who runs Grimhilde's Kitchen in Royal Star Arcade. They were drawn to the transparency of the petition process. “It's not me trying to sneak anything in as a councillor. It's me as a resident, as somebody that wants to do this, but also as a councillor.”
The petition was about having a memorial in place in Maidstone town centre for women who were killed in the witchcraft trials. “Specifically, I was looking at the witchcraft trials of 1652. There were actually 18 people on trial, which was unheard of here in Kent.” Claire admits she isn’t a historian. “I'm not an expert, but I am interested.” Claire’s research showed that the average was one or two a year. Of the 18 people who were on trial that year, several were hanged.
“They were single women, they were widows, they weren't married women or men.” This was common amongst these trials of the era. Over the last decade, there has been a movement of people wanting to rectify this. “Now you can't bring people back, and the government are not likely to consider pardons,” whereas Scotland is.
Claire and friends felt that a memorial to remember, even if it doesn't fully vindicate them, “honours their names and recognises that something drastically went wrong with the legal system.” Something similar has already occurred in Faversham. “Last year they put in a stone for the ‘witches’ that were hung at Faversham.” Claire feels that a small memorial slab, “not a huge great statue,” is feasible and would be appropriate. “It's Maidstone's turn to recognise these women.”
The women had been accused of murder by witchcraft. Mary Reed from Lenham was accused of murdering a local farmer by witchcraft three and a half years before the trial. “That's obviously something that had festered in the community.” Women from Cranbrook, Ann Ashby, Mary Brown and Mildred Wright, were accused of murdering three people by witchcraft. Witchcraft was then punishable by death. “They were accused of murdering a baby, a young child and a woman. Whether they were healers and midwives, and it all went terribly wrong, it is impossible to know.”
At that time, little evidence would have been presented against them. They were accused and had to prove their innocence. The trial would have been held near the location of the present town hall. The judge was Judge Peter Warburton. “I've seen their indictments, and it looks like they were testimonies.” For each indictment, there were several testimonies by people, including the widow of the lady who died, the father of the children who died, and other people accusing them.
A common instrument was a ‘witch's pricker.’ Similar to a sword used in amateur dramatics, if it makes contact, it retracts. The pricker was a similar needle. “They'd poke that into what they thought were witch marks and moles, things like that.” If it didn't bleed, then they were witches, because they felt no pain. Whilst the torture of prisoners was illegal, the women on trial had been physically examined and ill-treated, sleep-deprived and facing the death penalty. “Some of them did say, yes, they'd been in league with the devil.”
The last woman in the UK to be hanged for witchcraft was around 1680. Thankfully, our attitudes towards single women and elderly widowers are much better now. Of the 18 women who were found guilty and hanged, some were found not guilty, so they could go home, and some were imprisoned further.
Claire has changed her attitude towards witches from the clichéd perception after she read The Crucible during her A-levels, “and I thought, they weren't just witches, they were women.” About 14 years ago, Claire came across the Maidstone Witches and has been interested in the local history of it since. “It hadn't occurred to me when I was younger, the impact it really had, and the economic situation, the political situation, the religious situation. And the fact that as a woman, had I lived 373 years ago, for somebody who's quite outspoken and does what they want, I could have been in an awful lot of trouble.”
“We talk a lot about violence against women and girls, and it just feels like the right time to bring this up and to acknowledge that this happened. This has always been happening. No one is necessarily going to take us to the gallows and hang us, but there is always social injustice. There is a lot of fear, there is a lot of misinformation, and there's always a scapegoat.”
Claire and her friends first started talking about the petition last year. “It was after the Faversham memorial stone was laid”. They faced negativity whilst arranging the petition on the subject of it being a waste of money, and whilst no response fundamentally said they were found guilty, they should be forgotten about, “Somebody did say ‘all their families will want compensation now’ and I thought ‘good luck tracing them.’”
Once the petition was accepted, Claire presented it in June and gave a small speech about the need for the memorial. “Mainly it was met with really positive comments. A few people thought it was potentially a waste of money, or what was the relevance?”
Maidstone Borough Council agreed to take the petition and look into the matter, including enquiring whether any funding is available for the memorial stone. “I did offer to raise funding myself.” Claire recognises that budgets are limited and that “things don't happen overnight.” She is hopeful that after the summer break, conversations will continue. “There's not many council meetings in August.”
There is currently no time scale on when a decision will be made, but Claire does know the people making the decision. “I know how to get hold of them and check.” Whilst Claire can’t be involved in the decision-making process, she is hopeful she will be part of moving the idea forward. “I'm doing a talk in September at Maidstone Museum, which has already sold out.” Claire remains hopeful that a decision can be made and the memorial stone in place for next year.
If you would like to know more or keep informed about the progress, you can follow their Facebook page, Maidstone Witches 1652.
The Kent Current is a reader-supported publication, designed to deliver Kent news without the ads or the clickbait. To support our work and receive our latest editions straight to your inbox, subscribe for free.
In brief
🥖 Bailiffs have evicted the operators of the popular French bistro No Name Shop in Sandwich.
🍰 The Great British Bake Off returns on Tuesday, with one contender from Kent. Lesley from Eynsford described being on the show as a ‘pinch me moment.’
🔥 Residents near Ashford claim they are living in ‘absolute hell’ after a pile of manure caught fire and has been smouldering near their homes for a week.
IP Man returns
In which we continue our conversation with Kent’s legendary comic book writer and novelist, Dan Abnett…
Dan Abnett moved onto the Star Trek universe in the early 90s. By this point, he was working for Marvel Comics in the United States, and they had recently acquired the license to produce original Star Trek comics from DC. Marvel launched five monthly titles, including Starfleet Academy.
Dan was co-writing on Star Trek with another British writer, Ian Edginton, for Star Trek Unlimited on Next Generation and Original Series adventures, “which was great fun writing those characters.” They were also asked to write a regular monthly title, Star Trek: Early Voyages, which became successful until Marvel suddenly and unexpectedly lost the licence.
Dan describes Star Trek: Early Voyages as the most successful of the titles in some respects because “we were allowed for the first time to tell stories about Captain Pike.” Years before the JJ Abrams movies or the recent Strange New Worlds TV series, they went back and created an Enterprise crew around Captain Pike.
“I loved writing that comic. It was so much fun. We ended on a cliffhanger.” Star Trek: Early Voyages has subsequently been collected several times. “Strange New Worlds is not the TV version of our comic by any stretch of imagination,” says Dan, while noting that he would be surprised if they weren’t aware of his comic series.
The Roddenberry Foundation considers Early Voyages to be canon. “I'm very proud of that fact.” Star Trek will often come up at conventions with Dan. “As a comic, it felt different. Every other comic had been trying to extend or continue,” the adventures of Kirk, Picard or Sisko, whereas Early Voyages was going back to “something that had been left behind.”
Another popular IP is, of course, Star Wars. “That's the one significant universe that I haven't written for. I find Star Wars tremendously influential. What I really love about Star Wars is the way the universe feels so real and lived in. It made a huge impression on me when I was a kid.” Dan would understandably jump at the opportunity to work on Star Wars, but the stars, pun intended, have not aligned. With Dan currently working at DC, whilst Marvel publishes Star Wars comics, it might be a while longer yet. He admits, “It's one of my bucket lists.”
One of the strangest jobs Dan had was for a tie-in for the Nemesis rollercoaster. “That's the sort of thing that comes up all the time and you end up doing them!” Alton Towers was trying to promote their new Nemesis rollercoaster in the early 90s, which has “a sort of Aliens-ish vibe.” They wanted to do a comic book that was a single, standalone issue for a free giveaway. They recruited Dan and a 2000AD artist called Will Simpson. “We came in and got to look around Nemesis and wrote a story about Nemesis and a monster alien. I've probably got a copy of it.”
The oddest job Dan had was writing the Happy Meal comic for Ronald McDonald. This wasn’t a one-off but a regular gig for several months until “my brain hurt.” Dan notes that the work often crops up in odd places, though it doesn't necessarily end up getting re-published as a comic or a book or something like that. “When I was a freelance writer, I would take the jobs that were offered to me. It's weird to turn a job down. But sometimes a job would come along, and I want to do that because that sounds interesting. Write a comic based on a roller coaster. All right. Challenge accepted.”
Upcoming Kent events
🎸 Fri 12 Sep - Brian Bilston & the Catenary Wires // Poetry’s version of Banksy teams up with indiepop heroes for album and live shows. Ramsgate Music Hall. Tickets £20.
🚜 Sat 13 Sep - Weald of Kent Ploughing Match // Annual ploughing competition, events, displays, farmers’ market, and 80 trade stalls. Moatenden Farm, Headcorn. Tickets £8.50.
📰 Sat 13 Sep - John Simpson - The Leaders and Lunatics Tour // Legendary journalist explores personalities of world leaders. Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells. Tickets from £34.25.
🎤 14 - 15 Sep - Josh Widdicombe: Not My Cup of Tea // Popular TV comedian plays two nights in Kent. Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury. Tickets £33.50.
More Currents
Our news briefing this week focused on the awkward scenario we’ve found ourselves in, where a Reform-led KCC is telling people that hanging flags on the highway is unlawful, while Kent Police say it’s fine.
Kent Police rebrand lawbreaking as free speech
It’s been a weird week of flags going up across the county, which has led to some awkward political positions. While Reform-led KCC tried to encourage people not to hang flags from lampposts this week, Kent Police made it equally clear that it was absolutely fine and they wouldn’t arrest anyone even if they were breaking the law. We dig into the full de…
It’s the last few days where you can get 20% off an annual subscription to the Kent Current. The generous support of our paid subscribers ensures we can keep digging into the Kent stories that others ignore.
Footnotes
Follow us on social media! We’re on Facebook and BlueSky for now.
If you enjoy the Kent Current, please share it with your friends, family, associates, and enemies. We have no meaningful marketing budget, so we rely on word of mouth from our readers to find new readers.