A world record attempt for the largest gathering of witches takes place in Exeter this weekend - and the event is being used to re-ignite calls to pardon three women hanged in the city more than 300 years ago.
Rougemont Castle is the venue for the largest ever gathering of witches together, which is being called The Grand Witches Tea Party. Organisers need to attract more than 765 to beat the record set two years ago at Warwick Castle.
The date has been chosen to mark 322 years since three women were hanged for the crime of being witches on August 25, 1682.
Temperance Lloyd, Susannah Edwards and Mary Trembles, all from Bideford, are regarded as the last women in England to be hanged for the offence.
Apparently, the women were convicted on hearsay evidence, which included one of them being accused of turning into a magpie. Even the Assizes Justices at the time did not believe they were guilty but were forced to respond to an angry mob that was baying for a hanging.
Last year author Christine Nash set up an online petition to call for their public pardon but despite support, which included Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw, it was unsuccessful.
Modern witch Jackie Juno, 51-year-old, who lives in Bovey Tracey with her husband and daughter, hopes this second attempt will persuade Exeter City Council to take them seriously and reconsider.
"By getting them pardoned we are making a statement that this bigoted behaviour should not be tolerated nowadays. It would prove that humanity could change for the better," she says.
"It would also be laying the women to rest in a way that resolves the mistakes of history."
Anyone attending the tea party will be able to sign their names in a book, which will then be presented to city councillors.
Jackie feels an empathy with these women whom, she says, may have been guilty of simply being different.
"If you were unmarried or childless or sometimes simply owned a cat you were regarded with suspicion," she says. "What these women suffered really struck a chord with me."
