Pendle Witch Cottage Discovered In Lancashire

or found guilty of murdering a cat with witchcraft

Actually, burying a cat within your wall was most likely practiced by more than a few back in those times. Yes, it was probably to ward off bad spirits or something to that effect. No, it doesn't absolutely mean that witches lived in that dwelling. A dead black cat was found lodged purposefully within the walls of the Tower of London. It had been buried there possibly withing the same time frame of the 1600's. This factoid is verified (and shown) in the BBC documentary "The Tower". (www.imdb.com/title/tt0756275/)

I love that there's still stuff like that to be found.

I believe it's "Lancashire".

Drawing conclusions that it's a witch sounds like something sexy and trendy to make their project more interesting to the general public.

"It's a witch cottage" will get you more funding than "It's a cottage".

It is indeed Lancashire, and it is also absolute bullsh*t.
There are any number of ruined cottages scattered around the region, abandoned during the industrial revolution and left to crumble.
Making sacrifices and walling living animals into buildings is an ancient practice. Bridge-pillars have been found with childrens' bones inside.
However, as a person who works not so far away from Pendle, and having worked on many buildings of that era and older, I'd point out that local construction would have thick walls with void spaces within. Any builder in the modern era will tell you that cats just love to clamber into holes, and get themselves trapped behind drywall, in ceilings, and under floors. I once had to return to a house where the owner had heard a cat mewing from behind the bath panels. The cat was indeed inside, but the panels had not been off for over a year. This intrepid idiot cat had squeezed through a small hole in the floor, where pipes entered, beneath a kitchen unit in a neighbouring apartment, and crept under the floor for about thirty feet.
Had a dead cat been found under the bath would it be proof of a witch?

Second point. The fireplace in the illustration has nothing to do with 400 years ago. It's later than 1860.
Not that it disproves any witch habitation, but it's a poor choice of illustration for the muppet who's making all these silly claims. "an expert on the pendle witches" Ha!
And he thinks he's Howard Carter.
Muppet.

@KirkD you're right there was a widespread myth that bricking a live cat into the walls of your house would bring you luck. Specifically a black cat if I remember my reading correctly.

This is the usual attention grabbing. Bear in mind that the Pendle area is very much associated with witchcraft in English folklore, especially when it comes to witch trials. Any find from the right period in that area will always be associated with witchcraft. Throw in a cat and you've got a guaranteed witch story for the press.

@soubriquet where did you come up with the date 1860? I'd agree that the fireplace in the photograph is less than 400 years old, but I've seen plenty such fireplaces that predate 1860.

“We are just a few months away from the 400th anniversary of the Pendle witch trials, and here we have an incredibly rare find, right in the heart of witching country."

Yes, what an amazing coincidence. *cough*

From the article: "The building also contains a 19th Century kitchen range, still in its original position."

Time traveling witches.

They were hanged, not hung, unless they were well endowed as well.

good call J.P.! ; )