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Witch · Oakley

The swimming of the Oakley witch

To clear her family's name, an old woman lets the village throw her into the River Ouse. Floating means guilty, and then they fetch the church Bible.

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Illustration: Swum at Oakley Mill
The legend
Witch

Swum at Oakley Mill

She floated twice, then they weighed her against the Bible.

Stand where it happened

What's there
The riverside; the mill is long gone
Legend from
1735
Tone
Dark history
WitchesTrials

Before you go

The mill was pulled down in the 1860s, so there's nothing to mark the spot by the river. This is a place to remember rather than see.

  • Site of Oakley Mill, River Great Ouse
  • Near Station Road, Oakley
  • The pin marks the village; the exact spot isn't recorded.
  • Date1735

By the river at Oakley, in 1735, an old woman was thrown into the Ouse to find out whether she was a witch.

In 1735 a woman of over sixty living in Oakley, long suspected of witchcraft, agreed to be swum to clear her name and her children's. The parish officers chose a spot by the mill on the River Ouse. Bound in a wet sheet with her hands and feet tied and a rope round her body, she was thrown in and floated, which the crowd took as proof the water rejected a witch. Half-drowned, she was ducked a second time and floated again. She was then weighed against the twelve-pound church Bible and outweighed it. Some onlookers were unsettled; the parson went home convinced she was a witch.

One sourceOnly one written account of this legend has been found so far.

Sources

  1. Bedfordshire Archives: Witch Testing at Oakley in 1735