Chris Lawrenson goes in search of Dorset's witches

TWO weeks ago, an intrepid Daily Echo reporter disappeared after being sent into the woods outside Wimborne to unearth the history of local witches and other spooky goings-on.

He was never found, but his notebook was discovered along with an AFC Bournemouth scarf and the half-burned plans for an IMAX cinema. This is what his notes revealed...

* Lyme Regis housewife Deanes Gimmerton was tried on several counts of witchcraft on June 1, 1687, after young neighbours accused her of bewitching them. Eighteen-year-old Nathaniel Scorch became ill with violent fits after smoking tobacco, and claimed he saw an apparition of Gimmerton every time he had a fit; Elizabeth Tillman, also 18, was taken ill in the same way and said she saw Gimmerton when she was ill. Elizabeth died after three years; the outcome of Gimmerton's trial is not known.

* In 1881 farm workers in Lytchett Matravers discovered the bronze statuette of a bull, a sacred cult animal, that was traced to an old woman whose son had been sick. The old woman had used the bull as a charm to restore him back to health.

* Poole High Street was inundated with reports of poltergeist activity during 1965 and 1966. One shop reported objects moving around two years after problems with a poltergeist - blamed on news that the building was to be demolished as part of the redevelopment of the High Street.

This haunting was followed by another at the Crown Hotel in Market Street which was marked by lone notes being played on a piano, a fluorescent mist and the sound of a body being disturbed. Once again the disturbances followed the news that building work was to begin - on a nightclub.

* Churchgoers at Christchurch Priory were disturbed by a "phantom stonemason" in 1972, when strange noises were heard during the restoration of a Norman archway. An Evening Echo reporter wrote: "I thought it was something loose swinging in the wind and hitting the masonry. But it happens when there is no wind and all the equipment is secured."

* In May 1963 the mummified body of a cat was discovered sealed in the wall of a Blandford cottage, starting speculation that it could have been involved in a ritual sacrifice. A book of poetry and prose dated 1851 was found nearby - although a letter to a local newspaper stated that the cat had previously been discovered by workmen in 1903... and had probably crawled inside the wall during routine repairs.

* Tamar Humphries was tried by a Sherborne Court in 1884 after assaulting an 80-year-old neighbour with a stocking needle and accusing her of being a witch. The bench found the assault to be an unprovoked attack on an old woman and fined Humphries accordingly.

* Far from any towns, the hamlet of Ansty, in the centre of the Dorset Downs, was home to a brewery.

The firm's annual outing was considered the event of the year. Early last century a party set out on the 20-mile journey to Weymouth in fine weather, and a good time was had by all.

Rain was pouring for the return trip, however, and when a young woman rushed to take a seat in the one covered wagon, an old crone, whose place she had taken, shook her fist and said: "Mark my words, you won't get home tonight." The old crone reached Ansty, drenched but safe, in an uncovered wagon. A wheel came off the covered wagon, however, and its occupants, delayed by the search for someone to assist them, didn't get home until the following day.

* Old Mother Clinton, the Stalbridge Witch, lived in a cottage by a footpath which led to the bakehouse. Villagers would pop in for regular consultations; Old Mother Clinton would use her black stick to foretell the future.

But when a young woman, already married to a dark-haired man, removed her wedding ring and was told: "You be thinkin' of that fair young man you'm going' to marry," she replied, "Well now, I'll tell 'ee what I'm thinkin'. I'm thinkin' you'm the biggest liar in Stalbridge."

Chris Lawrenson's last will and testament stated that acknowledgements for the Blair Witchampton Project should be given to Mysterious Dorset by Rodney Legg and Witches of Dorset by Rodney Legg and Olive Knott.