Without learning any lessons from the horror films of the Euros, Britain has plans for a high-speed rail project that will track the ruins of a medieval church. And, apparently, the project has resulted in a bit of trouble from witches and dark spirits.
Early excavations of the site’s 700-year-old church turned out to have stone beams, known as “witch marks,” according to archaeologists working at Stock Mendeville, a village on the proposed railway line.
These marks, which look like spokes of a hole with a hole in the center, were created by project officials to “control evil spirits by filling in endless lines or blunders.” Wrote in a statement.
Michael Court, chief archaeologist at HS2 Ltd. (the company behind the railway project), said the unusual signs provide an “interesting insight into the past” on a site long lost in history.
Related: Black Magic: The 6 Most Infamous Witch Trials in History
The church, named St. Mary’s, was erected around 1070 as a private chapel for the lord of Stock Mendeville, now Buckinghamshire, England, the statement said. The church building was expanded in the 1340s to accommodate local villagers, then a new church came close to the city when it was finally demolished in the 1860s.
However, during the first excavation of the site, the HS2 team found many parts of the medieval building in surprisingly good condition, with the walls standing up to a height of about 5 feet (1.5 m) and the floors intact. The witch’s marks were carved in two different stones, one at ground level and the other up. Archaeologists said that in place of the ground-level stone, the radial pattern was probably not used as a syndial, which is commonly found near the south gate of a medieval church, archaeologists said.
Similar witch traces have sprung up on medieval sites in the UK Found last year On Creswell Craigs, a limestone and cave complex that has been on and off since the last ice age. Signs to keep the spirit away are usually built in stones near doors, windows and fireplaces.
The traces could not save St. Mary from her final destruction. But the scales are still intact, modern witches willing to try the new high-speed train will need their journey away from Stock Mendeville.
Published on Original Living Science.
