Abstract
This chapter is based principally on research carried out in the East Anglian county of Suffolk since the early 1970s, but many of the symbols noted here have been seen or reported elsewhere in Britain and abroad. Although most of these symbols are found on domestic buildings such as houses, stables and barns, it is (as said above) to churches that we should look to identify the origins of some of them. A comparison between the marks found in the two types of buildings should help to explain the different uses (or hopes) for which the various symbols were intended. All places referred to are in Suffolk unless otherwise stated. Some examples of symbols are not illustrated here, but there may be a reference to a published article in which they can be seen.
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Notes
Richard Harris, Discovering Timber Framed Buildings (Princes Risborough, 1978), 15.
Timothy Easton, ‘Apotropaic Marks, Scribed and Scratched in Barns and Houses’, Newsletter of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, 27 (1988), 7–8.
Timothy Easton, ‘Ritual Marks on Historic Timber’, Weald and Downland Open Air Museum Magazine (Spring 1999), 25.
Timothy Easton and Jeremy Hodgkinson, ‘Apotropaic Symbols on Cast-Iron Firebacks’, Journal of the Antique Metalware Society, 21 (2013), 16.
Diana Scarisbrick and James Fenton, Rings: Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty (London, 2007), 140.
C.J. Binding, L.J. Wilson and Timothy Easton, ‘Ritual Protection Marks in Goatchurch Cavern, Burrington Combe, North Somerset’, Proceedings of the University of Bristol Speleological Society, 23(2) (2004), 119–133.
Timothy Easton, ‘Candle Powers’, Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings Magazine, 32(4) (2011), 60.
James Ayres, Domestic Interiors: The British Tradition 1500–1850 (New Haven and London, 2003), 24.
John H. Taylor and Daniel Antoine, Ancient Lives: New Discoveries (London, 2014), 182–185.
D. W. Rollason, Two Anglo-Saxon Rituals: Church Dedication and the Judicial Ordeal (Leicester, 1988).
Emile Grillot de Givry, Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy (Mineola, NY, 1971), 110.
Timothy Easton, ‘Burning Issues’, Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings Magazine (Winter 2012), 41–47.
Nicholas Brooke (ed.), The Oxford Shakespeare: The Tragedy of Macbeth (Oxford, 1990), 102.
Owen Davies, ‘The Material Culture of Post-Medieval Domestic Magic in Europe: Evidence, Comparisons and Interpretations’, in Boschung, Dietrich and Bremmer, Jan (eds), The Materiality of Magic (Paderborn, 2015), 402–403.
Iona Opie and Moira Tatem, A Dictionary of Superstitions (New York, 1989), 77
John Dean and Nick Hill, ‘Burn Marks on Buildings: Accidental or Deliberate?’ Vernacular Architecture, 45 (2014), 10.
Tara Hamling, Decorating the ‘Godly’ Household: Religious Art in Post-Reformation Britain (New Haven and London, 2010), 61–3.
Robert Lawrence, The Magic of the Horse Shoe with Other Folk-Lore Notes (London, 1898).
John Aubrey, Miscellanies Upon the Following Subjects Collected by J. Aubrey Esq. (London, 1721), 147.
Allan Jobson, A Window in Suffolk (London, 1962), 61.
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© 2015 Timothy Easton
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Easton, T. (2015). Apotropaic Symbols and Other Measures for Protecting Buildings against Misfortune. In: Hutton, R. (eds) Physical Evidence for Ritual Acts, Sorcery and Witchcraft in Christian Britain. Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137444820_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137444820_3
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