Cunning Murrell, the Hadleigh Wizard

Hadleigh church ahead. Facing it lived Cunning Murrell, the shoemaker who boiled iron bottles to beat witches.

James Murrell was a shoemaker from Hadleigh who became the best-known cunning man in Essex, and he died in 1860. People came to him to break spells. Philip Benton described his iron witch bottles: pins, nail parings and other things sealed in metal by the local blacksmith and heated on the fire to turn a curse back on the witch. One bottle burst so violently it nearly blew out the fireplace. Murrell went about his business at night, and folklore collected later claimed he could fly and travel great distances in an instant. His cottage, in a lane facing the church, is gone, and he lies in the churchyard.