Mystery
The Skeleton in the Garden
They paid a penny to see the witch. She was a man.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Village streets; the find spot is lost
- Legend from
- 1921 discovery
- Tone
- Curious
St Osyth, 1921: a man dug up his garden, found 'the witch', and sold tickets.
In 1921 Charles Brooker was digging in his garden in Mill Street, St Osyth, when he found two skeletons. Their joints appeared to have nails driven through them. Locals quickly declared one to be Ursula Kemp, the witch hanged in 1582. Brooker charged visitors to view them and sold postcards. The cottages later burned down. The 'Ursula Kemp' skeleton was then sold on, first to the witchcraft museum at Boscastle and later to the artist Robert Lenkiewicz. When it was eventually examined, it was found to be the skeleton of a young man of about 25. It was reburied without a marker in St Osyth cemetery.