Level 4 Space and Place - Bethany Corbett

Matthew Hopkins from the Manningtree area was born in 1620 who gave himself the title of 'Witch Hunter General'. His career as a witch hunter began in 1644. He was mostly known for his witch hunting capabilities in East Anglia, where it's thought he prosecuted over 300 women between 1644 and 1646. Hopkins had an accomplice; John Stearne. Between them, it's thought that they were responsible for over 60% of all the trials between the early 15th to late 18th century. It's thought that Hopkins was from a very puritan family. When Charles came into power and introduced a less modern form of Protestantism, restoring and bring back the pre-reformation days. Puritan communities were not happy about this because all they held pure would be desecrated, their work undone. In 'Witchfinders; a Seventeenth Century English Tragedy' it says 'if there was one aspect of his (Hopkins') childhood more likely than any other to have initiated and inspired Matthew...

In 'East Anglian Witches, Ghosts and Strange Tales', the first chapter opens with how one widow, Agnes Fenn, 94, was harassed and punished in attempt to get her to confess to witchery. She was forced into a chamber with a diseased man and offered money to confess she bewitched him, to which she refused. By her own accounts she was further punished physically; pricked, pinched and prodded with daggers, stabbed in the face. She recalls how the witch hunters "cast gunpowder and flashed it in my face". She was also charged of bewitching a child to death. After a lot of time, she was cleared and allowed to go home, but she claimed people still tried to overthrow her for being a witch. 94 may seem like a silly age to try and prosecute a woman of witchcraft, but really any woman who acted oddly or had something 'wrong' with her body she could be prosecuted. Of course, whether the judge would actually accuse the 'witch' is a different story. However, as Agn...

Witchcraft has been something believed in since we know. However, in the 1500's people became more and more aware of certain incidents that could be explained via witchcraft. For example, in the book Witchfinders: A Seventeenth Century English Tragedy it says "sad and mysterious incidents were linked to landscape and landmarks: barren ground where a murdered corpse was found, a creaking tree from which a man had hanged himself, a stone scarred with claw marks of the devil". When Queen Elizabeth I came into power, the fear of witches escalated. People were afraid of sorcery, and especially in what it could do to their queen.  Protestant clerics were among those most afraid. In the early 1560's ecclesiastical courts in Canterbury claimed full cases of maleficium rather than small spells here and there; livestock murdered, property destroyed and even people were killed and injured. Sorcery was further feared as people saw it as a way of harm rather than a gift of hea...

I recently went to visit Old Knobbley in order to know it's location, what's around and to spark my imagination with future shoots. I took some photographs for future reference, as I can use these to help plan my shoots. The area is a small woodland, not quite big enough to call a forest. It's quite out of the way and has a very secluded and isolated feeling. There are footpaths paved by other people previously going to explore the woods, but not a trail as there are so many different paths leading into each other, like it's all interconnected. The land itself has many small hills and therefore the land is at a range of levels depending on where you are in the woods, and it really does feel like an adventure when you're in there. Before reaching Old Knobbley, there are of course many other trees to encounter. Some are extremely tall and whispy, and others are similar oak trees to Old Knobbley, just not as stubby. They all have personalities formed by the way the...

For Space and Place, I have located an area that I find incredibly interesting. Old Knobbley is an oak tree in Mistley, Essex about 25-30 minutes away from Ipswich. Over 800 years old, the tree and the area around it has a rather dark history; between 1645-1647 it’s thought that over 300 women were killed around the area, likely drowned in the pond next to it because they were thought to have been witches by Witch Hunter General Matthew Hopkins. It’s believed the tree was a sanctuary for said hunted witches, and I think that this location ties together both important facts and history from the East Anglian Area and my passion for the photographic scenes of people and their stories. I personally really enjoy taking photographs of made-up scenes which are accompanied by a made-up story, inspired by the works of Linda Blacker and Kirsty Mitchell. Doing this type of work gives me some kind of escapism from poor mental health and everyday struggles,  creating and immersing myself into...