The Vernal Equinox And The Porthkerry Witch
ARTICLES of GENERAL INTEREST
THE VERNAL EQUINOX AND THE
PORTHKERRY WITCH
Along with St David’s Day, St Patrick’s Day and Mothering Sunday, March brings the vernal equinox, celebrated in both Christian and pagan traditions. In 2026 it occurs on March 20 at 10:46 a.m. marking the astronomical start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and bringing nearly equal lengths of day and night worldwide. In Christianity, Easter is linked to the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox. In pagan traditions Ostara (named after a German goddess) is celebrated honouring fertility, rebirth, and new beginnings.
Through the ages, Ostara has been celebrated by witches holding rituals and performing spells that focus on growth, abundance, and new beginnings. For most of the Middle Ages the term ‘witch’ meant the local healer, someone who made poultices and medicines and perhaps had charms or spells for healing farm animals. From the middle of the 15th century, things changed with supposed ‘witches’ being used as scapegoats and blamed for everything from bad harvests to untimely deaths. Surprisingly this darker period began with the publication of Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches). Written by a Catholic clergyman, it set out legal and theological theories to endorse the extermination of witches. Based on it, in 1484 Pope Innocent III gave the existence of witchcraft ‘official’ status by issuing a papal bull sanctioning inquisitors and starting a witch hunting hysteria, not fully lessened in Britain until laws against witchcraft were abolished in 1736.
From 1450 to 1700 in Europe alone, about 35,000 people, mainly women, were hanged or burned at the stake as suspected witches. While over a thousand people were sent to their deaths in England, curiously only 5 in Wales appear to have suffered the same fate. In 1579, Gwen ferch Ellis from Bettws in North Wales, was executed for witchcraft. She was a healer but for some reason she was persuaded by another woman, called Jane Conway, to leave an evil charm at Gloddaeth, the home of aristocrat Sir Thomas Mostyn, who died soon afterwards. Gwen was brought before a packed court in Denbigh. Seven witnesses stood against her, claiming her charms had broken bones, bewitched ale, and even stilled a young man’s heart. Gwen was convicted of murder by witchcraft and hanged.
Apart from punishing them, people looked for ways to defend themselves from witches. The National Museum at St Fagans houses a collection of 17th-century witch-related artefacts, featuring “witch bottles” designed to counteract suspected bewitchment. These bottles, often containing pins, nails, and human urine, acted as counter-magic, with the sharp objects meant to break the witch’s spell and cause them pain.
One local story concerns a lady who used to live in a cottage at Porthkerry Park. A rich young man was persuaded to pay her for a love potion, to win over the girl of his dreams. Seeing how old and frail the witch was, his servant pocketed the money and refused to pay her. Angered by the deception she cast a spell over the two of them uttering ‘May these men never leave these woods.’ The two men only got as far as the edge of the woods before turning into two trees. Research has revealed there was a woman called Ann Jenkins known as a provider of potions and remedies, inspected for witch marks by the Cowbridge magistrates. There is no record of the outcome. Official records register Ann Jenkins as being buried in the yard at the church of St Nicholas in Barry, unlikely if she had been proven to be in league with the devil.