There is no sign of Creech Castle now but it did exist and it was the scene of great pain especially in the case of two innocent young women. The first story took place in the year 1154AD.

His Grace, the Bishop sweeps into the chamber of the Lord Lieutenant of the county.

“My Lord, you need to move against the Widow Wycombe. She is mixing with low born women and speaking to them of property rights and saying that they must have the right to refuse their husbands in their natural desires”.

The Lord Lieutenant sits behind his oak desk.

“Your Grace, she is the widow of Sir John Wycombe and the richest woman in the county. I cannot move against such a woman without grounds most firm”.

The bishop was not to be deterred.

“Tis said, My Lord, that the woman is a witch who bewitched her husband and did then poison him to death. She must not be suffered to live and, were she to die, her lands would, of course, come to your Lordship’s royal estate.”

The Royal official took this little speech most seriously.

“Very well. I shall send soldiers to deliver her unto your inquisitors but I must have a full confession to nail in view of all upon the church door. I need your promise that she shall not expire before giving us a full confession of all her witchery”.

Her ladyship was seated at her mirror with a servant brushing her long, blonde hair when she heard a great noise outside her chamber door. The door burst open and a troop of soldiers entered the room and advanced upon her. Immediately she was grabbed and twisted so that her elbows could be bound most tightly behind her back and then heavy irons set around her slim and delicate wrists.

The captain of the guard had been warned that he was arresting a witch and he could not permit her to speak out any magic spells to defend herself so he moved towards her while holding out the choke pear. Her dignity did not falter.

“That device you know full well is for low born gossips and you shall not bring it near to me”.

The captain, in fear of what she might do to him, struck her upon the nose causing blood to flow and, when her ladyship did open her mouth to cry out, he thrust the iron device into her mouth and turned the screw so that it expanded and could not be withdrawn from her.

To her great anguish, she felt common soldiers lifting the hem of her gown and fitting shackles to her ankles. The captain drew his dagger and, inserting it into the neckline of her gown, he dragged it downwards rending her clothing asunder.

Knickers would not be invented until many hundreds of years later so, in these times, women depended upon multiple layers of underskirts to protect their decency. With these being cut away, her ladyship was fully and most indecently exposed. It was in this state that she was dragged through her own castle and out into the castle yard where waited an open cart to receive her. A castle yard is a bustling place, the domain of blacksmiths, carpenters and all manner of trades. In full view of all such common folk the Lady of the Manor was thrown into the cart and taken into the town.

A noose was thrown over an oak tree adjacent to a tavern and the rope placed around her neck then pulled upwards so that the tips of her toes did just touch the ground and there she was left in painful and humiliating distress. If she stretched upwards to protect her neck, she found her feet and legs cramped most agonizingly but, if she set her feet full upon the ground, the rope cut into her throat choking her.

The poor lady was left in this distress until cock crow the next morning when she was taken down and, barely aware, carried into the basements of her inquisitors.

They asked her to confess to her witchcraft but she spat in their faces whereupon her torments did begin.