The amazing story of the Wicked Witch of Much Wenlock

The Wenlock Witch is a famous folklore figure in Shropshire - and her story is an intriguing one.

Bridgnorth-based author Emma Woodhouse has now written a new novel centred around Ann Morgan, also known as Nanny Morgan.

Ann Morgan: Hellish Beauty is Ms Woodhouse’s new novel, which blends fact and legend focussed on the life of the Wenlock Witch from three different narrative perspectives.

It is a fictional story but Ms Woodhouse has spent years delving through local archives to research the life and death of Ann Morgan.

She spoke to us about the fabled Shropshire woman.

Who was the Wenlock Witch?

Ann was born and raised on the outskirts of Much Wenlock in the late 18th century.

Ann’s story really begins in 1809, when she was implicated in a theft alongside another young local woman.

Both women were found guilty of theft after a trial in Shrewsbury, but Ann was spared transportation to an imperial penal colony whilst her friend was not.

Due to Ann’s brush with the law, her parents disowned her completely, leading to her running off to join the traveller community for a number of years.

Ann then went on a spiritual journey where she travelled around the country learning her trade in what she would eventually become synonymous with: witchcraft, for want of a better word.

Moving home

In around 1820, Ann moved back to Much Wenlock when her father died.

Thereafter, the woman who extraordinarily escaped transportation and embraced a life with travellers set herself up as a local witch, telling fortunes, making potions, and most spookily of all, issuing curses.

People in the local community are thought to have gone to Ann for her spiritual services a great deal.

She was popular enough that she made a solid living out of her witchcraft, even owning small plots of land locally.

After decades operating as a witch, Ann - who is believed to have married, though not much is known of her husband - built up a reputation for being a fierce woman.

When her husband died, more intrigue was brought upon Ann when she let a young man named William Davies live with her at her Much Wenlock home.

Ann is believed to have been in her 60s, whilst young Mr Davies was only in his 30s.

Such an arrangement led to much local gossip, and it is alleged that they were lovers.

Murder

In 1857, Ann Morgan, the Wicked Witch of Much Wenlock, was stabbed to death.

The murder of the well-known local figure sent shockwaves across Shropshire.

Her murderer you ask? Well, it was none other than her alleged young lover, William Davies.

William’s first hearing in the murder trial was in Much Wenlock itself, at the Guildhall.

He was then sent to Shrewsbury for the remainder of the trial, where he was eventually found guilty and sentenced to death.

However, in a drastic turn of events, the young man’s sentence was watered down, and he was instead transported to Australia.

In a spooky epilogue, legend has it that Mr Davies’s ship was sunk on his long journey down under, with some people thinking it could have been one last act of revenge by the Wenlock Witch from beyond the grave.

A fun fact about the death of Ann Morgan is that physician William Penny Brookes, the man many people thank for the vision of the modern Olympics, was the man brought in by authorities to examine Ann’s body after her murder.

What does the author say?

Asked about what she hopes readers get out of her new novel, Ms Woodhouse said: “I hope it makes people go to Much Wenlock, look around those amazing buildings, and think about the history that happened there.

“Ann’s papers were burnt [after her death] in the back of The Talbot Inn, and that is still there.

“For me, it is almost like a love letter to Much Wenlock because it is a fascinating, rich, ancient place, and this is just one aspect of the incredible history that happened there.

“And this aspect just so happens to be about a woman who was formidable, who could have been incredibly poor, and suffered because of the societal conditions that were in place for women.”

Ann Morgan: Hellish Beauty is out now in all good bookshops.

Ms Woodhouse is currently appearing at a number of local events and book talks to discuss the new novel.