Last week we ventured to what is commonly known within Grimsby as ‘The Witches Circle’.
According to folklore, witches would meet in the woods to practise Pagan Witchcraft, as part of a Pagan religion on Friday and Saturday Nights in the 1950s. It rumoured that rituals was conducted and that animal sacafrices had taken place here.
The Friends of Weelsby Woods have previously questioned a local historian group about the Witches Circle – and say they received “stories, myths and guesses” but no answers.
There also another name it was known by and that was ‘The Fairy Circle, and even though there is no evidence some believe the circle is an Anglo-Saxon burial mound.
What we know is for many years before the space was open to the public, the town council had hoped to be able to acquire some part of woods as an open space for the people of the town forever. Negotiations conducted before the present ownership proved fruitless however.
In 1948, the council reopened the matter and asked Mr Parkes, the owner of the hall and land at the time, if he would be agreeable to see a modest portion thereof to them. The reply of Mr Parkes was immediately to offer to give the council a far greater area than they had asked to buy. Mr Parkes, gifted a huge amount of the land to the people of Grimsby and it was opened to the public in 1951.
Prior to being open to the public, the land did have a camp there which did home Prisoners Of War. I do know that while the POW camp was present so was ‘The Witches Circle’.
Was Mr Parkes a really generous man to the public or did he want rid of it for other reasons? I don’t like to assume, he could have been feeling generous at the time but it was a huge chuck of land to just give away!
Some reports state that the rumours of the Witches Circle started to occur when it was opened to the public.
Also, over the years the land has seen a few murders, One being a 6 year old girl. It has also sadly seen a few suicides as well.
I must include, after posting that I was visiting, a man commented to myself on our group and stated that the rumours of it being a witches circle was nothing more than a old wives tale and that his grandfather had planted the trees in a circle during the 1940s and 1950s as the land owner at the time wanted to keep children off the land.
I do know that prior to the camp being built the land in which The Witches Circle sits, there was a pond area there and the circle sat within the pond and this map is dated in the 1800s.
My thoughts on the Witches Cirlce
I do not think a coven of Witches were conducting rituals at the circle. However, I do think the circle may have had occult practices conducted there.
The POW camp situated only meters away was home to Italian POW and Polish allies but there was also German prisoners. Therefore, these German prisoners were Nazis.
It is believed amongst many historians with some evidence to suggest that Hilter was dabbling in the occult and satanic practices and it was common for those following him to follow his lead.
Hitler himself proclaimed time and time again he was a Christian at heart, the upper echelon of his party had fervent disbelievers. So much so that many historians believe it was the Nazis’ goal to completely rid the country of established churches over the long haul.
Therefore and this is purely my own opinion, I think it is possible that the rumours of occult practices at the time in the circle could have surfaced from those in the camp. I think its possible sacafriced animals may have been found in this area and there is a possibility the prisoners belonging to the camp may have been conducting such practices in the circle at the time.
During the 1940s and 1950s witchcraft and satanic cults were branded and seen as the same thing and I think this is where the name of the circle was given. It is possible the prisoners could have named it themselves ‘The ‘Witches Circle’ as many Nazis did hold a ancient Germanic pagan belief system.
However, I have to mention that not all Nazis dabbled in the occult and those staying at the camp was under the watchful eye of the English guards, so surely if such things was going off it would not have been allowed?
Our investigation
It seemed that when we walked up to the witches circle the environment was so dark. When I say dark, I mean in the terms we could hardly see. The darkness seem to swallow up any light we tried to use. It was rather strange because on the way out from the circle it was not like this, which was nearly 2 hours after and you would expect it would have been darker as we was leaving as it was getting rather late.
When we got into the circle, I have to admit it did not feel quite right. At one point it felt like my leg were kicked but I logically tried to explain it as possibly being a stick nearby that may have caught my leg as I moved about.
We put the trigger bear down and instantly this started to trigger off. We asked if it was male present and it triggered off and we also asked if they belong to the POW camp and it triggered off.
A lot of people picked up on a little girl here, which looking up the history of the location after, a little girl of 6 was sadly murdered here.
Aimee conducted a scrying mirror experiment and during this time it would seem that her face changed to what appeared to look like a cat or some horned animal.
It was only after leaving the woods, I realised that the entrance to the woods have two statues of lions. Not sure if this related in anyway but nobody seems to know why there is two statues of two lions here.
When we decided to leave the circle itself, we decided to conduct a spirit box. At this point it became more intelligent.
It would seem that something was telling us to ‘GO’ it then either said ‘Charl’ or ‘Sod Off’ and I reply that I hear my name. Aimee then asks for it to say her name and ‘Aimee’ is said…this then followed with ‘GOOO’….
Check out the clip below
We had also asked how many spirits was with us prior to this and it said ‘7’ and when Aimee asked 7 what ‘Ghosts’ was said.
We also asked what was sacrificed in the Witches circle and cat can clearly be heard even though at the time, myself and Aimee had not heard that directly.
From a investigators point of view, I think a intelligent energy may be present who may be linked to the location from when it was used as a camp.
You can watch our full investigation on the link below