Few stories from Burton’s past are as strange as that of Alice Gooderidge, the woman remembered as the Stapenhill Witch. Her story takes us back more than 400 years, to 1596 and a Burton boy whose mysterious illness would lead to accusations of witchcraft, a dramatic investigation and one of the most remarkable supernatural accounts ever published about the town.
The story centres on Thomas Darling, a boy of about thirteen who was staying with his uncle in Burton. According to the contemporary account published in 1597, Thomas had gone out into the countryside with his uncle near Winsell Wood. At some point, he became separated from him and wandered home alone.
Soon afterwards, Thomas became seriously unwell. He suffered violent fits and vomiting and appeared to experience terrifying visions. During his episodes he reportedly pointed towards the windows, claiming to see strange figures, including what he described as green angels and a green cat.
At first, those around him believed he might simply be suffering from a severe illness. But as the strange episodes continued, suspicions of witchcraft began to grow.
Then Thomas told a much more extraordinary story.
He claimed that while he was lost in the woods he had encountered an old woman wearing a grey gown, a black-fringed cape and a broad hat, with three warts on her face. Thomas said he recognised her as someone he had seen begging at his door, although he did not initially know her name.
According to the account, he had accidentally offended the woman while passing her. She allegedly responded with a strange curse, telling him that she would go to Heaven while he would go to Hell. Thomas said that she then stooped towards the ground before going on her way.
The story quickly spread through Burton.
People began trying to identify the mysterious woman, and suspicion fell upon Alice Gooderidge and her mother, Elizabeth Wright, both of whom had already acquired reputations locally as suspected practitioners of witchcraft. Alice was around sixty years old.
What followed was extraordinary by modern standards. Alice was brought before the authorities and questioned about Thomas’s illness. The boy was asked to identify the woman he claimed to have encountered, and the contemporary account describes him identifying Alice.
The investigation became increasingly dramatic. Alice was examined for supposed physical signs of witchcraft, while Thomas continued to suffer his mysterious fits. The original 1597 pamphlet describes the boy experiencing violent seizures and claiming to see terrifying supernatural figures.
Eventually, Alice made a confession which became central to the story. According to the published account, she said that she had met Thomas in the wood and that, after he called her the “witch of Stapenhill”, she had responded angrily. She was then said to have claimed that a devil appeared to her in the form of a small red-and-white dog called Minny, which she sent to torment the boy.
The story became a sensation and was published in London in 1597 under the wonderfully dramatic title The Most Wonderfull and True Storie of a Certaine Witch Named Alse Gooderige of Stapen Hill.
It is important to remember, however, that this is a contemporary account of accusations and beliefs, not proof that Alice actually possessed supernatural powers. The pamphlet was written at a time when witchcraft, possession and the Devil were widely believed to be real, and modern historians have examined the case as an example of how accusations of witchcraft and reports of possession operated in early modern England.
Alice’s story subsequently became part of Burton’s folklore, and later ghost stories connected her with the town’s old gaol and the Olde Royal Oak. That connection should be treated as later local folklore rather than something established by the 1597 account itself.
For visitors today, though, the story offers an extraordinary glimpse into another Burton, a Burton of Tudor superstition, fear and religious belief. And knowing that these events took place here, in the landscape around modern Burton, makes the story all the more fascinating.
Read about The Ghostly Little Girl at The Abbey Folklore here