Meg Shelton grave (? to 1705)

Not far from the Fylde coast in the beautiful town of Woodplumpton lies Meg Shelton. She was known as the "Fylde Hag" and was accused of witchcraft. Here I am at a big boulder used to hold down her nefarious spirits.

Her real name was Margary Hilton and locally she was known to have special powers like changing shape, making crops fail, turning milk sour and making cattle ill. She was a loner with a limp and the frightened villagers looked upon as a figure of fun.

In April 1705 the locals hadn’t seen her for days and the door to her cottage was forced open. She was discovered crushed to death between a barrel and a wall. The gossips declared the devil had claimed back “one of his own”. On 2nd May 1705 Meg’s body was buried horizontally by torchlight however a few days later her carcass was found lying on the soil. She was reburied but her lifeless body appeared again in the churchyard. A priest was called for and she was re-interred one last time. For safe measure she was buried upside down inside a narrow opening. The boulder was placed over her to stop her rising again. It worked as she has not reappeared.

She died in 1705 though nobody knows how old she was. She sounded like a lively type of lass. I did a salute and left.