Thursday 18 February 2010

Boscastle's Museum of Witchcraft, Part 1

Not far from Tintagel is a picturesque Cornish village called Boscastle. With a natural inlet harbour, it is a valuable fishing port. Over the past decade, Boscastle has suffered a couple of devastating floods, but you would never know it now by looking at its charming buildings and lovely shops. One of Boscastle's main tourist attractions is the Museum of Witchcraft located just off its main street.

When you arrive at the Museum, there is a sign directing you to park your broom in the space provided. Very cute!


Inside the Museum are two floors of densely packed exhibits on all kinds of witchy, occult matters. When visiting this Museum, it's important to keep two things in mind:

(1) This is not a professionally curated museum. It is a labour of love by those who are devoted to witchcraft. There's a real feeling that you have just entered "collectors' heaven" with eclectic exhibits all cheek-by-jowl with each other. Sometimes there's not enough information about what you're looking at. Sometimes there's too much. But we were charmed by much of what we saw and found almost everything interesting.

(2) This is very much a museum of British witchcraft. It focuses on local, practical folklore, superstitions and traditions of England and Cornwall. So there are lots of exhibits on poppets, curses, herbology, poisons, fertility symbols, etc. This is most definitely NOT a museum about modern Wicca or today's pagan movement as experienced in North America. Almost everything in the Museum predates the 1960s (at the very latest).

In the next two posts, I'll tell you about the exhibits which we found most fascinating.

15 comments:

brandi said...

~oh i can't wait to hear more...each day you leave me with a wee bit of travel envy! so many divine places you have experienced and savored...brightest blessings~

Me said...

Looks like one of those places I could sit in for hours and just cant help but smile!

Kelly said...

This sounds so wonderful and something I'd absolutely love...

Anonymous said...

How totally flippity cool!

mxtodis123 said...

Now I could spend an entire day in there. It looks wonderful. So quaint and inviting.
Mary

Pheonix_Dawn said...

Love to make it there sometime! Looks just up my alley , love ecclectic stuff! Much love and light sweetie Thanks for sharing

clairedulalune said...

Debra I am telling you, I will be taking coach trips daily to all these wonderful places! Thank you so much for spreading the word about them, i can not wait to hear more!

Anonymous said...

That's tempting. I would so want to check out that museum. I'm certain the vibe it would give off would be interesting, to say the least.

Anonymous said...

How awesome... would LOVE to visit a shop like this...thanks for sharing...

Anonymous said...

i am so glad i clicked on your site from Alice In Paris.

i should love to one day see this museum for myself.

thankyou.

Auntie sezzzzzz... said...

Love that 'Park Your Broom' door!!!

Jeanne said...

I'm lovin' that door! :0)

And I think it would be so great to see so much practical knowledge in one spot.

(Sorry I am so late for the tour.... was detained in Merlin's cave...)

Miss Robyn said...

that is the witchcraft I am interested in.. the Cornish folklore.. poppets etc.. I cannot wait to go there!

yellowdoggranny said...

I'd park my broom there for sure..and stay for hours.

Sarah Sullivan said...

Oh oh oh how cool is this!! Wow I wanna park my broom there. I found out recently that I am a direct decendent of Sarah Pease..one of the few witches that survived the witch trials in Salem..Interesting this place!! Hugs, Sarah