Hidden and apotropaic objects, such as witch bottles, shoes and dried or mummified cats, have always fascinated me on so many levels. Not only the objects themselves, but the moment or circumstances of their placement; the reasons for their placement; the people or person who placed them; and the feelings they evoke in the modern day.
Their incongruousness, their age, their mystery, their links with and potential to hold magic all inspire a curious sensation in the 21st century onlooker, which varies very much from individual to individual. The objects often inspire terror, vulnerability and a kind of violation - the householder having been completely unaware of their existence. But for me, it's like butterflies of excitement, a firing of the imagination, and a warm handshake with the past.
It's been almost a week since I attended the Hidden Charms conference at Norwich Castle - an entire day dedicated to this very subject - and my mind is still on overdrive.
It's not very often that you can attend a day of lectures and not start to feel a little drowsy, especially around '3 o'clock noddies' time, but on this occasion I was alert from start to finish, wide-eyed and soaking up ideas like a very excited sponge.
I discovered, thanks to ritual building concealment expert Sonja Hukantaival, that it is quite common to find miniature coffins containing the bodies of small creatures such as frogs buried under church floorboards in Finland. Who'd have thought it!
A whole new light was shed on the caves under the Mendip Hills by researcher and caver Linda Wilson, who revealed that she had discovered ritual protection marks (mostly the conjoined Vs symbol that is commonly found in buildings across the country) carved into the rocks close to chimney-like natural structures, particularly where there was a chilling draught. I am now chomping at the bit to get back to Wookey Hole and look for some of them myself!
I also heard about a variety of hidden shoe discoveries from folklore archaeologist Ceri Houlbrook, who is currently mapping concealed objects across the UK and documenting the accounts of their contemporary finders to see what they mean to people in the modern day.
You can watch the introductory lecture on 'Evidence of Unseen Forces', given by independent researcher Brian Hoggard, who has been recording and mapping finds since 1999, in the video below.
Do hidden charms intrigue you? Have you ever found a concealed object? How did it make you feel?
Concealed shoes from East Anglia: Edmund Patrick
