Tour Guide at Medieval Manor House Discovers Mysterious Etchings Meant to Repel Evil, Trap Demons and Curse Enemies

Nearly two dozen mysterious markings have been discovered at a medieval manor house in Lincolnshire, England. Experts say the etchings were engraved there to ward off evil, trap demons and—in one case—curse an enemy.

The etchings are carved into the walls at Gainsborough Old Hall, a residence built by Sir Thomas Burgh II in the late 15th century. They were discovered by Rick Berry, who has been volunteering as a tour guide at the historic site for nearly two decades.

“I know this property extremely well,” Berry tells CNN’s Lianne Kolirin. “So I was astonished when I noticed a previously undocumented protection mark a couple of years ago. I decided to see if I could spot any more—and I just keep finding them. The last one was a small pentagram, and that was a few weeks ago, but who knows how many more there are still to find.”

Many of the protection marks—sometimes also called “apotropaic marks” or “witches’ marks”—were created to shield the home from harm, according to a statement from English Heritage, which manages Gainsborough and other historic sites in the United Kingdom.

The designs include simple circles for trapping demons, overlapping Vs (or Marian marks) that evoke the Virgin Mary, and pentangles to ward off evil. Berry also found about 100 burn marks on the walls, which were meant to shield the building from fire. Similar protective markings have been identified at other sites in Britain, but the circumstances surrounding their existence are still something of a mystery.

“They’re quite common,” Catherine Rider, a medieval historian at the University of Exeter, tells the New York Times’ Ali Watkins. “The weird thing is, there’s very little written down at the time to tell us why.”

However, one of the most intriguing marks is unrelated to protection. Someone had carved the name of a man—one of the house’s former owners—upside down, a superstitious practice of cursing someone by defacing their name. Below it, the name is carved again with a “rude drawing protruding from the script,” per the Washington Post’s Vivian Ho. While protection marks have been discovered at other English Heritage properties, the charity says that this particular etching is unlike others they’ve identified.

“When you get something like that, that is very much a curse,” Berry tells the Post. “Someone has cursed him.”

The cursed man is William Hickman, a merchant who lived there with his family beginning in 1596. Hickman was an “astute and ruthless businessman,” per English Heritage. However, he was also known as a “threadbare fellow,” with a propensity for raising tolls and maintaining tight control over his property.

“It’s astonishing that centuries on, the amazing old buildings in our care still have secrets waiting to be discovered,” says Kevin Booth, English Heritage’s head of collections, in the statement. “The Old Hall has undoubtedly had a tumultuous past, not least under the ownership of the apparently unpopular William Hickman, but why it’s the scene of quite such a high concentration of protective carvings remains a mystery.”

Sonja Anderson | READ MORE

Sonja Anderson is a writer and reporter based in New York City.