Your pictures: Witches' marks
- Published
Maria Clarke in Suffolk: "When we moved into our farmhouse 18 months ago, we noticed them over the fireplace. None of the other beams have these markings and our neighbours tell us they have similar ones."
Daren Cook in Tewin, Herts: "What a great thing to discover in your house on Halloween! We've lived in a 400-year-old barn for 13 years and assumed the markings were some form of graffiti. A lot of beams are recycled so the markings could be upside down."
Laura Woodcock in Horley, Surrey : "These markings are on beams on the stairs. There are marks all over the house which is Grade II listed. It's really exciting. I love historic things – that’s partly why we bought the house. We have a baby on the way so I like the idea of us being protected."
Nora Boswell: "We live in a farmhouse, parts of which go back, we think, to about 1650. The photo shows marks on one of the beams in the roof space above what would have been the family sleeping area. The marks are about 7.5cm high."
Ian Reed in Suffolk: "The dark wood is a beam from my lounge opposite my fireplace."
Anna McMahon took this photo of what she calls "Medieval graffiti" on the doorframe in the south porch of the church of St Mary the Virgin in Linton, Cambridgeshire.
Daisy John: "These are just some of the markings on beams all over my brother Lawrence Varela's house in Suffolk. He's intrigued by the carvings. They all look like this and there are loads in his attic."
Jemma Humphries in Stamford, Lincolnshire: "We've lived here for five years and have just finished renovating - it's a really old property. I think it's fantastic the markings are here. I had assumed they were recent. To find out they are from an ancient tradition is a lovely thing."
- Published31 October 2016
