Object: Witch’s Bottle
Date: Unknown
Category: Lifestyle
Museum Listing: CAMFK: 1479.37
Price: £5.00/month
A witch’s bottle was used as a protective charm against witches and the bad luck and havoc they could wreak. These witch bottles, containing all sorts of concoctions including pins, nail clippings, urine, and rosemary would be buried within the walls, floors and fireplaces of buildings to protect their owners.
This bottle contains silks and wool with plant strands worked into its glass.
Over the years, nails, iron bars, animal bones, and bottles such as this one have been found buried in buildings across Cambridgeshire acting as safeguards against witches.