Written by Jane Courtier

Glebe House, on the track leading east from Throop, was once the home of the rector of Tonerspuddle (now Turnerspuddle) church.

In the early 1800s this was Reverend William Ettrick, who hired a local woman called Susan Woodrowe to work in the house and garden at a rate of 1 shilling a day. A series of misfortunes then befell the rector's family "farm animals went lame or died of mystery illnesses; crops failed, and the Rector's newborn son fell prey to a peculiar and most vexatious illness....like a Demonical Possession". Reverend Ettrick and his wife became convinced that Susan Woodrowe was to blame, attributing all their problems to "the vile witchcraft of a bad neighbour...a hag and reputed witch....an ill-looking and worse-tempered wretch. We have now traced home to her the whole of the Miseries and Misfortunes that have fallen so thick and heavy on us ever since her first engagement." After several months of increasing troubles, Susan Woodrowe was given "a sharp and final discharge from ever being employed by me any more"� and the rector declares in his diary "I was once incredulous about the power of Witchcraft, but have no doubts remaining"!

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