If you travel to the seaside community of Leigh-on-Sea, you’ll find many interesting things and places to see. The beaches are some of the best you’ll find in Essex, the suburbs look sensational, and there’s lots to be involved with.
The town has a lot of history, stemming from being a fishing town where many boats were also built. This industrial area is now known as Old Leigh. And there’s one specific part of Old Leigh which has quite a dark history of so-called “witches” being drowned, many centuries ago. The area, which is situated at the top of Leigh Cliff Road connecting to The Broadway, has developed the name of “The Doom Pond”.
In the 17th century, this area was supposedly used to drown innocent individuals accused of witchcraft, according to media and history organisation Beyond the Point. The notion of accusing women of being witches that worked for the devil arrived in England in the late 1500s, when King James I brought in the practice after becoming paranoid in Scotland.
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He would often accuse women of turning to witchcraft for revenge or financial agendas rather than genuine belief. Throughout the 1600s, it is believed that thousands of women were murdered in Essex alone under this regime. Beyond the Point said: “Colchester and Chelmsford were home to numerous trials in 1645 in the year that the notorious Matthew Hopkins became known as ‘Witch finder General’, responsible for the deaths of around 230 individuals.”
In Leigh-on-Sea, three witch trials have been recorded; Joan Allen in 1574, Alice Soles in 1622, and Joan Rowle in 1645. The accused “witches” were dunked to test if they were truly witches or innocent. If they floated, they were deemed guilty as the purity of water itself was said to “repel anyone associated with the devil”. If they sunk, they were innocent, but either outcome was a result of death, making the exercise somewhat futile.
Beyond the Point added: “Because of the pond’s grisly history, it has gathered a great deal of superstition over the years. Rumour says the pond was once bottomless, cursed, and home to a number of ghostly apparitions. The curse is said to be responsible for failed attempts to build over the pond, such as a small supermarket built in the 1970s which had to be demolished as a result of the poor foundations. The name ‘Doom Pond’ was said to emerge from the ‘Dome’ kiln of the pottery works that it was used to aid.
“The pond stems from an underground spring possibly remaining under a set of mid 2000’s apartments, although the pond itself was filled in as part of their construction. It was known locally as the ‘Doom Pond’ and was used by a nearby pottery business until the early 1900s.”