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| | | From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique.
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|  | | Howland's Marsh
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It's that witching time of year, and Helen Mark is off in search of things that go bump in the night in Essex. Old superstitions date from the beginning of winter in the Celtic calendar, when it was thought the gates of the underworld open and spirits roam the land.
Essex is famous for its 16th century witch trials - more witches were killed here than any other shire in England. Helen finds herself locked in a cell in Colchester Castle where Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins tortured many innocent people. Tom Hodgson, the Castle's witch expert, explains that victims were those who lived on the margins - the elderly or disfigured or disabled, especially old women. Hopkins was the son of a Suffolk Puritan minister who moved to Manningtree and claimed that the activities of witches there alerted him to the threat posed to the country by witchcraft. He also managed to make a tidy profit from his persecutions, picking up a booty of 20 shillings for each witch put to death.
Colchester Castle Museum
 | | Chris Bonnett (left) and Chris Dyson
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The end of October is also the best time of year for pumpkins. And at Little Bentley Helen meets champion growers of gigantic examples, Chris Bonnett and Chris Dyson. Chris B has been growing them since childhood and this year has achieved a European record for a pumpkin weighing over 600lbs. The huge vegetable was auctioned for charity and is now destined to make 2,000 curries at a local Indian restaurant. But there's competition afoot - his friend Chris D is joining in, and Helen helps harvest his crop - which weigh around 100lbs each. If you'd like to try your hand at growing vegetables as big as tables, Chris B is giving away seeds - check his website out for details.
Chris Bonnett's website
Helen hears more tales of folklore and magic when she meets Essex author Andrew Collins. He shows her round the village of Manuden, where features show that, despite the belief in Christianity, people have had hidden charms in buildings to ward off bad spirits for centuries. One house charm is a horse's skull, found in a sealed-up bread oven of a 17th century building, while the other is an 18th century knife retrieved from a house which dates to the 15th century. Even in the church, a carved stone head of uncertain origin was found buried in a wall above a window arch in the building's north transept.
Andrew Collins's website
As dusk falls, Helen visits Howlands Marsh, near St Osyth. The area is a place of specific conservation interest and Reg Arthur from the Essex Wildlife Trust takes Helen on a walk across a landscape which looks empty, but which is actually teeming with life. This is never more apparent than when the light fails and huge flocks of rooks and crows blacken the sky as they come home to roost, their cries echoing eerily across the marsh.
Essex Wildlife Trust
But before Helen can come in from the autumnal chill, there's one more Hallowe'en emblem to find out about - bats. At All Saints Church in Fordham she encounters a colony of pipistrelles. Bat expert John Dobson shows Helen how to tell if you have bats in your belfy - or more accurately, in your roof and Joanna Braddock and Chris Keeling from English Nature explain why this needn't be a problem.
English Nature
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Z to Z Britain
Open Country looks back 2003
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