Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

Radio Leicester,08 Jul 2025,6 mins

The notorious witches from Husbands Bosworth

Secret Leicestershire

Available for over a year

In July 1616 nine women from Husbands Bosworth who’d been accused of witchcraft were executed on the same day at Leicester gaol. They had been implicated in the bewitching of the grandson of Erasmus Smith, Lord of the Manor of Bosworth. The ‘Leicester boy’ trial was one of Leicester’s most notorious witchcraft cases, after King James I intervened to have the boy’s witness evidence re-examined and subsequently found that it was fraudulent. The two judges associated with the cases had their reputations seriously damaged. BBC Leicester’s Ben Jackson investigates the story with Leicester author Jo Mungovin. Produced by Pete Wardman. If you want to know as soon as a new episode is available, make sure you subscribe to Secret Leicestershire on BBC Sounds and have push notifications turned on.

Programme Website
More episodes