The fishing village of Boscastle, in the southwest of England, contains a wildly unique privately owned museum dedicated to the history of witchcraft and magic in England. The collection includes over 3,000 objects and 7,000 books and manuscripts. Founded by Cecil Williamson, the museum also lays a claim to fame through their resident witch in those early days, William Gardner himself, who founded modern Wicca and led a cultural revival of folk magic in Britain. The museum has been known in its current form since the 1960’s and has become a site of magical pilgrimage for witches in the present day.
Objects include artifacts from the time of Roman occupation up to the present day, including items of particular interest from the original OTO/A.’.A and Golden Dawn systems. There is currently an exhibit ongoing that highlights ritual tools and artifacts of the 19th/20th century high ceremonial currents of magick. Looks very intriguing.
Very interesting to me personally is their research journal, The Enquiring EyeThe Enquiring Eye, which features academic level research topics on magic and witchcraft.
Go visit them!
All images courtesy of The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, Boscastle. Used with permission.