On Halloween night, there are always a few children in the village of Burslem in central England who venture out to a graveyard to perform a ritual at a witch's grave. They recite a chant handed down over generations while they skip three times around Molly Leigh's grave. The grave is easy to find, since it's the only grave oriented north-south instead of east-west. That's because Molly Leigh was considered a witch.
Leigh fit the typical description of a witch in the late 17th and early 18th century. Born of a poor family, she seemed an odd child, then kept to herself most of her adult life. Leigh's only companion was a tame blackbird (or raven, or jackdaw). She sold low-quality milk, and people just plain disliked her. Legends of strange phenomena grew around her. But the final straw was when a mysterious illness came over the local priest, and he blamed Molly Leigh. She was accused of witchcraft, but escaped trial by dying first. It was Leigh's ghost that convinced the local parish to re-orient her grave to separate it from the God-fearing parishioners buried around her. Read the story of the witch of Burslem at Daily Grail. -via Strange Company
(Image credit: J. Wedgwood Myatt)