Paisley seeks horseshoe to rein in ancient witches' curse

MARTIN WILLIAMS         April 19 2005

THE lucky horseshoe is to some the stuff of irrational superstition and a wild imagination.

But some community leaders are convinced one such horseshoe could hold the key to restraining an ancient witches' curse which it is claimed has bedevilled a town with bad luck for more than three decades.

The horseshoe, which dates back to the seventeenth century, was unwittingly lost in the 1970s and some believe Paisley has been plagued by misfortune since.

Piero Pieraccini, treasurer of the Paisley Development Trust, blamed high rates of violent crime, hardship and natural disasters, including flooding in the town, on the loss of an iron horseshoe which marks the communal grave of six men and women, who were believed to be the devil's disciples.

The band were found guilty of witchcraft in 1697, hanged and publicly burned at the stake before their ashes were buried and the tomb sealed with the horse's stamp.

Without the horseshoe, it is said, the town cannot prevent witches rising from the dead leaving the town at the mercy of their evil spirits.

Now the trust has applied for a grant for almost £2500 from Renfrewshire Council to recast a brand new stainless steel horseshoe in the hope that it will bring good luck to Paisley.

Mr Pieraccini added: "We have had a hell of a time in Paisley since that horseshoe vanished. Nothing has gone right for the town.

"I believe it is because of the horseshoe and I definitely think it will make a huge difference if we repair it.

"The local legend predicting that the prosperity of the town will suffer if the horseshoe was moved from the witches' grave seems to have come true."

The witches were accused of placing a curse on 11-year-old Christian Shaw, daughter of the Laird of Bargarran at Erskine.

Witnesses claimed they saw the weeping child floating through the air and regurgitate stones, coal, sticks and feathers after she was bewitched by the six. They were all found guilty at a trial in the town's Tolbooth and sentenced to death in front of hundreds of onlookers.

The trust wants to return the horseshoe in time for the 308th anniversary of the witches' death.