Witch Bottle, The Curse Buried Under the House
In 17th‑century England, people believed misfortune could enter a house.
Through the door.
Through cracks in the wall.
Through the chimney.
If a child fell ill for no reason, if livestock died, if someone felt a weight on their chest at night, they didn’t see it as mere sickness or coincidence.
They believed someone had cast a curse.
So they prepared a bottle.
Into it, they put urine, hair, nail clippings, bent pins, rusty nails.
They sealed the bottle and hid it inside the house—
behind walls, under floorboards, beneath thresholds, near the hearth.
Today, we call these witch bottles.
According to the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA), witch bottles were 17th‑century glass or stoneware containers used as protective charms or “counter‑magic” against witchcraft.
Common contents included pins, nails, urine, nail clippings, and thorns.
They’ve been found in places like hearths, under floors, beneath doorways, in churchyards, ditches, and riverbanks.
The important thing is this:
These objects were not decorations.
They weren’t meant to be seen.
They weren’t meant to be displayed.
They were meant to be hidden as deeply as possible.
To people of that time, a house was not a sealed space.
Gaps in the doorframe