AN HISTORIAN is giving a talk on how people in the past protected their homes from bad magic and evil spirits.

Darren Oldridge, professor of early modern history at the University of Worcester will explore the use of magical devices in Tudor and Stuart times, which people believed would protect them.

Items found to keep evil things at bay included inscriptions and buried objects, such as children's shoes and bottles filled with urine and pins.

These were often placed beside entrances - doorways, chimneys and windows.

Professor Oldridge said: "Archaeologists have discovered hundreds of markings and hidden objects of this kind.

"These curious artefacts reveal much about the lives and beliefs of ordinary people.

"They suggest the widespread fear of wicked spirits.

"Popular beliefs about these things were very different to the ideas of educated Protestants at the time.

"While the church warned against the devil as an invisible spirit of temptation, encouraging sin and falsehood, ordinary folk were worried about nasty things that could skitter down the chimney and the physical harm they could do.”

Professor Oldridge said the fear of such spirits can be linked to witchcraft, as it was widely believed that witches sent evil spirits to torment and harm their neighbours.

He added: “It was believed that these creatures could even get inside people's bodies.

"The magical inscriptions and objects were a form of protection.”

The talk titled Titled ‘Demons and Bugs in Early Modern England’ at the Royal Grammar School in Worcester on Monday (November 20).

It will begin at 7.30pm. There is a £2 charge for non-members.