Why did they use the ducking stool?
While in some places women (and some men) were ducked on stools in order to establish whether or not they were witches, the more common means of identifying them was to throw them into the water with a rope attached to see whether or not they floated (guilty) or sank (not guilty).
How did the dunking chair work?
The consequences of the ducking stool were far more severe. In use in England by the 17th century, the apparatus consisted of a wooden or iron armchair onto which the culprit was strapped. The chair was attached to a long wooden beam, usually located alongside a pond or river, and was lowered into the water.
What crime did you have to commit to get the ducking stool?
The cucking-stool was a form of wymen pine, or “women’s punishment,” as referred to in Langland’s Piers Plowman (1378). They were instruments of public humiliation and censure both primarily for the offense of scolding or backbiting and less often for sexual offences like bearing an illegitimate child or prostitution.
What was a gossip’s bridle?
A scold’s bridle, sometimes called a witch’s bridle, a gossip’s bridle, a brank’s bridle, or simply branks, was an instrument of punishment, as a form of public humiliation. It was an iron muzzle in an iron framework that enclosed the head (although some bridles were masks that depicted suffering).
Where is the ducking stool in Canterbury?
the Old Weavers’ House
Canterbury’s stool can be seen from the bridge over the Stour at the Old Weavers’ House in Canterbury’s High Street and if there are any other examples of ducking stools in Kent, do let us know.
What was the breaking wheel used for in medieval times?
The breaking wheel or execution wheel, also known as the Catherine wheel or simply the Wheel, was a torture method used for public execution primarily in Europe from antiquity through the Middle Ages into the early modern period by breaking the bones of a criminal or bludgeoning them to death.
Who wore a scold’s bridle?
It is difficult to date precisely, but seems to be have been made between 1550 and 1800. The scold’s bridle was part of a wider culture of fear and punishment of witches, prostitutes, ‘shrews’ and other unconventional women, who refused to play the part of quiet, submissive wives.
Was the scolds bridle actually used?
The first recorded use of the bridle for scolds, in England, was in the 17th Century. Use was predominantly in towns in the North of England though there are other examples and styles of bridles preserved further south.