{"id":5236,"date":"2022-01-14T12:06:11","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T12:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/?p=5236"},"modified":"2022-01-14T12:39:11","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T12:39:11","slug":"witchfinder-general-the-13-chairs-and-apotheosis-2-counter-cultural-musings-from-tsptr-dossier-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=5236","title":{"rendered":"Witchfinder General, The 13 Chairs and Apotheosis 2 \u2013 Counter-Cultural musings from TSPTR. Dossier #7"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the seventh of our monthly counter-cultural musings from\u00a0<\/strong>TSPTR<\/strong><\/a>, we look at the sleepy Suffolk town Lavenham’s role in the counter-culture<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The quiet and unassuming village of Lavenham in Suffolk holds a strange place in the canon of \u201960s counter-culture. The county of Suffolk, steeped in hundreds of years of dark and mysterious history, was the perfect location for the 1968 cult folk-horror classic Witchfinder General<\/em>. Filmed in and around Lavenham, the disturbing tale of mass deception and sadism focused on real life English Civil War era “witchfinder” Matthew Hopkins. It\u2019s infamous witch burning scene was filmed in the village marketplace, the colourful medieval half-timbered cottages taking on a dark Disneyland aesthetic as the seemingly idyllic portent for ensuing acts of violence. The films auteur, Michael Reeves, would die of an accidental drug overdose the following year in February 1969, his ashes scattered in nearly Ipswich.<\/p>\n