Emily Chan
In 2005, a woman named Vanessa Mitchell bought a house located in the quaint English village of St. Osyth in the county of Essex.
She was drawn to the property and believed that the building, painted in a sunny yellow shade, would be her dream home. However, her experience living there turned out to be nothing short of traumatizing.
The house that Vanessa bought was once a medieval prison for those accused of being witches back during the Satanic Panic, a period in British history where people were plagued with paranoia about supernatural beings and numerous witch trials were held. Many women were condemned to their deaths during this time.
In 1582, the prison, which was named “The Cage,” held around 13 women captive as they awaited trial. They became known as the “witches of St. Osyth.”
In the end, three of the women were found guilty and were hanged on the gallows. One of the women sentenced to death was named Ursula Kemp, and her story was the most notable one.
Ursula was a midwife and helped heal sick people, making her a well-loved member of her community. But, after a disagreement with a local family, rumors were spread about her healing abilities, which led to her being accused of witchcraft.
A neighbor claimed she had been chanting magical spells while treating a sick child. She was pressured to confess to witchcraft, and the child she healed testified at her trial.
During the 1800s, The Cage was rebuilt with brick to make it sturdier. It remained a jail until 1908. By the 1970s, it had been made over into a house. The jail cells were transformed into a living room, and bedrooms were added upstairs.
When Vanessa bought the house, she witnessed paranormal activity from the first day she moved in. She often noticed apparitions walking through rooms and heard spooky, unexplained sounds. She saw objects fly across the kitchen for no apparent reason.
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