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A 400-year-old diary documenting England's notorious witch trials - during which a young maid confessed to 'having sex with the Devil' - is being opened up to the public for the first time. The 17th century journal, immortalised in the 1968 horror movie The Witchfinder General, tells of how 33 women were branded witches as efforts were made to root out sorcery during the English Civil War.
Those accused even had their bodies examined for signs of extra skin that might be 'teats to be suckled by imps'. A university team is photographing the pages in all their gory detail using cutting-edge cameras so they can be put on display.
The pages of the dated book, which is kept at Tatton Park, Knutsford, Cheshire, are so old that it is rarely opened. The diary of puritan Nehemiah Wallington is likely to be displayed on computers - and may be put online in the future for the world to see by the team from the University of Manchester's John Rylands Library.
It tells of how young maid Rebecca West confessed to having sex with the Devil and to how she implicated her mother and others in witchcraft - condemning them all to the gallows - but saving herself.
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