Seventeenth-century Lancashire is a wild and superstitious place, far removed from the royal court in London. Pendle Hill stands a few feet shy of a mountain, rising through ghostly bands of mist in a patchwork of desolate beauty. It is land fit for breeding witches.

The Northern wise women claim their roots stretch back to the ancient Druids – long before the first missionaries arrived and converted the Britons to Catholicism – and many remote communities still practiced the old beliefs. King Henry VIII’s Reformation rid England of the Pope. But it also dissolved the monastery at Whalley, leaving the poor, sick, and needy without support. They now turn to the local cunning folk for help.

But when the new King James declares all supernatural powers come from Satan, the witch-hunting season begins in earnest . . .