I saw a strange thing on the way to Cradley Heath. Or thought I did. I was driving my mum’s car to a garage for a service. I passed a shop for witches. Witchy Supplies, it said on the sign. I did a double take, giving thanks there was no one in front of me or I’d have driven into them. Later, I mentioned this place to a couple of friends who live and work in that area and they looked at me funny. What? A witches’ supply shop? In Colley Gate? Are you sure? I wondered if I’d dreamed it. So when I collected the car, I risked another drive past and, yes, there it was. The Wicklow Witch. Candles, Crystals, Witchy Supplies.
I cannot overstate how bizarre it is to come across this shop, right here, on Windmill Hill, next to the derelict Cradley Labour Club and across the road from a Nisa Local. When I went back to my friends to confirm the sighting and location, they both said, yes, now I mentioned it they did recall seeing it but, you know, didn’t quite take it in. I’m not surprised – it’s too much to compute first time round.
This week my curiosity got the better of me and I paid a visit. And there, behind the counter, was the witch herself. I asked her if there were many witches, here in the Halesowen area. “You’d be surprised,” she said. Actually, I wouldn’t. I don’t think anything is ever going to surprise me again.
I’ve been decidedly anti-witch ever since I was scared half to death 50 years ago by that nasty piece of work in The Wizard of Oz. I’m thankful to this witch, the delightful Juliet O’Brien, for putting me right on a few things, not least that proper witches don’t do bad things because they know such behaviour will only come back and haunt them. Witches are a force only for good. I’ve been reading up on them in a book I bought from Juliet called Basic Witches and I’m liking what I’m finding. I’m going back soon to pick up some crystals, seriously.
• Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist
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