The location of Malkin Tower is uncertain. It may have been demolished shortly after the 1612 trials, as it was common at the time to dismantle empty buildings and recycle the materials. The building may also have been destroyed to eradicate the "melancholy associations" of the place. The official account of the trials written by Thomas Potts, clerk to the court, in his
The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster mentions
Malking Tower many times, but only describes it as being in the Forest of Pendle, a former
royal forest that covered a considerable area south and east of
Pendle Hill, extending almost to the towns of
Burnley,
Colne and
Padiham. , a Victorian
folly often confused with Malkin Tower|alt=Prominent structure on a hill One contender is in the civil parish of
Blacko, on the site of present-day Malkin Tower Farm; since the 1840s claims have been made that old masonry found in a field wall is from the remains of the building. In
The Lancashire Witch-Craze, Jonathan Lumby conjectures that the building was situated on the moors surrounding Blacko Hill, near to an old road between Colne and
Gisburn. Local folklore in the parish holds that the remains of Malkin Tower are buried in a field behind the nearby Cross Gaits Inn
public house; the tower used to be featured on the inn's sign. The primary evidence supporting this location seems to be that a hollow in the hillside east of the farm is known as Mawkin Hole. It has been suggested that this is the same place mentioned in the 16th-century
halmote court records for the
manor of Colne as Mawkin Yarde, described as being "in the north of Colne", but anywhere inside the manor of Colne would have been outside the Forest of Pendle, and the first Ordnance Survey map of the area, created in the 1840s, identifies the farm as Blacko Tower. The site is also several miles from any of the traceable locations mentioned at the trial. In 1891 local grocer Jonathan Stansfield constructed a solitary tower on the nearby summit of Blacko Hill. Today this is also commonly known as Blacko Tower, and is often confused with Malkin Tower. Although he claimed at the time that he wished to see into neighbouring valleys, historian John Clayton suggests that, aware of the story, he may have wished to provide the area with his own version. Another possible location is somewhere near the village of
Newchurch in Pendle. Douglas claims there is "persuasive" evidence that an area near Sadler's Farm (now known as Shekinah Christian Centre) was the site of Malkin Tower; there were numerous reports of alleged witchcraft in the area, and it was in the vicinity of other locations named during the trial such as Greenhead,
Barley and
Roughlee. Others involved in the trials were known to have lived in the area; alleged witches Jane and John Bulcock resided at Moss End Farm in Newchurch, and John Nutter, whose cows were claimed to have been bewitched, lived at the neighbouring Bull Hole Farm. Southerns' son Christopher Holgate also lived nearby. But neither the deeds of Sadler's Farm, which date back to the 17th century, nor contemporary maps of the region mention Malkin Tower or any fields in which it may have stood. Archaeological excavations have been undertaken in several locations in the Pendle Forest area, including Newchurch, but nothing has been found. A potential candidate for the lost Malkin Tower was announced in December 2011, after water engineers unearthed a 17th-century cottage with a mummified cat sealed in the walls, close to
Lower Black Moss reservoir near Barley. == Notes ==