Locations in The Wicked Of The Earth – A D Bergin
Locations in ‘The Wicked Of The Earth’
Newcastle and Northumberland have knotted old bones entwined into the modern fabric, never forgotten, always present. The Chares, the steep steps and alleys running up from the city’s vibrant
A D Bergin
quayside towards the Castle, Cathedral of Saint Nicholas and Georgian new town gave ready inspiration for ‘Wicked’.
Ominous, claustrophobic, threatening, they come close to becoming another macabre character in their own right, and are deliberately used to drive forwards the tense story of the largest and deadliest of all witch trials and the brave women who dared to fight back.
Locations in The Wicked of the Earth
Location 1. Castle Stars, Newcastle upon Tyne
Castle Stars(C) A D Bergin
Locations in The Wicked of the Earth
The twisting, narrow steps and landings of Castle Stairs are among the best preserved of the Chares, thirty steep ascents which formerly rose from the town’s quayside. In 1650 these were interconnected by a claustrophobic labyrinth of tenements, passages and yards in which much of the action in ‘Wicked’ is set. Elizabeth Thompson encounters the book’s centrally important, mismatched pair of killers as she climbs Church Steps towards her home.
Location 2. Newcastle Castle, Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle Castle, (C) A D Bergin
Locations in The Wicked of the Earth
The Victorian railway has destroyed much of the Bailey of Newcastle’s Norman castle, but its Black Gate survives, where James Archer is threatened by the Royalist Carr family, as does the imposing Keep, centre of Sir Arthur Heselrigg’s military government in 1650, with its appalling torture machine hidden deep under the ground.
Location 3. Cathedral of Saint Nicholas, Newcastle upon Tyne
Cathedral of Saint Nicholas, (C) A D Bergin
Locations in The Wicked of the Earth
Dominated by a set of fiery Puritan lecturers, Saint Nicholas features twice in the narrative. Archer first encounters both Elizabeth Thompson and the charming Captain Draper at service in the church. The following Sunday he is publicly denounced there, in a Seventeenth Century form of ‘cancellation’.
Location 4. St Andrew’s Churchyard, Newgate Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
St Andrew’s Churchyard(C) A D Bergin
Locations in The Wicked of the Earth
Linked to several major episodes in the book. No trace remains of Newgate prison, where the accused women were held before trial and awaited execution, but the north side of the churchyard, just inside the remnant of town wall, is the site of mass grave of the sixteen executed for witchcraft on 21st October 1650. Passing west along Galllowgate and up Barrack Road to the ‘Bull’ public house lead to the exact site of the executions. The St. Andrew’s site it also the focus for a campaign by Historical Fiction writers and Historians to place a permanent memorial to the dead.
Location 5. Alnwick Castle, Alnwick
Alnwick Castle (C) A D Bergin
Locations in The Wicked of the Earth
Near the end of his quest to find his sister, James Archer risks riding into the New Model Army encampment just outside Alnwick Castle, encountering an old friend. Archer picks up the trail of the renegade witch pricker in Alnwick, but also soon falls into deadly danger at nearby Eglingham.
Many thanks for such an interesting tour AD!
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Wicked of the Earth
Twitter: @adberginwriter
