A curious belief still clings to Gribdale Gate. Any one who dares to stand near the said gate on New Year’s Eve, will see an old man open it, pass through, and then vanish. This takes place just as the new year is born. There is one man still living in Great Ayton who has seen the old chap thus herald in the new year. Again, old people of Great Ayton still aver that on a certain night a once noted witch, Nanny Howe, may be seen riding astride on a broomstick over Howe Wood just at midnight. This witch, so mounted, is said once to have chased the devil for miles—on this occasion the two must have fallen out; perhaps at that time honest folk got their due. Howe Wood is near Kildale.
Ailer Wood, her real name being Alice, was a witch of considerable note throughout the Bilsdale district fifty years ago. In the form of a cat or hare, she seems to have cared little either what kind or colour the hounds were which chased her. She never was caught, but then she had a little way of making herself invisible when too hard pressed; but in this she was not alone, a case in point having already being mentioned. Innumerable times was she fired at, ‘bud nivver nobody could hit her.’ On one occasion a damsel named Annie Wilson felt sure the old thing had bewitched her sweetheart. The reason for such a supposition lay in the fact that the young fellow had transferred his affections to some other fair charmer. My idea is that the other girl had bewitched him; that, however, was not Annie’s notion. She, like many another maiden of her time, went with the sorrow of her aching heart to the wise man of those parts, one Henry Wilson, who, after carefully listening to Annie’s woeful story, told her how she could discover if it was the witch who had cast a spell on her lover. She was to return home, turn the cricket[53] wrong side uppermost, pushing pretty close together and very securely into the wood nine pins, saying, as she pushed in the last one, ‘There’s nine for him and her and the witch’; in another place she had to push in another nine, repeating at the ninth, ‘There’s nine for the witch and her and him’; and lastly, in another place, another nine, concluding at the ninth by saying, ‘And there is nine more for all three of them, wi’ her in t’ middle.’ By this arrangement, the vile creature who had stolen her lover, was always mentioned so that she occupied a place nearest the witch. All this having been accomplished, the stool had to be set on its feet, and, under some pretext or other, Ailer was to be induced to seat herself thereon. On doing so, she would be unable to get up again until she truly answered any questions Annie asked her. Everything was carried out as ordered by Wilson: Ailer was called in, and offered a cup of tea, the stool having been pushed toward her; she was invited to seat herself, and have her bite and sup comfortably. Now, was ever a maiden nearer finding out just why her lover had deserted her? The stool was even put in front of the fire, and Ailer again invited to seat herself; but no, the witch quietly replied, it would not be possible for her to enjoy the good things they had given her, seated on the back of a ‘pricky-back otch’n[54].’ Ailer by some means had found out what had been done, and so escaped the charm which had been prepared for her.