AN UNSOLVED murder surrounded by rumours of witchcraft is the focus of a new book.
The Meon Hill Murder 1945 focuses on the case of old hedger Charles Walton who was found bludgeoned and hacked to death in a Warwickshire field at Lower Quinton, under the shadow of Meon Hill, near Stratford, in the closing months of the Second World War.
The local CID investigated before calling in Scotland Yard. Hundreds of people were interviewed and thousands of questions asked.
But the whole village was silent, as if someone had drawn down a blind.
After the case was scaled down, the rumours remained. Was Meon Hill the centre of a witches’ coven? And was old Charlie Walton, with his ability to talk to birds and toads and his magic watch, a witch himself?
For 80 years, the supernatural has hovered over the murder, with vague, haunted memories of secret rites and black dogs. Even the dead man’s grave has vanished.
Rumour has been piled on innuendo, adding to the number of writers determined to make a supernatural mystery out of a very local tragedy.
Author MJ Trow has accessed the original police files – that don’t mention anything about witchcraft – in an effort to get to the truth of the murder.
The Meon Hill Murder 1945 is published by Pen & Sword.
