The Hemlock Collection: A Witch Trial Mystery Across Centuries
In August 1628, the quiet village of Crowhurst was shaken by fear. Catherine’s young children began to suffer terrifying possession fits, thrashing and screaming in the night. No local physician could explain it. Neighbours whispered. Suspicions spread.
Within weeks, Catherine’s family was at the centre of accusations. Her daughter Elizabeth and son Henry were dragged into the hysteria, and Crowhurst became the stage for a witch trial that left twelve men, women, and one child dead.
Almost four hundred years later, in 2023, Beth Crowhurst — a history student and content creator researching those trials — vanished while documenting the story online.
The witch trials and Beth’s disappearance left behind fragments: notes, posts, theories, artefacts.
The Hemlock Collection gathers those fragments, past and present, into one immersive storytelling experience.
What’s Inside the Hemlock Collection
The Hemlock Collection is built like a history unearthed: artefacts, letters, and testimonies that feel as though they’ve been pulled straight from the archives.
Inside, you’ll find:
Letters written in desperation and secrecy.
Confessions preserved over centuries from those accused.
Grave rubbings from Crowhurst’s soil, hinting at those who never returned.
Beth’s diary entries offering glimpses into her personal life.
Newspaper articles reporting on a mysterious fire and a break-in, adding modern-day tension.
Other fragments that blur the line between history and the present.
Each piece is a story seed. Together, they create a web of mysteries, betrayals, and half-remembered truths. It’s not just one tale — it’s a million different stories in a box, waiting for you to uncover.
How Writers Can Use The Hemlock Collection
For writers, Hemlock is an engine of inspiration. Every artefact can be the spark for a new piece of fiction:
Flash fiction from a single letter.
Full-length short stories inspired by the grave rubbings or trial fragments.
Dual-timeline novels that link the witch trials of 1628 with Beth’s modern-day disappearance.
Character studies built from scraps of testimony and whispered accusations.
Because the box is layered, you can choose: write directly into the 17th-century setting, reimagine Beth’s investigation in 2023, or invent entirely new perspectives. Hemlock gives you fragments — what you create from them is entirely your own.
How Teachers Can Use the Hemlock Collection
Teachers will find Hemlock rich with classroom applications. It’s designed to align with both literature and creative writing lessons:
Suggested Classroom Activities
Group Investigation: Divide the class into small groups and give each one the full set of documents. Students annotate, create timelines, and list open questions. Each group develops its own theory of what happened at Gallows Hill in 1628 and how it connects to Beth’s disappearance in 2023.
Solo Creative Writing Tasks: Students select a document or character and write from that perspective — expanding a 17th-century confession, continuing Beth’s diary, inventing a missing headline, or creating an entirely new piece.
Script Writing: Use the collection as the basis for a play, TV scene, or dramatic monologue. Extend by having students design sets, costumes, or backstories.
Class Novel Project: Construct a double timeline of events as a class, then assign each student a chapter to write. Chapters can weave past and present into one collaborative narrative.
Podcast or Documentary Script: Students write a scripted investigation using the documents as evidence, including interviews, theories, and flashbacks. Works brilliantly with roleplay or recorded presentations.
Poetry from Evidence: Assign a single artefact (e.g., the rope, the silver needle, Beth’s final diary entry) and have students write a poem in response, focusing on mood and symbolism.
Genre Study: Compare Hemlock to Gothic or witch trial texts (The Crucible, The Witches of Pendle, The Burning Girls, Macbeth). Discuss how superstition, secrecy, and fractured timelines critique fear, justice, and power.
Because the materials are already scaffolded into narrative fragments, students don’t face the dreaded blank page — they step into a story already in motion.
A Digital-First Release
At the moment, The Hemlock Collection is only available as a digital version. That means you can download and use the artefacts instantly — in your classroom, your writing group, or your own creative practice.
The digital format makes it flexible: print what you need, project images onto a whiteboard, or store them as digital files in a classroom hub. You can also add your own tactile extras to heighten immersion — for example:
a length of coarse rope or twine to represent Gallows Hill,
a tarnished needle as a “cursed” object,
a candle stub or sprig of dried herbs to echo folk magic,
These simple props take minutes to gather but can transform the digital collection into a sensory, hands-on experience that feels even more real.
Themes That Still Resonate
Though it begins in 1628, Hemlock’s themes are urgent and modern:
How fear spreads through a community.
How stories and suspicions become evidence.
How women and children are caught in systems stacked against them.
How the past leaves traces that refuse to fade.
These themes resonate in literature, history, and creative writing alike. They give Hemlock depth beyond its eerie atmosphere — making it as powerful for analysis as it is for storytelling.
Step Into the Mystery
The Hemlock Collection is part of the Ink & Insights series of writing boxes, each one blending history, literature, and imagination into a unique storytelling toolkit.
Crowhurst’s secrets are waiting. Elizabeth, Henry, and Catherine’s voices linger. And somewhere in the present, Beth’s trail has gone cold.
Will you piece together what happened?
