Q&A: Matthew Hopkins and the Wormhole (Kevin Pearce, singer-songwriter)

Essex singer-songwriter Kevin Pearce. Photo: © Kevin Pearce.

An article in the Independent about indie artists who’ve recently looked to the 17th century for inspiration brought me to Kevin Pearce.

The Essex singer-songwriter's latest album, Matthew Hopkins and Wormhole, has an ethereal, acoustic-electric sound, with Kevin's vocals soaring like a kaleidoscopic ray from the future returning to stir ghosts from the past.

I asked Kevin about his work, and how he came to write an album inspired by Hopkins, the 'Witchfinder General' who terrorised East Anglia in the 1640s …

Darren Hayman talks about the making of The Violence

Click on the video above to hear songwriter Darren Hayman talk about the making of his album The Violence.

The 20-song release chronicles the English Civil War in Essex, in particular the witch trials led by Matthew Hopkins that brought terror to East Anglia in the 1640s. Track titles include Vinegar Tom and A Coffin for King Charles, A Coffin for Cromwell, and a Pit for the People.

Part two of the video
Part three of the video

Darren Hayman and the Long Parliament - The Violence
My review of the recent exhibition The East Anglian Witch Hunt 1645-47

Walthamstow witch hunt exhibition photos

The Vestry House Museum, Walthamstow

A few weeks back I popped along to Waltham Forest's travelling exhibition The East Anglian witch-hunt of 1645-47.

Based on the book Witchfinder by Malcolm Gaskill, the display was jointly funded by the council and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) ...

Exhibition explores East Anglian witch-hunt during the English Civil War

Update 10 July 2012: I subsequently visited this exhibition; you can view the photos I took here.

An exhibition in Walthamstow, east London, explores the witch-hunts that happened in the east of the country during the English Civil War.

The East Anglian witch-hunt of 1645-47 runs until March 25th 2012 at the Vestry House Museum. There are also a few special events taking place between now and the end of the run ...

Diary of Nehemiah Wallington online

An extract from the diary of Nehemiah Wallington, showing his account of the
confession of Rebecca West as a witch at Chelmsford, Essex

A University of Manchester project has made a diary written by Nehemiah Wallington available online for the first time.

Wallington was a Puritan wood turner born in 1598 in Eastcheap, in the City of London. He wrote a prolific number of journals and other books, though only seven survive, one of which contains a shocking account of Matthew Hopkins' East Anglia witch-hunts ...