Cornwall was once home to a large number of Cunning Folk. Most towns, villages and hamlets would at one time have had their own Wise-Woman, Cunning-Man, “White”-Witch, Conjuror or Peller. These important people were consulted for their knowledge of Charms, Substances and signs and for powers of foresight to help solve their clients' problems. Often they were just sought for advice.

Often they were required to break the curses or undo the Maleficia or bad magic of other Witches. Often this would involve the Cunner doing their own Maleficia against the “witch” in question. The Cunning Folk or “White” Witches would often place curses on their client's enemies and their own. In the minds of the populace when a curse was suspected it was thought to be the work of a “witch” and the one sought to remedy the problem was often called the “wise-woman” or “cunning man” etc. In reality though there was no such distinction. The cuning folk always had the ability to both cure or curse. They were both respected and feared in their communities. The Cunning folk knew this and were often ruthless in utilizing this to make their lives easier in what would have been very hard times. Cuning folk would even have been paid to remove their own curses!
The well known “law of three-fold return” and “An it harm none” ethic are developments of modern Wiccan branches of Witchcraft and would have been totally alien to practitioners of Traditional Witchcraft & Cunning. If the Cunning Folk thought in their judgement someone deserved a magical kick up the backside they would not hesitate to administer it! Of course we live now in very different times and the Cunners of today do not need to be quite so ruthless to survive! Knowledge of curse magic or “Blasting” are still retained by the Cunning folk and Traditional Witches of today but Wisdom is the goal of the old Craft and Blasting would only be used in circumstances where no other option is available and it is seen as wise to proceed in such a way.

Let us now take a brief look at some of Cornwall's better known Cunning Folk:

An Hereditary Wise woman of Romany Blood. She became famous and well respected by the people of Helston for her Wisdom and her knowledge of Charms. Her magical skills included assisting young woman in the finding of a partner, curing the scrofular by the aid of a small bag full of black spiders, curing ringworm in cattle and breaking curses. One amusing incident involving Granny Boswell occurred during the 1906 elections. A car was being used to ferry voters to and fro the polling station. When the car was turning to make another journey to the poll, Granny Boswell walked out in front and stood there (swaying slightly for she was very drunk) fascinated by the brightly polished, throbbing machine adorned with blue bows. Instead of politely asking her to step aside the driver shouted, roared the engine and blasted the horn. This made her furious and she proceeded to shriek at them with the most foul and abusive language and informed them that their machine would not get as far as the end of the street. After she stomped off in a fury, the car set off again on its journey, but only half way down the street, with a loud bang, one of the thick tension rods broke and the car had to be towed away by horse!

Tammy Blee (Tamsin Blight) was another of Cornwall's famous Helston Witches. Well respected by many in her time for her skills in areas of charm making, divination, healing, herb lore, necromancy and spell breaking. We know that Tammy may have employed ‘Shamanic' style methods in communicating with spirits and seeing the future for she would make use of hallucinogenic substances to aid her trance induced workings. The spring was a very busy time for Tammy and her husband Jemmy who also claimed powers of Cunning (Although many believed only Tammy to be the genuine Witch). It was believed that a Witch's powers were refreshed in the spring time, and many would visit her cottage at this time to have charms made or old ones re-empowered.

The Cunning tradition survives in Cornwall. Cassandra is a present day Cunning Woman living and working in the West Penwith village of St Buryan. The services Cassandra offers to her clients have changed very little from those offered by Cunning folk of the past. Help with matters of wealth, love, protection and healing etc are still common requests put to Cunning folk today. However whilst Cassandra has traditional knowledge of cursing and blasting, she refrains from such working putting her skills to beneficent ends. To learn more about Cassandra Latham, her Craft and her services please visit her website:

Cassandra Latham - Village Wisewoman

Video clips featuring Cassandra can be found in the Videos section of the archive.