The practice was based on the idea that water, seen as a pure and God given element, would reject those who were allied with evil forces.

The accused, most often a woman, would be strapped into a wooden chair or bound with ropes and then fully submerged in a river, pond, or lake. She was held under the water for far longer than any person could reasonably hold their breath. This was not a controlled or humane test, and survival depended largely on chance, physical strength, or intervention.

After a period of immersion, the villagers would pull her back out to see whether she was still alive. If she drowned, her death was taken as proof that she was not a witch, as she supposedly lacked supernatural powers to protect herself. If she survived, this was interpreted as evidence that she had been aided by dark forces, and she would then be condemned as a witch and executed, often by burning.

The last recorded uses of similar ducking devices occurred around eighty years earlier. These included Mrs Gamble in Plymouth in 1808, Jenny Pipes, described at the time as “a notorious woman”, in 1809, and Sarah Leeke in 1817, both cases recorded in Leominster.

Obviously this is a staged shot.