Fancy a spell of being a witch? Apply at the caves

There is a unique job on offer at Wookey Hole which comes with live-in accommodation and a salary of £50,000.

The catch is that the job is to be the witch of Wookey Hole – and live in the caves going about as a hag.

Wookey Hole Caves want the appointee to go about the everyday business of a witch, so that people passing through the caves can get a sense of what the place was like in the Dark Ages.

This was when an old woman lived in the caves with some goats and a dog, causing crop failures and disease.

She also turned the local milk rancid.

Eventually, an Abbot called Father Bernard was summoned from Glastonbury. Armed with a bible and a candle, he entered the cave, found the witch and tried to reason with her.

She started screaming and casting curses, and ran off into the depths of the cavern.

His efforts at conflict resolution through dialogue exhausted, Father Bernard scooped up some water from the cave, blessed it, and then threw it at the witch who turned to stone. And there she stands to this day.

So the job is straightforward: live in the cave, be a witch, and do the things witches do.

Wookey Hole Caves are advertising nationally and hopes to attract a strong field of candidates, with the £50,000 salary serving as a major incentive.

Interviews for the post, which will involve on-site assessment incorporating a range or standard tasks, will take place on Tuesday, July 28.

Given the nature of the role, Wookey Hole Caves have decided to run the process on an open audition basis. Ambitious witches, looking for a key career move, should turn up dressed for work and bring any essential witch accoutrements. A limited range of potion ingredients will be available.

The caves are allowing both men and women to apply. The caves' human resources department has been advised that under sexual discrimination law it can't issue a gender-specific job description, unless it can provide documentary proof that the original witch was female, which would allow them to advertise for women only according to the exclusion to Employment and Training Law No.1661 (2003), pt.II, para 7, clause (a).

Since Wookey Hole Caves can't furnish the required, legally binding proof, it has had to accept that the post might eventually be awarded to a man.

The caves will also be looking to employ a trans-gender witch, possibly recruited via a youth training initiative.