The witch job that pays £50,000

A job centre is advertising a "witch" vacancy with tourist site Wookey Hole, in Somerset, for £50,000 a year.

The witch, who has to live in the site's caves, is expected to teach witchcraft and magic.

Wookey Hole staff say the role is straightforward: live in the cave, be a witch and do the things witches do.

The advert for the post, placed in the local press as well as job centres, says applicants must be able to cackle and cannot be allergic to cats.

The job has come up after the previous witch retired from the role.

"We are witchless at the moment so need to get the role filled as soon as possible," said Daniel Medley from the tourist destination.

'Key career move'

"Wookey Hole wants the appointee to go about her everyday business as a hag, 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 a variety of social ills, including crop failures and disease."

The £50,000-a-year salary is pro rata, and based on work done as needed, largely in the summer holidays, but also at Halloween and at Christmas.

"Wookey Hole is advertising nationally and hopes to attract a strong field of candidates with the £50,000 serving as a major incentive," said the site.

It said ambitious witches looking for a "key career move" should arrive dressed for work armed with any "essential witch accoutrements".

Due to sexual discrimination law, the job cannot demand that the post is filled by a woman.

Under sexual discrimination law, unless Wookey Hole can provide "documentary proof that the original witch was female it can't issue a gender-specific job description".

Interviews, which will involve on-site assessment incorporating a range of standard tasks, will take place on 28 July at 1100, stipulates the advert.

Sometimes I think I'm living in the wrong country. Just sayin'.

I agree with ya, Diva

50,000 British Pounds = $80,455.56 U.S. Dollars! So, who's ready to emigrate?

New Witch of Wookey Hole

As Carole Bohanan is happy to acknowledge, it is a big step up in her career. From now on the estate agent from Shepton Mallet, Somerset, will be known as Carla Calamity, the Witch of Wookey Hole.

Miss Calamity, who admits to being several hundred years old — it would be impolite to ask how many — beat 300 other witches to the most coverted job in covendom.

Wookey Hole, a cave attraction near Wells owned by the Cottle family, advertised for a witch after the incumbent announced her intention to move. More than 3,124 people requested application forms, 278 “volunteered” their mother-in-law and 23 church groups sent in letters of complaint. Inquiries came from 401 male witches and one London banker.

Miss Calamity, who wore sparkly stilettos and described herself as a “glamorous witch”, will now give up her job selling homes and instead greet visitors to the limestone cave complex. She said that the £50,000 a year pro rata salary was only appropriate for the best witch in the business.

“I am on top of the moon. This is a natural step up from my current job. You need witchy skills to sell houses at the moment.”

The broomstick was passed by Jane Brenner, Wookey’s witch for the past six years. Mrs Brenner said: “We didn’t want anyone who would scare the children. We wanted a good witch to meet and greet people and act as an ambassador for the attraction. This isn’t just a cushy job.” The contenders were whittled down from 300 to a final 15 who included a photographer, a dive master, an aromatherapist, a local journalist, a tattooist and a stonemason.

Tanys Pullin, a cheese maker who matures her rounds of Cheddar in the caves and had been invited to join the panel, said: “It has been a fantastic day. I have had pickled onions, spaghetti and an apple thrown at me.”

Most of the candidates opted for traditional witchy garb of pointy hat, black cape and green greasepaint. They came in carrying cauldrons, broomsticks, plastic frogs and a live raven called Bran. It was easy to distinguish the “real” witches from the pretenders: they were the ones not wearing pointy hats and crooked plastic noses.

The original witch of Wookey Hole was an old woman who lived in the caves with only a goat for company. According to legend the she was turned to stone with a splash of holy water after a monk from Glastonbury came to investigate complaints that she was casting spells on farm animals.

The queue began to form at 5am. First to audition was Sharon Shaw, who calls herself a “hedge witch”. She was dressed in brown sacking, accessorised with a bleached rabbit skull and a piece of antler hanging from the metal belt around her generous waist.

Another, forgetting that her role was to welcome young children to the caves, said she had been going for “the zombie septaecemia look, with a little bit of leprosy”.

John Turner, another of the judges, was undertandably nervous at the consequences of failing to pick the right candidate. He said: “One candidate is carrying around a bottle of her own urine. She drank half of it before we could stop her.”

At least the chosen witch isn't the cliche they seemed to be looking for and rather a woman more like, you know... us!