Job Centre advertises for £50000-a-year witch to live in Wookey Hole

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.



"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.

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".