4. A Witch’s Broomstick
A broomstick belonging to Olga Hunt © Museum of Witchcraft, Boscastle
Though this broomstick never saw any action on the Quidditch field, it was owned by a real life witch, Olga Hunt. Hunt, of Manaton, Devon in England, is said to have leapt around on this broomstick during every full moon. Broomsticks and witches became inexorably linked in the hysteria of 16th and 17th century Europe, though the tradition actually has ancient roots in pagan fertility rites.
