The Annual General Meeting of the Friends of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery will be held next week.

And then, appropriately enough that close to Hallowe'en, will be followed by a talk about witches.

The meeting will start at 6.30pm next Thursday at the museum in Bath Road, and is expected to last about an hour.

Once that business is completed attendees and other visitors can hear a talk on witch trials in British-run India in the early modern period.

The lecture is entitled" Witches foreign and domestic: English demonology in Restoration-era Bombay" and will be given by Wiltshire-based historian Jessy Price.

Ms Price, who lives in Minety, Wiltshire is currently researching her PhD: “Demons of Empire: Demonology and Ethnicity in English Restoration Thought” at Cornell University - one of the most prestigious "Ivy League" colleges in the USA.

Her thesis examines witch trials carried out by the English East India Company in Bombay during the 1670s and 80s, and the intellectual milieu of the merchants who ran them. Jessy’s research for the academic year 2018-19 is sponsored by the North American Conference for British Studies Dissertation Fellowship.

For those who just wish just to attend the talk, doors open at 7.00pm on Thursday October 25

Tickets which cost £6 for Friends of the SMAG and £8 for non-members are available online and on 01793 466556.

Full details are available at the organisation's website www.friendsofsmag.org and then by clicking on the events menu and then the talks button.