Thea Hallett: The Professional Recluse

Of course, no tour of Walpole House would be complete without an exit through the emergency escape tunnel leading out of the grounds. This tunnel was painstakingly completed by a Ms Thea Hallett in the troubled summer of 2014, when it was considered likely that HMMR might descend upon innocent Wytches at any time to arrest them…

- Tour guide at Walpole

Having learned from experience that the world is often kinder to a Wytch who can hide herself away until trouble passes over, Thea Hallett joined forces with Sylvia Tallys to create a refuge for vulnerable orphaned Wytch children. Or at least, that's what the official charity paperwork registered it as. Wytch visitors to the Magical Children's Refuge in Lancashire, particularly those invited as occasional guest speakers to educate the children on matters of natural harmony or life in the external world, would sometimes notice that there seemed to be more children there than were on the official records, and that some of them were very good at sneaking out of the classroom unnoticed when they got bored…