Witches Stairs

There have been posts circulating in March of this year that alternate-tread staircases (pictured below) are called "Witch Stairs." The belief that "witches can't climb up these stairs" was the reason behind why they were originally built. However, it has been later debunked and this claim is actually false. The actually reason behind these alternate-treads stairs are to save space, especially in narrow homes. 

As mentioned in a well-known woodworking magazine Fine Homebuilding, alternate-tread stairs solve the problems of smaller spaces. These stairs serve the purpose of both a ladder and stairs, and are built as such for steep inclines. Robin Briggs, an emeritus fellow at All Souls College at Oxford, explained that he has never come across any textual evidence that these stairs could disable witches. 

Similarly, some believe in an urban legend that a witch descending from an attic would have trouble doing so because witches are unable to see their feet. Outlandish claims such as this one were common during this time period. Another claim, known as the witches mark, which was usually a blemish or mole that was a "tell-tale sign" of someone being witch. 

There are thousands of different reasons to accuse someone of being a witch. At the end of the day, most of these ideologies believed by those in Salem have turned out to have no base whatsoever, including this more current thought of "witches stairs."