HYPED to be a winter blockbuster, Guillermo del Toro’s new thriller Nightmare Alley, is in south Essex cinemas this week.

Set in the 1930s and 1940s, the film stars Bradley Cooper as a con-man psychic- a talented manipulator who claims to be a true medium. However when he gets involved with psychiatrist Lilith Ritter, played by Cate Blanchett, to trick people into giving them money, the charlatan in far more trouble than he bargained for.

In Southend, evidence shows, there was always a significant interest in the supernatural- especially during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. At one point there was a Madame Churchill, a Madame Keiro, a Madame Roberts, and a Madame Marguerite working as clairvoyants in the town.

We’ve all seen the films where a Victorian seance scene will feature an unscrupulous fortune teller using tricks to gain the trust of their clients - such as table rapping, table tipping, dimming the lights and using accomplices.

A number of palm-readers and fortune tellers were taken to court for their methods - though that’s not to say they were all using trickery. Many believed they had a genuine gift and were trying to help people make important life decisions.

By 1910 the Southend Standard newspaper was full of adverts for palmists, seance meetings and private prediction readings.

One of them was for a Madame Churchill who hosted guests at her home, 140 Station Road, Southend. The 1911 Census shows that Madame Churchill was actually a 42-year-old woman named named Ada Sophia Collins. She was listed as a widow and her occupation was ‘clairvoyant and occult scientist’. She shared her home with her housekeeper Florence Jenkins.

In June 1916 Madam Churchill was one of five clairvoyants and palm-readers who ended up in Southend Court on charges of ‘pretending to tell fortunes with the intent to deceive’ following a Southend police ‘sting’ operation.

Madame Churchill was accused of predicting the future of one undercover woman witness (who was the wife of a police officer).

At first she got the woman’s age and the sex of her children wrong but upon examining her hand told her she needn’t worry about Zeppelin raids, which was a big concern for everyone at the time “You will not be killed by Zeps, neither will I. You will be close to house that will be burnt but you will not be hurt,” she told her.

Madame Churchill was found guilty and was fined £2.

Also in the dock as part of the same police operation, was Madame Keiro. Her real name was Thirza Martha Baker Davis and the 1911 Census shows us she was classed as an ‘occult scientists’. She was a 67-year-old widow and was originally from Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. She lived in St John’s Lodge in Church Road, Southend, with her granddaughter. She told her ‘fake client’ that her husband would be sent overseas but that he would return unharmed. She was also given a fine.

Madame Marguerite- AKA Annie Cundale, of Clarence Road, Southend, was also brought before the court and had told her undercover client that when she died she would come back from the other side to help others left back here. There was great laugher in the court when no-nonsense police chief constable Henry Kerslake who was overseeing the operation, said: “I hope you won’t come back to trouble me!”

Madame Roberts, aka Hannah Robinson of Clarence Street, Southend and Madame Leena, whose real name was Gertrude Barber, aged 30, of Leigh Road, Westcliff were also involved in the string and received fines.

Barber took to the stand and said she genuinely believed she she had a gift to read people’s palms and did not pretend or make things up.