Ada and Agatha's Birthscroll
Okay, so I do not know if this has been done before, but I was overstimulated this morning and needed something to focus on and after a lot of puzzling, I believe it took me about three hours I came down to the following.
(it's a lot of reading and I'll try to keep it as clear as possible)
Lets just start off with date and time of birth, from Ada and Agatha.
What I managed to figure out is that the scroll says
Agatha Cackle was born at [time]
Ada Cackle was born at [time]
to Alma Cackle
I'm not sure if the scroll says "on" or "Date" both could be possible, and is followed by "Tuesday/Thursday 27th December 19.."
I will get back to whether it's Tuesday or Thursday in a moment, but first the year.
In s1e10, The Mists of Time, Ethel says "What if I have to spend the next fifty years with you." and Ada and Agatha are in this episode most likely around the age of 11/12. The oldest they could be would be 15 as in s4 Maud has a statement that I cannot quote right now, but to which we can assume that Cackle's has 5 years, in which the 5th is exam year.
If we calculate from 2017 when The first season of the Worst Witch was filmed, does that mean they were born somewhere between 1950 and 1960.
After quick research I found out that only times the 27th of December, in the decade between 1950 and 1960, fell on a Tuesday or Thursday were in 1955 (a Tuesday) and in 1956 (a Thursday).
And then if we assume that Ada and Agatha were in the mists of time Episode 11 years old, they would be 61 in 2017, which comes down that their date of birth is on Thursday, December 27th 1956
This means Ada and Agatha are both Capricorns.
Next I tried to figure out what time Ada and Agatha exactly were born
In the picture, zooming in a little, the first number after Agatha's name seems to be a five.
Okay, so they're born at 5AM (in the U.K they use the 24 hour clock, so if it'd be 5PM the scroll would say 17h)
Then comming to the exact minute.
The numbers aren't quite clear but we know from Agatha's quote "Mother only gave you the school because you're thirteen minutes older" that there must be a gap of 13 minutes. Agatha's numbers are most clear and it looks like 5:04 which would match with Ada's times, which look like 5:17.
(also I just noticed the scroll said "on" before the date)
To figure out what the ohter information was on the scroll I needed another picture.
Out of this picture I could make up that under "Birthscroll" it says "Twin Witches"
Together with the other two pictures used before it looked like underneath that is writen "Black Crow" + something I could not figure out yet.
The first captital letter looks like a D, followed by probably an o
This made me conclude that ithe words after Black Crow is probably Doctoral or Doctorate, something along the lines of that.
Under the Black Crow Doctoral/Doctorate we have a picture and from what I could see, it looks like an Baby/Angel on either a cloud or something else similair. I could not get a clear view on what it was, nor could I find good referentical pictures so this is just a speculation.
Then before we have Agatha and Ada's name, something else is writen. After viewing different pictures and zooming in, I think it says "This certificate states that" or something similair to that, if we look at how much space it occupies on the scroll.
Now we nearly have the entire scroll
At the bottom the scroll states something and I could not figure out what exactly, though after doing enough puzzling I managed to figure out that the scroll says "In Witness Whereof" and further it's unreadable.
The stamp seems to be having two babies in it, and under the stamp there is a autograph, which of my guessing and after doing research to these birthcertificates must be from the register.
---
And then we have the entire scroll
Birth Scroll
Twin Witches
Black Crow Doctoral/Docorate
[picture of the baby/angel]
This certificate states that
Agatha Cackle was born at 5:04
and(?) Ada Cackle was born at 5:17
To Alma Cackle
On Thursday 27th December 1956
In Witness Whereof ....
---
Peculiar I find that only Alma's name is on the scroll. I tired to do my research to this, but I had a throbbing headache when trying to figure this out, so with that research I did not come very far.
I simply concluded that Ada and Agatha's father was already out of picture/had already passed away when the twins were born, but this information could be incorrect, so if anyone knows, please let me know,
---
I dearly hope that this was useful. It's not very logical since that several episodes *after* Miss Cackle's birthday it's halloween.
But I feel like logic misses more often in The Worst Witch series.
Thank you for reading this all.
Some other pictures I used:
OKAY UPDATE
I was rewatching the series, and came across the birthscroll again and I actually dechipered some new things
First thing I dechipered was the sentence under 'Twin Witches' For it being Black Crow Hospital and not Black Crow Doctorate what I thought first Second thing is that "This certificate states that' is way shorter and it actually just say 'This certifies that' Which is far more logcial now that I look back, but yes
And further thing that I have to add is that one word of the scribbles at the end of the page says something with 'Official' but further that's still a mystery, but thus far my update
(In the first picture it's also very clear that there is no 'and' what I doubted over in my first post, so also that can be clarified)
And there is more
I think I am really finsihed after this update, but I made quite the mistake.
So, I was trying to see if I would be able to figure out what was written after 'In Witness Whereof' and turns out I could decipher one word in total, which was 'Delivery'
BUT
I was looking at the picture:
You very clearly see the Delivery, and I think the words before are 'the attending' but that was not what I was focussed on.
I suddenly noticed that the year was pretty clear in view. Which shows us that Ada and Agatha were actually born December 27th 1949
And after doing a quick google search, Demember 27th in the year 1949 actually fell on a Tuesday and therefore matches all the data.
Funfact: If we assume that tww 2017 actually takes place in 2017, and season 2 takes actually place in 2018, this would make the episode of Miss Cackle's birthday be Ada and Agatha's 69th birthday
Okay so back to my discoveries.
Because I was not going to rest until I know what was written after "In Witness Whereof"
I recently had a workshop on AI and the clever use of it and remembered that ChatGPT Can really well take cursive handwriting and dechiper it for you. I tried really hard to do it on my own, but the more you zoom in, the more it blurs and of course we also have the flames casting a blurr upon it, so I thought I'd give ChatGPT a shot, who told me the following:
I don't know a lot about birthscrolls, but in my opinion it sort of makes sense? And it's probably the closest we'll ever get to figuring out what's actually written on the bottom of that scroll, which I accept.
And therefore, the full, complete and correct birthscroll, looks like this:
---
Birth Scroll
Twin Witches Black Crow Hospital
[Picture of a baby(angel) sitting on a tree branch with doves on each side of it]
This certifies that
Agatha Cackle was born at 5:04 Ada Cackle was born at 5:17 To Alma Cackle
On Tuesday December 27th 1949
In Witness Whereof the attending Delivery, Witness has hereunto set his hand and the said hospital has caused this Record to be signed by its duly authorized Witness with its Official Seal in the presence of said official.
---
Was this needed information? No.
Did I have fun doing this? Absolutely
I hope this is helpful in a way, but for now I think this was truly the last update. Thank you.
