A coven of elderly witches has claimed victory in a battle to change the name of a ?350-million (about R4,9-billion) shopping centre.
They objected after developer Hammerson announced a huge addition to Leicester's Shires mall would be called Highcross Quarter.
That's the name given by witches to the four most important periods in the "wicca" calendar, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Once the name was announced, the witches immediately registered several Internet domain names using the term.
Morrigan Wisecraft, a witch from Loughborough, said she was contacted by Hammerson within days of registering the domain names last year.
She claimed the group was offered large amounts of money to part with the titles, before Hammerson took the matter to the United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organisation.
Now the company has appeared to have given up on the fight but would not comment on whether pressure from the local "alternative faith group" was behind a decision to change the name.
Hammerson senior development executive Richard Brown said: "It has now evolved to Highcross Leicester, which we believe will give it a stronger identity for customers and raise the profile not only of the development but also the city."
Wisecraft said: "We were amazed that anyone would name a shopping centre after the high points on the pagan/wicca calendar historically so closely associated with witchcraft.
"If we, a small wicca coven composed in the main of elderly grey-haired ladies in our twilight years with all our infirmities and aches, pains and frailties have inadvertently been 'faster off the mark' to obtain these domain names than a world-class, pin-stripe-suited multi-national like Hammerson then that, quite simply, is 'tough'." - Ananova.com
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