Leonard Low is in early talks with Channel Four's Time Team to investigate a Pittenweem site where, he is convinced, lie the bodies of two accused witches, murdered in the 18th century.

A survey, which Leonard expects to be carried out this coming summer, will be able to confirm his belief and could prompt a return to the Kingdom for the TV crew.

It would be presenter Tony Robinson's third visit to the Kingdom – his Time Team previously excavated a Bronze Age cemetery in Leven and the East Wemyss Caves.

Lenny – author of The Weem Witch – said: "If this survey is successful I can close a chapter in history I've opened and exposed in all its horrific detail and finally see buried two innocents who met gruesome endings to the shame of the church."

In 1705, 16-year-old Patrick Morton made allegations of witchcraft against a number of people in Pittenweem, including Thomas Brown who was starved to death in a dungeon.

Janet Cornfoot managed to flee from her torturers only to return home and be re-captured.

She was caught by a mob in Pittenweem on January 30 and beaten and dragged by her heels to the seafront.

Swung from a rope tied between a ship and the shore, she was stoned, beaten severely, and finally crushed to death under a door piled high with rocks.

Though all the others accused by the boy were eventually freed, and he was later exposed as a liar, the mob went unpunished and were never brought to justice.

Leonard said:"The bodies were thrown on to Western Braes and only given a top soil burial – enough to keep the crows off them, nothing more.

"But Thomas Brown's family buried him deeper at the spot where he lay.

"My whole goal is to give these two victims a proper Christian burial."

Leonard, who gained access to a heap of archival documents when his father – a local headmaster – died four years ago, has been obsessed with uncovering Pittenweem's grisly past since.

Although he lives in London as a full-time author, he frequently makes trips back home to conduct history tours and explain why Pittenweem became a "hotbed" for witch-finding.

He said: "Pittenweem was such an important wee town. In 1650 it was the 14th richest town in the UK and had 30 breweries, despite having a population of under 1000 people.

"It all went pear-shaped with the Battle of Kilsyth v Montrose, for which 200 Pittenweem men were forcefully enlisted and only five survived.

"From there the town went to rack and ruin. Thirty breweries were reduced to two and the way to redress the balance was to find witches.

"A husband was charged the equivalent of four years' wages to have his wife beaten and all the money went to the church."