Hallowed Histories

Happy Halloween, and welcome back to another stop on the Devil's tour of East Anglia. We've heard about his throne, but in King's Lynn he seems to have made himself more at home. Not only his cloven hoof print in the cobbles, and his face on the town coat of arms, he also worked in the hearts of the people responsible for a couple of tales of crime, punishment and exploding hearts we have today. I...

The peddler of Swaffham is one of the oldest folk legends of East Anglia, and one that is still present today in Swaffham's streets and buildings. It has the hallmarks of a great legend - an unaware and unlikely hero, a great journey, prophetic dreams and an incredible reward. Please leave a review, subscribe and recommend this podcast to anyone you know with an interest in East Anglia, history, f...

The horror of the Baedeker raids in 1942 came about due to a concerted effort by German military command to not only wreck a country, but also break its spirits. Centres of culture and spirituality were targeted, all according to a Victorian travel guide, the Baedeker. How did one innocuous book about tourism lead Norwich to some of its most terrifying nights? Find out here.... Please leave a revi...

The case of Robert Goodale reads like a Thomas Hardy novel meets Texas Chainsaw Massacre on a particularly blighted part of East Anglian farmland. However, when Goodale murdered his wife and threw her down the well near Wisbech, he assumed that his troubles were over. Unfortunately, due to the Norwich Assizes, an executioner literally battling his own demons, and a misjudged rope calculation, Good...

The Devil may be in the details - but he's also in the landscape. From Dykes to mountains to valleys to standing stones, any piece of geography can be renamed as belonging to the Devil. However, in the sixteenth century an unusual natural phenomena washed up near Caister that became associated with dark powers, before being associated with another piece of folklore, before a piece of the twentieth...

Celebrity culture is not a new concept, and often throughout history has made stars of the most unlikely people. Charles Stratton was born with a medical condition that restricted his growth, resulting in a grown man with the stature of a small child. However, he had the ambition that was not miniature, an ambition that would lead to a partnership with PT Barnum, and eventually lead to him leaving...

The quiet seaside town of Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast has had a long and storied history. However, one story that the locals might want to forget is the day that aliens may have come calling on a housewife. Her story inspired others to come forward and talk about what they had seen in the skies, setting a trend in the region for sightings of unusual objects in the sky. Is it connected to the se...

Back to our monthly programme of weirdness from East Anglia, and this time we are looking out to see. Everyone knows Loch Ness, but back in the 1930s Eccles Beach gave it a run for its money with sightings of a beast that terrified fishermen, clergyman and local politicians. What was it? A throwback to the era of dinosaurs? Mass hallucination? A hoax? We throw our net out for answers and sift thro...

We are honoured to end our series of tales of the macabre and strange with a crossover with a new podcast drama, The Adventures of Zachariah Jaeger, produced by former podcast guest Richard J Hand. This story, part of a trilogy of stories featuring occult investigator Zachariah Jaeger, piqued our interest due to its unusual nature and East Anglian setting.  For another Victorian ghost story i...

A reading of a classic tale of destiny, death and fate, taken from the pages of Swan River Press's new book, Ghosts of the Chit-Chat, edited by Robert Lloyd Parry. Available here http://www.swanriverpress.ie/ For another Victorian ghost story in the classical style, please get a free ticket for our exclusively commissioned performance of E.F. Benson's Outside the Door by renowned actor and voice a...

Hallowed Histories favorite Johnny Raspin returns with a chilling story of technology dependence and horrific ends that will make you think twice before talking to Alexa..... For a Victorian ghost story in the classical style, please get a free ticket for our exclusively commissioned performance of E.F. Benson's Outside the Door by renowned actor and voice artist, Richard Crowest. Get your ticket...

A real treat for this edition of our series of winter's tales; RH Malden's Between Sunset and Moonrise, read by Robin McLoughlin. Info on actor, director and writer Robin McLoughlin can be found at https://www.robinmcloughlin.com/ For a Victorian ghost story in the classical style, please get a free ticket for our exclusively commissioned performance of E.F. Benson's Outside the Door by renowned a...

A modern ghost story of cursed possessions, haunted lives and the inescapability of fate by Norwich based author Jane Appleton. For a Victorian ghost story in the classical style, please get a free ticket for our exclusively commissioned performance of E.F. Benson's Outside the Door by renowned actor and voice artist, Richard Crowest. Get your ticket here . Stay tuned for more stories each week in...

We're kicking off our traditional collection of stories of the macabre in two ways: For a Victorian ghost story in the classical style, please get a free ticket for our exclusively commissioned performance of E.F. Benson's Outside the Door by renowned actor and voice artist, Richard Crowest. Get your ticket here . Secondly, each week from November 7 until Christmas, we will be uploading original r...

The Wild Hunt has been a ghoulish mainstay of folklore since time immemorial, but who are the Huntsmen, and what do they want? Often terrifying, sometimes generous and always enigmatic, we take a look at this enduring slice of East Anglian mythology. Please leave a review, subscribe and recommend this podcast to anyone you know with an interest in East Anglia, history, folklore and the macabre. Co...

The disappearance of 40s big-band icon Glenn Miller is one of the best known, and most investigated, mysteries of the second world war. Friendly fire, freezing cold, fog and propaganda cover-up have all been suggested as probable cause for the vanished flight that carried Miller and two airmen to the cold East Anglian skies in 1944. Please leave a review, subscribe and recommend this podcast to an...

In honour of Norwich Pride 2021, we take a look at the bloody beginnings of Dereham, before focusing on one it's most famous landmarks, the George Hotel. Stories had been circulating about the ghosts there for decades, before a medium and ghost investigation team uncovered a tale of The Green Lady, and the unusual story of her afterlife. Please leave a review, subscribe and recommend this podcast...

Poppyland, the wide stretch of meadows and fields that runs along part of the North Norfolk coast, was the inspiration for many Victorian poets and artists. However, alongside this celebration if beauty, not a stone's throw away from the poppy fields, like the Shrieking Pits. Once deep, dark mines, now filled in with ink black water, these ponds have claimed the life of many tragic victims, whose...

The sea shanty was the recent focus of a social media craze, but in many ways it revival completely predictable. As we shall see today, the shanty has always been a way to connect disparate groups, causing all of them to pull in one direction. It was exactly the tonic that people lockdowned with uncertain direction needed. The history of the shanty, from Victorian work song to curated anthropologi...

The history and aims of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) provides a fascinating look at a point in our history where religion, science and the paranormal took centre stage in a discussion that would define the modern world.  We're back at UEA's media suite now (although this episode was recorded mainly at home), with support from the Interdisciplinary Institute of Humanities .  &...

As a follow-up episode to last month's look at the white women ghosts of East Anglia, we present an eye-witness, first hand account of a student teacher who witnessed something sinister in Sprowston. For reasons of privacy we have removed any references to where in Norwich this took place, and changed the name of the witness. Hear his terrifying account of his visit from the white lady, and even m...

Imagine a ghost and the classical image of a figure in white may pop into your mind. The lady in white is one of the archetypal spectres, and East Anglia certainly has its share. But is the lady in white here to harm or heal? And is she still about her business to this very day? We investigate a mystery that goes back centuries, and yet effects the lives of some to this very day. We're back at UEA...

While locked down in our houses, it is very easy to forget that we are surrounded by wild, open, empty spaces. The Broads exemplify the strange patchwork of countryside that make up a lot of East Anglia, both picturesque and strangely menacing. When the Broads do throw up folklore, it runs that gamut between the sublime and the damned, and no more so than in the shadow of St Helen's Church in Ranw...

Thank you so much to those of you who joined us for our recent run of ghost stories, as well as the online screening of Clive Dunn's documentary about M.R. James last month. We're going to be bringing you more screenings in 2021, so keep an eye out on our website and on the podcasts for further developments. A lot of the M.R. James footage will soon be available through our Youtube channel for tho...

Hallowed Histories is delighted to bring back one of our favourite traditions - ghost stories for Christmas. Each week leading up to our Christmas special (details to come), we will be hosting a story written and narrated by a local author. This episode is a reading of Daffodils by Sally Harris, a chilling rendition of just what may lurk in an English country garden. Sally is the author of one of...