Consistently Eccentric History

We are delving into the world of civil rights this week to meet a man who inadvertently contributed to the single most important moment in Gay rights history. Peter Wildeblood was a man happy to keep his public and private lives irreconcilably separate. A successful journalist with many friends he had no reason to think that the regressive anti homosexuality laws still on the statute books would e...

This week we are looking into the origins of the Great British detective by following one of the pioneers of the new form of policing through his groundbreaking career. Johnathan 'Jack' Whicher was considered the gold standard for investigating in the early Victorian period. However at a time when a man's home was his castle, how far was Whicher willing to go to get his man.* With special guest ap...

This week Evie is learning all about how women gained the right to vote in the UK (as well as how they lost the right in the first place). It is a tale of steadily increasing tension with an inspiring cast of characters and a surprise twist-ending that no one could have predicted. With special guest appearances from Winston Churchill and the Daily Mail (neither of whom come off well). Deeds Not Wo...

This week we are entering the world of British Folklore to look at some of the many accounts of supernatural Black Dogs that have troubled good God-fearing people since at least the middle of the 14th Century. So prepare for tales of blood, flame, mind-bending terror and a lord of darkness seemingly obsessed with building civic infrastructure. Guest Host: Ollie Green Hosted on Acast. See acast.com...

To start the new year we are dipping a toe into the world of the late-Georgian/ early-Victorian world of the travelling menagerie. Caravans of cages that offered the people of Britain their only opportunity to see animals from different continents. Possibly the most successful of these pre-zoo proprietors was George Wombwell, a man who traded in a shoe making business in Soho to start his own trav...

For a special extra-long Christmas episode come with us into the swashbuckling world of Colonel Thomas Blood. A protestant Irish landowner who was determined to keep alive his family legacy. Claiming things he hadn't technically been entitled to by cosying up to whoever was in power at the time. But when the powers that be took away his lands and titles Thomas decided that he would just cut out th...

This week we are discussing the most deadly disease of the 1800s and the self-made doctor from the poorest part of York who set out to defeat it. John Snow may have been born into filthy conditions but he grew up to be a poster boy for clean living. A vegetarian teetotaller who regularly attended church, he seemed like the kind of guy you would listen to when he suggested that contaminated water m...

It's time to book passage on a steamship (of questionable reliability) this week, as we follow in the wake of Isabella Bird, a Victorian travel writer for whom staying at home was literally bad for her health. Born into a rich family Isabella would almost certainly have lived as a respectable, if boring, upper-class Victorian housewife, but luckily for her she developed a spinal tumour and was pre...

This week we are learning all about the relative nature of mental illness with Joshua Norton. A man born in Kent who decided to promote himself to Emperor of the USA after an unfortunate incident with Peruvian Rice. Join us as we travel from the UK to South Africa and beyond before settling in San Francisco to look at how one of the most liberal cities in America was happy to accept the rule of an...

This week we discuss what happens when former siblings-in-law have a disagreement, and access to hundreds of warships. Following the death of Queen Mary, her former husband, King Philip of Spain, was determined to continue the enforcing of Catholicism in England by moving on to Mary's half-sister (and new Queen) Elizabeth. When she rebuffed his advances, he did not take it well. Leading to a decad...

We are venturing into Essex this week to explore the tale of the most haunted house in England! Borley Rectory may have only been build in the mid Victorian era but it's holy custodians were convinced that it was a hotbed of paranormal activities. Join us as we discover ghostly nuns, spectres in dressing gowns and all manner of poltergeist shenanigans over the course of nearly a century. Featuring...

We are heading off to warmer climes this week. To the island of Trinidad, in order to meet Ulric Cross, a man who can claim to have both helped to preserve and dismantle the British Empire. After seeking adventure as part of the RAF in WWII, Ulric yearned to reinvent himself as a lawyer. Struggling for opportunities in England he accepted an invite to head over to West Africa to help in the proces...

We are going a bit more in depth than the rhyme everyone knows this week to give Evie a primer on the love life of our most corpulent King. Six wives in less than six decades on the planet, Henry was a marrying machine. But were any of the marriages good? And more importantly why does Evie insist that he once married a woman called Amber Lynn? Guest Host: Evie Heathcote Hosted on Acast. See acast....

Thomas Briggs was an old banker who will go down in history as the first person who was murdered on a train in the UK in 1864. But who killed him? Why did they do it? And what pair of amazing Met Detectives could be relied upon to crack the case whatever it took? Tune in this week to find out the answers to all of these questions and more. Guest Host: Emma Heathcote Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/...

Following on from last week we complete the alphabet (mostly) with tales including the snobbiest man England has ever produced, a prolific poisoner and yet another elderly fraudster! *Warning - There is discussion of suicide in this episode* Guest Host: Ollie Green Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over the next few weeks Consistently Eccentric HQ is moving, so to tide you over we are doing a collection of mini stories about eccentrics throughout history in a two part special. 24 stories in alphabetical order (I couldn't find a good one for X or for Z at short notice) So settle in for 12 stories including: An avid fan of funerals, a terrible murderer, an elderly fraudster and an attempted as...

We are taking a trip back to the 1300's and the aftermath of the plague this week, to talk about how the decimation of the English population impacted on the working classes. While you would expect that there being few workers for many jobs would push up wages, the King and his nobles decided that they didn't want to pay more so they instead introduced laws to force the working class to accept a r...

This week I am joined by Ang and Mel from 'Dissecting Medical History' to talk about a pair of executioners working in London at the time of Henry VIII. Needless to say they were never short of work, or variety, from a monarch who sent tens of thousands of people to their deaths during his 36 year reign. What kind of impact does a lifetime of torturing and killing have on the human mind? Well, nee...

Due to the events of the previous week we at Consistently Eccentric are finally going to dip our toes into the world of current events, with an episode dedicated to the recently deceased monarch. Due to the time constraints I asked co-host Ollie if he wouldn't mind taking the lead, writing a few brief words.... anyway, buckle up for nearly 2 hours of Royal facts and borderline treasonous chat. Gue...

Time for another history lesson with my daughter as we cover someone almost as strong-willed as she is! Boudica, queen of the Iceni We talk about the reasons Boudica became a bit miffed with the Romans, and how she decided to teach them a lesson. All to the backdrop of many, many people dying. With a special guest appearance from Caractacus. Guest Host: Evie Heathcote Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...

This week we are meeting the first Strongman in England, former carpenter Thomas Topham. A man of limited business acumen but abundant muscles Topham was a strength savant who was lucky enough to be befriended by an upper class Frenchman who was able to channel his raw power into a money making machine. But how would Topham cope with his sudden fame and fortune.... ...badly. Really, really badly....

This week we are covering a year in history that is so well known is is the PIN number of choice for 30% of all pensioners in the country, 1066! However everyone has to hear the story for the first time at some point and I have found a willing six year old volunteer (my own child) to hear about it all for the very first time. Will she understand the reasons for the conflict? Will she be happy with...

To celebrate two years of weekly episodes we are heading to Australia to discuss the rocky first few years of the state of Victoria. Specifically how the exploitation of gold miners led to an armed rebellion! Proving that big business using politics to protect their interests has always been a thing, and that the law has always favoured the rich this is a story of the plucky underdogs standing up...

This week we are talking about trains, specifically the many deaths they have caused in the UK over the past 200 or so years. Starting with an unfortunate incident with a former leader of the House of Commons we make our way to the biggest railway disaster, which took place just North of London seventy years ago this October. We should all just be thankful that there was an American on hand.... Gu...

Daniel Mendoza was a man with a dream. A dream to become the premier biscuit maker in all of Georgian England. Unfortunately it turned out that he was much better at breaking things than making things. And when I say breaking, I mean people's faces, with his fists! Mendoza was reluctant prize fighter who nevertheless birthed some of the most enduring tropes of boxers to come, including the idea of...