Heart & Stone

There’s something in the air. People are practising hundreds of years old traditions. Morris dancers are clamouring to squeeze into town squares and stick men are dancing through the streets. One ritual - forgotten until winter 2024 - is about to be revived in one small market town on the Welsh-English border. It’s Wren Day. In this bonus episode of Heart and Stone, Meg Elliot goes in search of th...

Is the countryside really ours to freely explore when half of England is owned by just 1% of its population? Across the UK, people are breaking the stereotypes and myths surrounding who can have access to our natural spaces. Meg joins the Muslim Hikers on Kinder Scout in the Peak District, the site of the first mass trespass in 1932. She also speaks with Guy Shrubsole, author of ‘Who Owns England’...

In this episode of Heart & Stone, Meg Elliot delves into the changing world of British folk music, asking who is remembered in folk stories and song, and who has been written out? Beginning in the breath-taking joy of a ceilidh dance, Meg meets Sophie Crawford and George Samson of Queer Folk, a group unearthing songs that document and celebrate the LGBTQ+ experience. Meg also meets singer/song...

How does a stone circle built in living memory become the stuff of legend for community who watched it being laid? In 1979 North Glasgow, a stone circle was dropped on Sighthill by helicopter for the whole community to see. These new, astronomically aligned stones sat on top of chemical waste and other debris in an area defined by the industrial boom and bust years. Not only is it one of the most...

Why do we feel connected to certain places? To certain landmarks, physical sites and imaginary stories? What does our love for city lanscapes or the great outdoors say about who we are? These questions began swirling for Meg as a teenager, sat at the top of Old Oswestry Hillfort. And, nearly a decade later, she’s still captivated by them. From battles over development to innovative archaeology pro...

Who decides what stories are remembered? Can anyone make a stone circle? And when we talk about folk ritual, folk stories and song, who are the folk we choose to remember?  Across five episodes, Meg Elliot explores folk traditions in their many of guises, including visiting two very different hillforts on the hunt to understand why we form attachments to places; one new stone circle that came to b...