Tag: England

10 February 2023

‘Something Wicked this Way Comes’: Witchcraft in Scotland and the Curse of Macbeth

The theatre world is filled with superstitions: always turn the ghost light on before leaving an empty theatre, never whistle backstage, tell an actor to ‘break a leg’ instead of ‘good luck’, keep peacock feathers off the stage, and never — under any circumstance — utter the name ‘Macbeth’ inside a theatre.

Categories Paranormal Encounters/Weird History

8 August 2022

HMS Eurydice: The Ghostly Ship that Haunts the Isle of Wight

In 1878, three-year-old Winston Churchill watched alongside his nurse as the HMS Eurydice sank off the coast of England’s Isle of Wight. The tragedy, which took the lives of over 300 men, would become one of the most devastating peacetime naval disasters in British history. According to legend, the phantom ship continues to sail off the coast of Sandown and...

Categories Paranormal Encounters

13 July 2022

The Yeti Footprints of Mount Everest, as Photographed by Eric Shipton

Whether you know them as Yetis or Abominable Snowmen, these ape-like creatures are the undeniable kings of snow dwelling cryptids. Similar to the North American Bigfoot, the Yeti is said to be a solitary creature who roams the snowy mountains of the Himalayas. While generally considered part of Sherpa (a Tibetan ethnic group’s) folklore, mountaineers in the region have recorded...

Categories Paranormal Encounters/Weird History

13 June 2022

‘Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm?’: Espionage, Witchcraft, and other Theories

On 18 April 1943 four boys made a grisly discovery in Hagley Wood in Worcestershire, England on a stretch of private residential property. While bird-nesting in the area, they came upon a large wych elm tree and one of the boys, Bob Farmer, climbed in the hopes of finding a bird nest. Instead, Farmer discovered a human skull complete with...

Categories Weird History

12 April 2022

Sacred Earth: The Neolithic Longstone on the Isle of Wight

Tucked near the village of Mottistone on England’s Isle of Wight is the Longstone, the remains of a 6000 year old communal long barrow from the Neolithic Period. The site sits at the foot of a large hill who’s peak features south views of the English Channel’s endless blue. A sense of peace is present when standing next to the...

Categories Weird History

23 February 2022

“What Drew Her Into Oblivion?”: The Disappearance of Silent Film Actress Marie Empress

Mary Ann Louisa Taylor, known by her stage name Marie Empress, was born on 26 March 1884 in Birmingham, England. Marie had a busy career as an actress, singer, dancer, and successful male impersonator, and garnered a reputation as a comedienne in Britain. She specialised in playing femme fatale, or vamp characters which led to confusion about her real persona...

Categories Weird History

15 February 2022

The Solway Spaceman, Men in Black, and the Blue Streak Missile

On 23 May 1964, firefighter Jim Templeton was walking through Burgh Marsh overlooking the Solway Firth in Cumbria with his wife Annie and their five-year-old daughter Elizabeth. It was a lovely spring day and Jim had brought his camera to take photos of their daughter in her new dress. Other than two elderly woman in a parked car at the...

Categories Paranormal Encounters

24 January 2022

‘Bloody Mary’: Is an English Queen Behind the Haunting Urban Legend?

It’s 1999 and you’re at a sleepover for a friend’s birthday party. You’ve exhausted the films rented from Blockbuster and you’re all eager for something else to do. It’s nearly midnight when one of your friends mentions a game she heard from someone… a friend of a friend, but she doesn’t remember who. She’s wanted to try it for a...

Categories Paranormal Encounters

17 January 2022

‘Ghostwatch’: When the BBC Terrified the Nation with a (Fake) Haunted House Documentary

On Halloween night in 1992, the BBC aired what would become one of the most controversial programmes in the broadcaster’s history. Ghostwatch, presented as a live broadcast, followed the Early family and the horrors they experienced living in what was pitched as one of the most haunted houses in the country. And luckily for the BBC an array of paranormal...

Categories Weird History

30 November 2021

Whitecroft Hospital: The Haunted Victorian Asylum You Can Call Home

It’s no secret that the Isle of Wight is one of the most haunted islands in the world. Castles, manor homes, hospitals, pubs, roads, cliffs — everywhere you look the island is overflowing with creepy tales of ghostly apparitions and disembodied voices. It’s more difficult to find a part of the island that doesn’t have a ghost story than one...

Categories Paranormal Encounters