Lavender Folklore: The Tales Behind The Calming Plant
From cleaning wounds to repelling plague, lavender has had a myriad of uses throughout the centuries. It’s come to represent devotion, purity, luck, cleanliness, compassion, constancy, faith, humility...
19 Mar 202217min
From Medicine to Murder: How the Apothecary Garden Found Its Dark Side
The Alnwick Poison Garden is the modern descendant of the medieval apothecary garden. Find out how these healing gardens found their dark side—and explore some poisonous plant folklore—in this week'...
12 Mar 202218min
The Victorian Language of Flowers: Hiding Secret Messages in Plain Sight
If a bouquet of flowers arrives at our door, we’re more interested in who sent them. The Victorians were more concerned with what it meant. The Victorian language of flowers, also known as floriogra...
5 Mar 202215min
The Not So Holy Ghost: England's Haunted Churches
Churches in England are often portrayed as quaint, picturesque centres of their community. But given they're also often one of the oldest buildings in a town or village, it's hardly surprising that we...
26 Feb 202219min
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Folklore of Churches and Churchyards
Churches used to be a centre for the community. They were open to all classes of society, and through their association with births, marriages, and deaths, often had links to each stage in an individu...
19 Feb 202218min
Interview with Rich Blackett, chair of Asatru UK
In this third interview-based episode of Fabulous Folklore, I chat to fellow northern Rich Blackett, chair of Asatru UK! We talk about what heathenry can often look like (because it's more flexible t...
16 Feb 20221h 3min
Folklore About Pubs: Murderous Landlords, Famous Crimes & Ghosts
The pub is well entrenched in the cultural life of Britain. As such a hive of activity, it stands to reason that there would also be plenty of folklore about pubs around Britain. After all, the more a...
12 Feb 202221min
The Last Drop & The Bucket of Blood: The Folklore of Odd Pub Names
The pub is well entrenched in the cultural life of Britain. As a hub of social contact and often a provider of decent food, pubs offer a central meeting point for many groups of people. Yet how often ...
5 Feb 202218min
