How are the Heinzelmännchen related to the Elves and the Shoemaker?

Churches can be sites of divination, haunted locations, and important community hubs. Yet in Wallsend, Holy Cross Church is notorious for a tale of witches and heroic derring-do. The ruin might not lo...

19 Apr 202516min

Here in the 21st century, death and burial often occur as part of a sanitised process. Death happens away from home, often in hospitals, and funerals are usually tidy, respectful affairs. We can forge...

12 Apr 202519min

You would absolutely know a lychgate if you saw one. They make popular backdrops for wedding photos, and provide a quaint air of rustic charm to country churchyards. They're the wooden or stone gatewa...

5 Apr 202523min

I started out with the intention of looking at unusual church names. The problem was, this offered the potential to accidentally poke fun at their congregations. It also didn't help that most churches...

29 Mars 202520min

Looking at the origins of sports team names might seem antithetical to folklore. Yet sport forms part of the ritual calendar for many people, whether on a personal or a mass scale. Look at the good lu...

22 Mars 202523min

Victoria Male is an internationally recognized screenwriter, earning accolades from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, film festivals, and major industry lists. Her prose has been publishe...

18 Mars 20251h

There is no shortage of bizarre pub names in the UK. Some of them appear to be a combination of random objects, like the Frog and Nightgown. Others have a local story behind their odd name. I've cover...

15 Mars 202519min

Unlike place names, which often give us information who once lived somewhere, street names can be a different case entirely. Sometimes they bear the names of notable (and often now infamous) people.  ...

8 Mars 202519min