Tag: folklore
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From Drainage to Divination: The Cheshire Stone’s Secrets
I recently stumbled upon the theory that a stone – the Cheshire, or perhaps the Cheddar Stone as some insist on calling it – perched on on the edge of Urra Moor, has a natural basin which has been carefully modified in prehistoric times by the addition of a notch to channel the water outflow…
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Michaelmas Traditions: From the Devil’s Brambles to Cabbage Wars
One of my favourite sights is the spectacle of a temperature inversion in Bilsdale, when the mist rolls over the Cleveland Hills like a waterfall, spilling into the plain below. Such was the view this morning, on this day of St Michael’s Feast, or Michaelmas. Michaelmas, celebrated on the 29th of September each year, marks…
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Roseberry’s Witches and the New Myths We Embrace: A Continuum of Credulity
According to the quaint tales of yesteryear, Roseberry Topping was once a preferred haunt of witches. Picture, if you will, three Ayton men, trembling with fright, witnessing a trio of broomstick-riding hags circling the summit and executing some arcane ritual, while sorrowful wails echoed through the night. The villagers, in their infinite wisdom, deduced that…
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Betty Strother: A Yorkshire Witch
Cycling through Danby Park today opened up views of Castleton, perched precariously on the rigg across the Esk Valley. I was reminded of one of those countless lockdown projects—those fleeting fancies born of enforced idleness—which, like so many others, has been unceremoniously abandoned to gather dust. This particular project involved the tedious task of transcribing…
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The Capricious Curse of St. Swithin
Meanwhile, St. Swithin has gallantly come to our aid. Well, here in Cleveland at least. His day has passed with the sort of indecision one expects from saints and weather alike: cloudy skies, some sun, but not even the faintest hint of rain. Are we now condemned to forty days of this? If it does…
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The White Maid of Kilton Castle
The British Cycling Championships descended upon East Cleveland today, bringing to mind a project I embarked upon during the days of Covid: transcribing the works of Richard Blakeborough. Among his tales, “The White Maid of Kilton Castle” holds a special place, for it is set in the environs of Brotton, the very spot where I…
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Another Carlton Ghost
On my solivagant pursuit on Carlton Bank this morning, the village of Carlton-in-Cleveland lay peacefully below, conjuring memories of a promise I made. Well, a sort of promise. I said I would recount the tale of another spectre that haunts this village. You might recall my previous post, the Ghost of Madame Turner. This tale,…
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Kyle of Tongue
The Kyle of Tongue, with the granite peak of Ben Loyal, a hill which apparently distorts compass readings due to its iron ore. Tongue itself was home to a Dr. Farquhar, who gained his healing powers from a boiled white snake’s juice.
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A Byland Abbey ghost story
When Byland Abbey yielded to Henry VIII’s Suppression Commissioners in 1538, it housed 25 choir monks alongside Abbot John Ledes. A hundred years prior, a monk had settled in the scriptorium to write twelve ghost stories on a blank page appended to a commonplace manuscript of rhetorical and theological works. These tales, in Latin, predominantly…
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The Ghost of Madame Turner
Barely a glimpse of Busby Hall can be gained from the limit of the Public Bridleway which follows the old coach road leading to the estate. Remarkably, this track once served as the main entrance. Presently, entry is gained through the village of Carlton-in-Cleveland. Pevsner, the architectural historian, offers a description of the hall as…