A mooch to the Bagot's Castle at Baginton for this year's #HeritageOpenDays As well as the remains of 14th C castle, there are also tank testing pits which were used by Coventry manufacture Alvis for their armoured vehicles, and a lovely riverside walk

Oh three men went to market To sell three loads of rye They shouted up and they shouted down The barley grain should die The Barley Grain for Me, an old ballad of death and resurrection #folkyfriday

One day St Brigid was given a gift of #apples & sloes. She gave them to some lepers. The nun who'd given them angry; Brigid cursed her apple tree! 2nd woman gave Brigid same gift & Brigid gave them to lepers! But this woman asked that she & her garden be blessed; done x2! #medievalsky #FolkyFriday 🍏

After the Devil went out collecting nuts on Devil’s Nutting Day (21 Sept), the Virgin Mary suddenly appeared. Startled, Satan dropped the sack of nuts which turned into the Devils’ Bag of Nuts (aka Alcock’s Arbour), a hill near Haselor, Warwickshire. #FolkyFriday

Two phantom black dogs were reported to wander Pill Lane in Little Compton. They are believed to be the ghost of a Mrs Pardington. No information in my sources about who Mrs P. was but nearby there is a field called Pardington’s Close. #PhantomsFriday #SpectralHounds

At the top of Dollar Glen in the Ochils is Maiden Castle, a fairy hill. A piper was taken inside the hill to play to the gathered assembly. They welcome him, he plays all night, then finds himself alone by the dark silent hill. He returns home a stranger- 100 years have passed. #PhantomsFriday

As someone's flicked the #Autumn switch I'm putting up some seasonal decs including these crocheted 'shrooms from @wynnandwild.bsky.social Have balanced them in old IKEA candle holders which gives a pleasing fungi meets Dalek effect 🙂

One old cure for rheumatism involved letting bees sting the affected areas. Folklore collector JH Bloom was told how a Stratford beekeeper lost 2 hives through disturbing the bees to aid rheumaticky friends #WyrdWednesday #FolkMedicine

#WyrdWednesday "Bishy Bishy Barnabee, Tell me when your wedding be: If it be tomorrow day Take your wings and fly away. Fly to the east, fly to the west, Fly to the one I love the best." In Norfolk, it is bad luck to kill a Bishy Barnabee [Ladybird] - instead make a wish & let it go ... 🐞

Kimpton Clock Tower Hotel, formerly an insurance building built between 1891-5, is said to have a staircase which from which a war widow leapt to her death. Ghostly laughter has been heard in Room 261 and the faint sound of ghostly children running through the halls. #PhantomsFriday #hauntings

The Mickleton Hooter was believed to be the source of mysterious booming sounds once heard near Meon Hill. Some folklorists have linked the creature to the Dun Cow which roamed parts of Warwickshire but “hooter” is also an old Warwickshire word for a ghostly hound. #PhantomsFriday #SpectralHounds 🧵

When Charlotte Clopton died of the plague in 1564, she was interred in the family vault at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford upon Avon. Some weeks later, the vault was reopened. Charlotte’s coffin was empty and her body leant against a wall. She had been buried alive. (1/2) #WyrdWednesday

Tomorrow evening event alert! Tuesday 9th Sept we will be at The Red Lion in Hunningham for our 2nd free Pips & Pints event at 7pm. Just come along & find us in the beer garden. Bring a torch & wear sturdy shoes/warm clothes and get batty with us! fb.me/e/m6ci3qEdq #bats #event #mammals

If my #FolkloreSunday post piqued anyone’s interest in Mary Dormer Harris’s book ‘Unknown Warwickshire’ (1924). It’s available to read here 👇 archive.org/details/unkn... (NB Unfortunately, if you do a search they’ve indexed her as Mark instead of Mary but it is the right book!)

Louise Bourgeois, American (1911-2010), Eyes, 1982, marble, 189.9 x 137.2 x 116.2 cm, The Met, New York City, New York, USA

Born in Stoneleigh, Mary Dormer Harris (1867-1936) was a writer, historian and suffragist. Although not a folklorist, her book ‘Unknown Warwickshire’ (1924) contains some folklore inc. snippets of witch lore that I haven’t found elsewhere. #FolkloreSunday 📷 - courtesy of Leamington Library

Records from the 1800s indicate there was enough room for 6 couples to dance around this tree during village festivals (as well as seating for 30-& even an "orchestra"). The Dancing Tree of Moretonhampstead was a fixture of community life until the 1890s when successive storms felled it #FolkyFriday

The Spirit Medium "An old ghost's thoughts are lightning, To follow is to die" – W.B. Yeats Yeats's personal medium, his wife Georgie, had a gift for automatic writing by means of which she recorded the thoughts of 'secret instructors', providing Yeats with metaphors for poetry. #PhantomsFriday

In 1978 monastic song was heard by people who lived nr Abbeyfields, Kenilworth, where an abbey had stood until the Dissolution. After a few months the chanting ceased. Singing spectral monks or stonetape vestiges of those who once inhabited the Abbey of St Mary? #PhantomsFriday #SingingSpectres

"Did you see this UFO? "It looked like a huge butterfly about eight foot across with flashing lights all round the edge of these giant wings. It came from the south-east and tended to move westwards," she said." #Bexhill Observer 18.4.1981. #FolkloreThursday #UFO #1980s

If you can see the Milky Way it means the weather will be changeable. #FolkloreThursday

Some Cromwell lore on the anniversary of his death in 1658: In 1642 Oliver Cromwell was reputed to have slid down one of the bell ropes in the church of All Saints, Burton Dassett. He had climbed the bell tower in order to view proceedings in the battle of Edgehill.

#FolkloreThursday is back! Join us this Thursday (4 Sept) for our hosted Stars and Skies themed day. Our hosts will share your posts to the hashtag at the following times BST: 9am-1pm 3.30-4.30pm 6.30-7.30pm 🌈⛅✨🌜 Image: Luis Marina, via wikimedia commons

#FolkloreSunday Summer to Autumn "Lapu māte" is a Female Latvian Deity, protector goddess of the leaves. Her spirit is also responsible for the shifting of the leaves colors during the fall. Here my Autumn song "I steal the leaves" 🎵 🍂 open.spotify.com/track/6amoXK...

#FolkloreSunday #PumpkinPie 🥧 #AppalachianFolkMagic🪄 Appalachian Pumpkin Pie Ritual for Protection & Prosperity Bake a pumpkin pie under a waxing moon w/ cinnamon (luck) & spicebush (protection). Stir clockwise, offer a slice to Samhain spirits for home safety, share w/ kin for abundance.

In the 1920s Warwickshire folklore collector FW Bennett described how an elderly woman he knew would, “for a fee”, put a spell on an individual by cutting their name into a hazelnut, then burn the nut while making “incomprehensible incantations.” #FolkloreSunday #spells

A double whammy for #FolkyFriday and #PhantomsFriday One of the Cwn Anwwn (pronounced "Coon Anoon",) the spectral hounds of Welsh mythology, associated with the Wild Hunt. Made for another folklore art challenge, alongside a "celtic" style head.

One winter's night, a policeman attending the scene of a major accident on the A45 between Coventry & Rugby saw a big, tarpaulin-covered lorry hurtling along, heading straight for the collided vehicles. A crash was imminent but then the lorry suddenly vanished. 🧵 #PhantomsFriday

#PhantomsFriday is creeping towards us again. Tomorrow I'm looking forward to that hashtag scaring up more posts on ghostly goings-on, including stories from #folklore or fiction; places of #haunted repute; spooky art or phantasmagorical poetry. (Illustration by Boris Dolgov)

A Lady Godiva parade used to be held in the Warwickshire town of Southam A man wearing a bull’s mask led the procession, followed by a “Godiva,” a “Black Lady,” “Peeping Tom” sitting in a box with a window, and then children in fancy dress. All were on horseback. #LegendaryWednesday

Church door handles were believed to protect the person who grabbed them against witches. #folklore #folksky #witches

Two spirit drawings reproduced in The Strand Magazine in 1909. Supposedly created by hypnotised mediums in a state of trance. Whatever you believe about such things, I have to say - they're pretty amazing. The first one could have inspired an entire #X-Files episode! #PhantomsFriday #spiritualism

Chesford Bridge was reputedly haunted by a woman in white. In life she had worked at a nearby farm but was executed at Warwick in 1820 for killing her mistress. After her execution her ghost was seen walking from the farm, across the road, to the spinney by the bridge. #PhantomsFriday

An early 20th century spirit hand that raps out answers to questions while isolated on a board. These carved wooden hands were used by magicians to recreate or expose the methods of fraudulent mediums, rather than appearing to communicate with the dead themselves. #PhantomsFriday Thayer Spirit Hand

23rd of August marks Vulcanalia ‘Roman observance for Power of Fire’. Not only Forge-Fire,but also large bonfires,fires of kiln and oven, and perhaps even lamps which give illumination so that one might read and pierce the darkness with a flame. aryaakasha.com/2022/08/23/f... #Folklore

Warwickshire weather lore: If you point at the moon it will rain. (this may explain why it’s been such a long dry spring and summer here – no one round these parts has been pointing at the moon! 🙂) #folklore #folksky #pointing

“I shall go into a hare, With sorrow and sych and meickle care; And I shall go in the Devil’s name, Ay while I come home again.” A spell to turn into a hare from the witchcraft confessions of Isobel Gowdie, 1662. Mural in Auldearn by Helen Wright. #FairyTaleTuesday

Child’s shoe c.late 16th/ early 17th C in Shipston-on-Stour museum. The shoe was found in a first floor wall of the Horseshoe Inn, Shipston. It may have been hidden to ward off evil or to bring good fortune #apotropaic #folklore

🍀🤍🍀Dreaming of a white cat foretells good fortune! #FolkloreSunday

Legendary Ship’s Cats

A cure for styes from Stratford-upon-Avon: Rub fur from a cat’s tail 9 times backwards across the affected eye. #FolkloreSunday #FolkMedicine #cats

The ghost of a white horse looking for its rider appears at Edgehill on 22 Oct, the eve of the battle which took place there in 1642. In 1947 there were also a number of sightings of a spectral horse by the communal graves for those slain during the fighting #PhantomsFriday

“The train standing at No. 5 platform is the midnight slow for Spectral Manor, Gallows Hill, Grisly Grange, and Hangdog Heath.” This illustration by Rowland Emett was originally published in Punch magazine, January 21st, 1942. #PhantomsFriday

Wood from an elder made up into a toothpick was believed to protect against toothache. #LegendaryWednesday

Dates for the Diary! The next hosted #FolkloreThursday dates and themes are as follows: Thur 4th September: Folklore of the Stars, Skies and Heavens Thur 2nd October: Folklore of Ghosts, the Supernatural, and all things Spooky!

Decorating the beams at the White Bear Inn, Shipston-on-Stour. Reflecting the building’s history as a former coaching inn, a good luck symbol, or a mix of the two? #folklore #possiblefolklore

"The Reapers' Song To The Harvest Moon." The Illustrated London News 4.9.1858. #FolkloreSunday #Harvest #History #1850s #Art

In the 1970s, Folklore collector CS Wharton was told by an interviewee in Brailes that until the start of the 20th century, brambles had been used to keep away evil spirits. #FolkloreSunday

In olden times children in East Yorkshire were warned against pilfering ‘goosegog’ berries for fear they may be snatched away by Awd Goggie, a fearsome sprite who steadfastly guarded the fruit of the orchards, including that of the gooseberry bush, as it ripened. #FolkloreSunday