There’s something about the concept of a poison garden that either titillates or terrifies, depending on your preferences. The UK’s most famous poison garden is at the Alnwick Garden. Its influence is so far-reaching that if you Google “poison garden”, it dominates the first several pages of results. So much so that I assumed the […]
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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 floriography, was a way to send messages using specific plants and flowers. Combining different flowers allowed them to send more complex or […]
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’d have so many tales of haunted churches too. Some of these tales immortalise previous parishioners, but more usually, the tales commemorate dark […]
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 individual’s life. Add to that their open commemoration of the dead, and churches became a clear focal point (Simpson 2003: 67). […]
Folklore About Pubs: Murderous Landlords, Famous Crimes & Ghosts
As we saw last week with the folklore of pub names, the pub is a familiar part of British life. 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 activity there is in a place, the more opportunity […]
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 do we think about pub names and what they tell us about local history, famous figures, or […]
