The Folklore of Warwickshire

Image: via Wikimedia Commons

Drawing in monochrome of a grumpy-looking cockerel

A cave in a hill near Haselor was believed to contain an iron chest full of treasure secured by 3 locks and guarded by a cockerel. One intrepid treasure-seeker found his way to the chest only to be ripped apart by the guardian before he could open the 3rd lock.
#WyrdWednesday

Dammit! I thought following you on here meant hand-delivered wax-sealed missives written in blood-red ink with a quill pen.🙂

📷 by me

Weather lore on museum wall: "if the hare wears a thick coat in October, lay in a good stock of fuel"

October weather lore seen at Marton Museum of Country Bygones 👇

#WeatherLore #HareCheck

Must have been unsettling for your friend - time slip maybe? Would be cool to know why a well-dressed Victorian gent was with the 2 children.

Source: George Morley, Shakespeare’s Greenwood: The Customs and the County (1900)

📷 by David Zhang via Wikimedia Commons

Crescent moon in the night sky

Some Warwickshire moon lore:
When the first moon of each lunar month appears, men should bow to it 9 times and women curtsey 9 times. This ritual was believed to bring good luck.
#FolkloreSunday

Leeds' City Varieties Hall #ghosts: a red-haired woman who brings good luck, a White Lady, a man in a bowler hat, disembodied legs climbing the stairs,a man in a WWI trench coat,slamming doors,cold spots,invisible touches & the feeling that someone is breathing over your shoulder. #PhantomsFriday

View of a pond reflecting trees in green leaf…

Hags and water spirits abound in English folklore; in Suffolk we have a tale of a pond in Rendlesham said to be haunted by a ghostly woman in white who has been seen gliding on its surface or rising from its depths…
#PhantomsFriday

I rather like her style 🙂

📷 by me. St Gregory's church. Despite circumnavigating the church before taking this pic, no spectral witches were spotted 🧙‍♀️

The ghost of Betty, a reputed witch, was reported to sit on the churchyard wall of St Gregory’s, Tredington, smoking a pipe. In life, she would sit on top of a willow tree in Honington slowly putting on her stockings.
#PhantomsFriday #witches

Limited book-buying budget but lucky enough to live near a good public library.

Current reading: The beautifully illustrated 'The Folkore of Birds' by Alison Davies
#libraries #books

An art doll of a Spriggan. A creature from Cornish myth. Here depicted as a small being with orange eyes and an elogated nose and mouth, covered in black fur, leaning out of a tree with a pebble in its clawed hand, ready to throw at anyone that gets too close.

A spooky #FolkloreThursday wouldn't be complete without a traditional Cornish Spriggan. The rock-throwing, mischief making menaces that haunt ancient ruins, cairns, and barrows.
Caught this one in the act!*

*made by me for a folklore art challenge back in 2021

Source: Meg Elizabeth Atkins, Haunted Warwickshire (London: Robert Hale, 1981).

📷 by X by The Folklore of Warwickshire intern, Simon

Church tower surrounded by grave stones

The ancient of St Lawrence, Napton on the Hill, has a long reputation of being haunted by two women in Elizabethan dress who kneel in prayer in the front pew.
In ‘Haunted Warwickshire’, Meg Atkins noted how church attendance would drop off after sightings of the women.
#LegendaryWednesday

That sounds lovely. Used to occasionally hear an owl here when I first arrived but haven't for some years now.

To hear an owl hoot near one's house is one of the myriad of bad luck omens associated with Warwickshire's flora and fauna.

I love owls so it's a shame they don't have a better rep in folklore.
📷 by me

To mark this weekend's 200th anniversary celebrations of the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR) here's a reminder of a brilliant #postboxtopper in Yarm
#railway #PostboxSaturday #locomotive @folkloresociety.bsky.social

‘It would make Chairs, Tables, Trunks & all moveables walk up and down the Rooms. And often come tumble down the stairs, some times like a bowl & other times as if it drew a Chain.’

John Mompesson, describing the poltergeist activity later known as 'The Drummer of Tedworth' in 1661

#PhantomsFriday

Under a crescent moon, the cloaked wanderer follows his larger than life hare-familiar across an empty landscape.

It was said of the strange traveller and his hare-familiar who haunted Morecambe Bay "that the hare was the spirit of a basely murdered friend, and the restless voyager was the miserable assassin doomed to a wearisome, lifelong wandering" (James Bowker, The White Dobbie).

#PhantomsFriday #folklore

It does have the John Farleigh pics and they add to the eeriness.

Tbh I can't remember how I found out about 'Haunted England' but it wasn't until fairly recently that I found out that CH had done books on witchcraft and folklore.

✏️ by me. And, yes, it is the Devil picture I use for a lot of my Satanic posts but calling up a dozen imps to draw a pic for me takes time (imps don’t do AI) 👿👿👿

Emoji-style silhouette of a devil's head

Billy Barber from Wolvey was able to cast spells and foresee the future. It was rumoured that he gained his powers from a pact with the Devil. When Billy died those sat round his deathbed heard the sound of horses galloping up to the door. The Devil had claimed Billy’s soul.
#FolkyFriday

Another of my ghost bibles, ‘Haunted England’ (1947) by Christian Hole. Lots of detail and accounts written in a matter of fact style which makes them seem more eery.
Not much Warwickshire tho – a shame as the county has some most excellent ghosts.
#PhantomsFriday #books

An iron pyrite ammonite in a white cardboard box

An ammonite transformed into iron pyrite: Romans believed that sleeping with a golden pyritised ammonite under the pillow could reveal the future

😀 hadn't thought of that. It does sound similar

That sounds my kind of thing. Thanks for flagging the book up, Neil.

Source: JH Bloom, Folklore, Old Customs and Superstitions in Shakespeare Land

📷 by me. 'A Pair of Pigs’ (c.1850), artist unknown in the Folk Art collection, Compton Verney.