Eerie Essex
Eerie Essex
The Halloweeners
Our latest episode whisks you away on a supernatural journey through the haunting legends and eerie traditions of East Anglia. We start at the East Anglian Folklore Centre in Colchester, unraveling the rich history of Halloween customs, like the flower-adorned graves in Witham and the mesmerising divination rituals that once defined All Hallows' Eve. Discover how commercialism has morphed these once somber traditions of remembrance into today’s festive spectacle.
Welcome to Eerie Essex. I'm Bethan Briggs-Miller and I'm Ailsa Clarke. Thank you for joining us on our journey into the strange side of the county.
Speaker 1:We will be exploring the folklore, urban legends and supernatural encounters that form part of its rich history.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to episode 33, which this month we're recording from the new East Anglian Folklore Centre. It's very pretty, it's very cosy. It's in the Minneries, which is at the top of East Hill in Colchester, so quite near to Castle Park. We're on the top floor and we have a library, an exhibition, a shop and we've got lots of events coming up, and today Elsa and I are here to record Eerie Essex. So what's?
Speaker 1:this month's thing. Well, of course it has to be Halloween, because it's October, it is October.
Speaker 2:So, as is October and, as you say, halloween, we've all got different traditions, we all do different things for halloween, so we thought we'd start with some traditions and customs from around well britain, but mainly east anglia and essex.
Speaker 1:so, elsa, I believe you have some stories well, I found a really interesting ancient custom that is being well was practiced in witton. I'm not sure if it's still going on now. So this was first reported in 1906 and it was the ancient custom being revived, and this custom was to dress the churchyard graves with flowers on All Hallows' Eve. There's a description from the article here about how it took place. So those of the children attending the church schools who cared to participate were given a handful of flowers before marching into the church where Canon ingalls conducted a five-minute service after the children had sung. We are but little children, weak sounds, so creepy doesn't?
Speaker 2:it does sound so creepy to see all these children marching into a church we think of the um children of the core oh no, the, the.
Speaker 1:There's a Tim Minchin line about some of the chord. Progressions are good, but the words are real creepy about the church.
Speaker 2:I'm also getting a bit of Village, of the Damned vibes it does maybe come off a bit like that.
Speaker 1:I also think it's a really sweet tradition. I'll carry on. Yeah, so the canon explained the object of the ceremony, which was that every resting place in the churchyard should have at least one flower placed upon it. The children then passed into the burial ground and soon every grave was adorned with blooms. The picturesque ceremony was watched with considerable interest and it was noticed that some of the children brought flowers and vessels, and some in cases, and the blooms were prettily trailed around the graves of departed friends. Um, the mrs ingalls I'm sorry, this is a, you know church politics the mrs ingalls took a prominent part in preparing the arrangement of the flowers. Of course, yes, of course, the mrs ingalls. She was the chief flower arranger. Um, I think there's actually two, as in like two misses, as in one miss, two miss three miss four.
Speaker 2:Oh plural yeah.
Speaker 1:So All Saints Church is, of course, a Catholic church, and laying flowers on graves at Halloween is a Catholic tradition, which also then correlates to another tradition, which is Dies Deo Morti. Yes, because obviously that's a very Catholic country as well. It is. We have a celebration on campus that happens every year?
Speaker 2:uh, yes, because obviously that's a very catholic country as well. It is. They're much more vibrant, like a celebration on campus. Um, that happens every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah I'd love to see that. So obviously, uh, it's a much, a lot more vibrant and colorful than probably what we do. I'd love for that to be more of a uh, an ongoing tradition of, like, laying flowers especially if there's people who won't have people visiting their graves, graves that have been there for centuries yeah all, but forgotten by anyone living, imagine. I just think it's such a nice idea to remember that every single one of those stones in there was once, uh, representing a person we sort of forget.
Speaker 2:It's all about honoring the dead and remembering them. We've turned it into it's gone, quite commercialised with the spooky nature which we love. I don't know. I love the spooky nature. Who doesn't love a good scare? But it doesn't have to be all dark.
Speaker 1:Well, halloween is meant to be the thinnest part in the year. The veil thins. So I've got a few more traditions, but maybe I'll wait until after you've told us some of yours.
Speaker 2:Well, I like that. Halloween is five nights before guy fawkes, so the idea of the bonfires it really has does belong to that night currently, but traditionally fires would have been lit on the highest point around villages all over britain, especially in Wales. I mean in Wales, I know that the lawmen all love this because it involves a Christmas no, not a Christmas pig a.
Speaker 2:Halloween pig, Halloween swine, Halloween swine. So at the top of the hills around there would be bonfires lit and the young people would jump across it trying to. They used to use some fire a lot to see if they divination and because that was a big thing at halloween.
Speaker 2:Divination, yeah, all kinds of divination um traditions, so one of them involved putting two nuts by the fire, and if they both exploded, um well, it's very dramatic. But if they both well, they do explode, then it was a bad omen for a relationship, if they both burnt quietly and then it was good.
Speaker 1:So if the nuts exploded early?
Speaker 2:prematurely, prematurely exploding nuts was not a good thing. That's why you're giggling I see I went there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I thought he neither goes there um.
Speaker 2:Well, I forgot on my train of thought.
Speaker 1:Now, sorry, tell us some more traditions, so I actually have a um, a short piece about fire as well. So obviously the lighting of bonfires on halloween is one of the traditions, the use of jack-o'-lanterns to ward off evil during the holiday, heather Heather, heather Heather. But since we are in witch country, fire has another use here and that is to deter witches. So a story from Latchingdon has been handed down over generations, associated with Halloween, goes that the villagers once suspected that one of their number was a witch, and to determine who that was or I think they already had an idea and they wanted to prove they lit a bonfire in the centre of the village and they all stood around it in complete silence. And soon a little old woman came scurrying out of her cottage and amongst them trying to get one of them to speak to her. But they all remained in complete silence because the charm they were trying to enact to draw out the witch and identify her would have been broken, if any one of them spoke.
Speaker 1:Oh. So, as the fire cracked and hissed, the woman became agitated. She was in horrible pain and she was whimpering and squealing on the floor trying to get anyone to speak to her. And then, finally, one of them uttered a few words, by mistake and broke the charm. And she immediately jumped up and scurried off back to her house.
Speaker 2:That's weird, isn't it? Because in like, can you do with the witches? They if once they put the witch's bottle in the fire, then the witch would be crying in pain. Yes, it's almost like fire is linked to, like the very being of the supposed witch.
Speaker 1:Fires of hell? Maybe because they obviously thought they were, you know, in league with the devil?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had as well around here that the fire hallowed. Fires were lit at dusk for protection against fairies as well as witches, but previously it would have been to honour the old pagan gods.
Speaker 1:I think I've mentioned this before is that there's? I heard this on I think it was Gone Medieval or After Dark, I can't remember which one where there was a tradition of using a taper to burn a hole. Well, not to burn a hole, but to continuously make burn marks where a candle should be in the wall to ward off evil, because they thought that the burn mark would still be visible as a light on to spirits on the other side oh so it would be like sleeping with the lights on oh nice except there's no lights because the mark is.
Speaker 2:It's in the other world. It's passed through the veil.
Speaker 1:Cool.
Speaker 2:I've got a couple of other things. Well, I actually found something. I don't know if you want me to tell it now.
Speaker 1:I've got a couple of other stories but I've got one more short tradition Go for it. And then I've got a little story. Whilst we have the lighting bonfires, making soul cake, which are regular customs for Halloween, there is one other customary thing that happens in Essex, and that is church bells were rung all throughout the night, roses, and it was apparently abolished during the Reformation. So this is, you know, pre-1500, 1600. Can I make a guess?
Speaker 2:What Is it to stop the devil stealing the bell? Because they he has an obsession with?
Speaker 1:church bells. He does like stealing the bell, but no, this isn't what they were doing it for. They apparently wrung it. I mean, I got this from a uh newspaper article, so they may have, oh I jumped the gun. They may have um smoothed out for the public why they were doing it. But it was apparently. They rung it for all souls.
Speaker 2:Oh right, Because I know there was a church that has all its bells in a cage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, but there's proof that this tradition was really not to be undertaken lightly because the church in. So there's a church in parish of haybridge where in their records in 1517, they have the following items listed to be paid so they paid one, andrew elliott, for mending the bell nap against halloween mass this is what they called it one shilling and eight pence. And they paid john gidney for a new bell rope against Halloween mass. So these both things were obviously because they were ringing the whole time.
Speaker 2:They must have been exhausted, though, because I know a couple of bell ringers.
Speaker 1:They must have done it in teams.
Speaker 2:They must have done, because I think, yeah, a couple of friends of mine are bell ringers and just after like one peel, like a whole peel which is, I think, a couple of hours, they're exhausted their arms and they're like the days afterwards.
Speaker 1:Oh, I mean we've both got EDS, because you're a man.
Speaker 2:We couldn't do it. We literally couldn't do it.
Speaker 1:Just even thinking about it is making my shoulders numb.
Speaker 2:I'm holding on to my arms.
Speaker 1:There's one other small tradition as well. So Rowan or Mountain Ash was also used to ward off against evil spirits and it was um because again, essex witchcraft. It was well known that in they say days gone by to avoid any actual date giving, which is great that no self-respecting cottager in the county would let all hallows eve pass without hanging a rowan branch over the doorway to stop any passing witch or her familiars from entering the house.
Speaker 2:That's weird because rowan branches are normally like if you sit under a rowan tree, you can see fairyland.
Speaker 1:Oh. It's weird how, like I think, they mean different things to different groups of people. Yeah, milkmaids often put rowan branches in their milk to stop witches from curdling the milk as well. That's true, yes, and some people were so superstitious they used to make crosses out of rowan wood to wear and carry around so witches wouldn't hex them in broad daylight. That's all the traditions I've got so far. I've got one little story and I'll let you go on your next.
Speaker 2:Well, I came, I was, um, trying to find specific stories about halloween, so I was going through all the books we we've got here and I've come across something I've never heard of before in this one book and I can't find it online or anywhere. So I'll read the story and then, if anybody knows about what I'm about to talk about, please can you let us know, because it I'm worried. This is a really important part of our folkloric and like supernatural history. And this, which book did it come from? This came from a ghost hunter's guide to essex by jesse k pain, so this was a book that was gifted to us from basil and history society, so which has been really good to have. So this is in the section mark queer happenings in ancient churches, and so, basically, there was a group called the Phenomenist Research League. They sound very cool. They do sound so cool, don't they? And there was a particular group of them that was from Southend and they did lots of field visits and like experiments and things across Essex, and there's two of them listed in here. I'll read the first one, which is a very short one, but the second one links quite nicely to a previous episode. So let me read the first small bit.
Speaker 2:First At Hockley. The local people say that long, long ago a beautiful lady was riding through the village in a coach when the horses swerved and the coach crashed into a tree, the lady and driver being killed outright. The rumour is that at certain times of the year the coach with his four white horses returns and passes the nearby church. The lady orders the driver to pull up and then she waves her white gloved hands at any passerby. The coach then travels on and repeats the tragedy.
Speaker 2:The Phenomenist Research League from Southend-on-Sea visited Hockley in August 1956 to find out if there was any truth in the rumours of the Phantom Coach. All the members of the expedition agreed that it was the most eerie place they had visited. They all had strange, inexplicable experiences. Several heard very peculiar sounds and two reported seeing a shape moving on the church tower. A large white figure dashed past them. It could have been a rabbit, said Mr Godfrey Bartram, but it was very large, too large for a rabbit in my opinion, and everyone agreed that the atmosphere was unearthly, said Gary Spencer, the secretary of the league.
Speaker 1:I don't know why, but I can picture these two people in my head. Godfrey's like a very rotund man very pink face and Gary's maybe like quite scrawny. Yes, you know, very tall, a bit weaselly looking.
Speaker 2:I'd like to see an ITV show about the Phenonymous Research League and what they got up to.
Speaker 2:So like the detectorists Very much like the detectorists, so it wasn't just Hockley they visited. I'll read the next bit. It's really hard to keep saying Phenomena. The Phenomenas League also organised a ghost hunt at St Nicholas' Church in Canudon in August 1957. The church warden, who had been in the choir for well over 60 years, told members of the expedition that it is said that if a person circles the church alone at midnight, the witches and ghosts will come out to sing and dance with them. As we know from the episode, all of them Witches.
Speaker 1:I've actually heard a different version of this. I only found it this morning, so I'll tell you after you finish.
Speaker 2:Okay, although each member in turn walked around the church, they spotted no spectres. It was not midnight. It was Halloween, but it wasn't midnight.
Speaker 1:They had to do a control test, didn't they? They did.
Speaker 2:There was an atmosphere on the oldest side of the church, the west side. Several members of the party experienced a strange psychic cold near the altar, as if a barrier had been drawn across the north end of the church, and the atmosphere was distinctly different to that elsewhere in the church. Two members saw a weird aura of light surrounding the top of the tower, only lasting a few seconds. Mr pb godfrey bartram godfrey again. Pb godfry bartram carried out a color test and a vibration test. Elsa, they're exploding nuts and now vibrations. The former is a small bottle of blue liquid containing strontium and various other ingredients and will usually turn black if there's a psychic influence in the area. I've never heard of that. No, but cool, but cool, let's try it. The vibration test is a bottle of mercury and will vibrate if there's a strong influence.
Speaker 1:I was about to say I bet it's incredibly poisonous.
Speaker 2:It's not going to be safe.
Speaker 1:Oh God.
Speaker 2:Ray. Both tests showed negative. This was expected, as it was too early for anything to happen. One of the ghosts of Canood and Churchill is said to be that headless woman dressed in silk. Ghost of canoed in church is said to be that headless woman dressed in silk. Some say they've seen her riding in a hurdle down on the hill from the church to the river, where she disappears but appears again on the other side of the water. I did that in my canoed. That's a new one, isn't it that?
Speaker 2:is a new one, yeah but I wonder if that's to do with the witch supposed witch stealing the bell and then going across the river. What is a hurdle? It's a type of track, isn't it?
Speaker 1:okay, I think I just imagined her astride a runner's hurdle, like barreling down a hill. It'd be quite fun to see but I like that.
Speaker 2:I like finding a new little bit to a story we've already researched. Well, it's quite exciting I did see something.
Speaker 1:Something about canadian popped up this morning whilst I was doing a little bit of finishing research. Definitely, it was on the british newspaper archive. I almost definitely saved it. Will I be able to find it again? I don't think so, but off the top of my head it's walking around the church again. This time it said clockwise and it said if you go around clockwise you'll travel through time. Oh, very outlander.
Speaker 2:Well, funny, you should say that, because I was doing a little bit of finishing up research this morning and I came across someone talking about it on Reddit.
Speaker 1:Oh, really yeah.
Speaker 2:So this person tried to walk around the churchyard and the church, you know, three times. It was uneventful. But when they got back to the car and were sitting chatting, they saw a shape of a person creeping along the hedge towards the car. Oh no, that's, that's creepy, don't like that. It was a dark and they could only make out the shape, but it was moving towards them, pointed it out to the others and they couldn't see it. Oh so we got out and ran to where I saw it, but there was no one around. They ran towards it. Yeah, they ran towards it, I've got.
Speaker 2:I've got respect for them. They've got some giant chestnuts they couldn't have hidden because it was just a head and a farmer's field on the other side, so there was nowhere. If it had been like a prankster or anything there was nowhere for it to hide. But they, they know what they I saw. Copyright uncanny. Copyright, danny Robbins.
Speaker 1:That's really cool.
Speaker 2:Really cool.
Speaker 1:I love how every time we look at Canoodon we find something new. I know right, it seems to just it's the gift that keeps giving. It is the gift that keeps giving.
Speaker 2:Well, I suppose as well. I mean, we did talk about it last time on the episode, but there was that voodoo doll found in the woods in the middle of like all black candles and everything on halloween oh yeah, I mean obviously I think we've said this before but please don't go to canadian on halloween.
Speaker 1:They do lock the entire village down because so many people have attempted to do this, running around the church, however many times, whichever direction, it becomes a bit of a riot and they don't want that so personally, I think they should put like food carts out and make a big thing of it. Maybe it should be like the cheese rolling.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Come on, Canuda. Who can we get damned by the devil today?
Speaker 2:But that's one of mine anyway. So I've got a couple of others that I might do today, but I might save for another.
Speaker 1:Well, I've got one more I've got a couple of others that I might do today, but I might save for another. Well, I've got one more, I'll do that one and then you can see how much you feel like adding to it. Okay, so in Essex, in the village of Feldstedt, stands a historic icon, the Boot House, a grand old timber frame dwelling built by the local builder named George Boot. Now, I have posted about this one on our instagram before halloween, but I've got much more information about it, so the building stands opposite the church and guildhall and is now a restaurant. George was apparently so pleased with his workmanship that he carved his own name onto the building, which reads george boat made this house 1596. Like george boat was here, mate, george boat was here. There are a few other adornments attached to the building and an unusual carving of a lady who is naked, save for a chastity girdle that surrounds her.
Speaker 2:I'll show you a picture in a moment.
Speaker 1:Even odder is that this lady has cloned feet. So there are several theories about who this girl's effigy is of. One not particularly kind theory, or likely theory, is that the carved woman is the likeness of George's wife, who he was married to, and apparently he married her out of pity because she was so ugly, having been cursed by a witch. Oh my god.
Speaker 1:That's so harsh, I said it wasn't a particularly kind theory. The other one isn't much better, to be honest. So the other candidate for the carved woman is an actual witch. So, only three years before the house's completion, feldstead accused, trialed and hung apparently hung. We're not entirely sure about this. Its only witch, alice Albert, a spinster of Feldstead, pleaded not guilty to bewitching 22 sheep worth five pounds, a cow worth 40 shillings and a calf worth eight shillings, a pig worth eight shillings, all belonging to a man called roger wood. I love how this was, that this comes from the assizes, the essex record office, and I love how they list the price of all of these.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's very. This is what this is. This is why we took it seriously.
Speaker 1:You can see how much she cost us so sadly alice was found guilty. Then there are conflicting reports afterwards. The record that I found does not say what happened to her afterwards, apart from the fact she was confined at colchester castle in the jail. But one counts as that she died in the jail of jail fever, like a lot of people did, unfortunately, waiting for either punishment or trial or to pay off the boarding key exactly.
Speaker 1:The other account is that she made it all the way to the noose. What is even sadder still is that death did not let alice escape notoriety. The the carving of the bound naked woman with cloned feet is said to have come to life on all hallows eve and stalk the streets of felstead attacking people. Oh my goodness, which I'll show you a picture now. Imagine what it would be like to come across this in a dark alley. Oh hell, the fact that they paint her this kind of ghastly white with the bright red lips.
Speaker 2:It looks like a bondage suit, not like a chastity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it's called a chastity, but that's kind of what it looks like, and this is carved into the side of the building in beltstead.
Speaker 2:Nice like the, she's got a nice nail on it yeah, I.
Speaker 1:I think the painting is modern yeah, it really gave her like an essex girl vibe with the painting.
Speaker 2:I don't know. She's got a goth vibe. Do you know who she looks like? We cut that bit out. I can't say that. No, I don't know she'd like that. Though she might like it, she might hate it.
Speaker 1:Oh, send her a picture later.
Speaker 2:I'll see if she agrees and if she agrees, we'll keep this part of the episode sorry, yes, uh, that it does remind us of our friend I mean, she may well be like all for it if it's still in and you're listening to this.
Speaker 1:It's because she likes it well, that's the story of the pelts at hag, which is good it's very sad.
Speaker 1:It's very sad, because george boat made this house, to be honest, sounds like a bit of a prick. If it's not alice, then it's his wife. And then he apparently married his wife out of pity, yeah, and advertised that with and then put the boobies out on show for everyone. Put her boobies out on show for everyone and give it her boobies out on show for everyone and gave her clothed feet. George Boot sounds like Sort yourself out, absolute idiot. I was going to say something else. It was going to be very rude. Try and keep it semi-PG.
Speaker 2:I've just got a little bit more to a story that we alluded to in a previous episode.
Speaker 2:A previous episode that I can't remember. I think previous episode, a previous episode that I can't remember, I think it might have actually been our first episode or the exorcism episode we we found a lot of exorcisms on that episode we have. Yeah, so this was about, um, the exorcism that that girl took, uh did in billericay. Oh, yes, in 1970. Yes, I remembered this, yeah, and so this was reported in south end standard newspaper that same year. Um how, I don't know why, putting this a pretty Billericay girl because she can't have a name have you got the picture of the newspaper there, because I remember the newspaper.
Speaker 2:I didn't, I just. I just um wrote down what I found from it, but I'll try and find it. We could put it on Instagram. Um, she has sought advice from a practicing witch in a bid to try and exorcise a ghost she believed was haunting her garden. Yes, that was it, yeah, in Chapel Street, and a 17-year-old girl told the newspaper how she intended to conduct her own exorcism at Halloween, exactly midnight. I think that's the information we had before. Yes, she picked Halloween because she thought what better time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was hard to find anything else, but I'm glad you found something there. Well, I have but what?
Speaker 2:what was happening in the garden? Go for it, it's not. It's not a lot, but at least it gives it a bit more. So the teenager, who worked as a fashion model, said she and her mother had seen the ghost of a child in the garden, and the eerie entity seemed to come from a tree in the middle of the garden no, I do remember this.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, we did. I think we I did cover some of this.
Speaker 2:I was combined with the sound of the child's eerie voice singing. All things bright and beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I brought it up again, because this happened on Halloween and the family dog, the pet poodle, was also aware of the entity and refused to go into the garden at night. It's not clear whether the exorcism worked though, so there's no follow-up story one, but if anyone you know this was 1970, you know, we would like to know more about it. So if that person or anybody knows the person who did this, uh, and knows more about it, we'd love to hear yeah, please tell us if the exorcism worked, what kind of exorcism you did yeah, we'd like to know more.
Speaker 2:Yes, something else. That's just done for this one. We we have um got. We are talking about wanting to do pubs next we were meant to do it in in September.
Speaker 1:September kind of got away from us, Unfortunately, because we both work in education. That is the time where all the students go back and my youngest started school.
Speaker 2:I became a student. It was very studenty. There was a lot of students involved. There was a lot of academic nonsense in September, but we're back on track now so we may do the next one a bit earlier to make up for it. But, um, yeah, we're back, don't worry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was gonna start singing back in black, but I can't I like I know we've given a shout out to this person before, but we're both on a binge fest again for ghost in the burbs, so that is a really good spooky podcast to listen to if you want spooky stories, because they still creep me out. She just is such a good storyteller and storytelling is such a forgotten art, so please check her out because she's awesome. We'll tag Liz in this because we want Liz to be our friend. And do check out the East Anglian Folklore Centre as well. We've got some events coming up and it'd be lovely to see some of you.
Speaker 1:We've got some cursed objects up and it'd be lovely to see some of you cursed objects and black shark. Do you want to sign off now? It's goodbye from elsa and it's goodbye from bethany bye.
Speaker 2:if you'd like to get in contact with us with a story of your own or any more information about what we've discussed in this episode, you can reach us at eerie essex podcast at gmailcom or if you'd like to contact us on social media, you can find us on twitter, facebook and instagram under the handle eerie essex.
Speaker 1:On twitter, we are under eerie underscore essex. You can also find us on patreon and ko-fi if you'd like to support the podcast podcast Thank you.