Here you will find grouped together articles and features about witches, fairies and monsters in British folklore.
The Pendle Witches
Perhaps the most notorious witch trial of the 16th Century. In the year 1612 at Lancaster gaol, ten people were hanged for the crime of witchcraft. They became known as the Pendle Witches…
Witches in England
True stories of the persecution of witches in England. Not for the faint hearted!
The Legend of Mother Ludlam, Surrey Witch
Mother Ludlam was a white witch who kindly lent objects to people with the proviso that the item should be returned within two days. One day however a man asked to borrow her cauldron…
The Kelpie
The kelpie is a shape-changing aquatic spirit of Scottish legend. But beware – these are malevolent spirits, hoping to lure you to a watery grave…
Helen Duncan
Scotland’s last Witch Spiritualist, medium (well large actually, she weighed in at over 22 stones (that’s over 300 lbs to any reader from the USA)) and the last person in Britain to be tried and sentenced under the 1735 Witchcraft Act…
The Pittenweem Witch Trials
In 1705, as a result of some wild stories told by a 16 year old boy, three people died and others were cruelly tortured…
Do you believe in fairies?
Stories about fairies abound throughout history – but in the 21st century, surely we don’t still believe in them – or do we?
The Loch Ness Monster
The first recorded account of ‘Nessie’ is that of an eyeball to eyeball confrontation with the Irish saint, St. Columba in the 6th century…
The Legend of the River Conwy Afanc
The Afanc was a legendary Welsh water monster, likened, some have said, to the Loch Ness Monster. The Afanc lived in Llyn-yr-Afanc (The Afanc Pool) in the River Conwy…
Spring-Heeled Jack
He terrorised Victorian society, but who was this 19th century Batman?
Folk remedies, charms and potions
Or thank goodness for the National Health Service! Who were the ‘Quake doctors’, how do you cure warts and what was the King’s Evil? Read on…
