Weather rhyme: "Dry March, wet May, Plenty of corn, plenty of hay. Wet March, dry May, Little corn, little hay"
Some March weather lore as seen at the Marton Museum of Country Bygones 👇
(wonder how much corn and hay we get when it's foggy? 🤔)
📷by me. Thanks to the cat for loaning me her toy mice 👍
Two Ikea mice soft toys walking across a bed. To be honest they look more like rats to me but for the purposes of this post, they are mice
In Warwickshire death lore, a mouse running over a bed was an omen that someone in the house would soon die.
#FolkloreSunday
A touch of #Folklore following on from the earlier post. The Hole of Horcum, is a natural amphitheatre situated near Pickering. Legend tells that that the ‘Hole’ was created when ‘Wade the Giant scooped up a handful of earth from the moors to throw at his wife Bell during an argument
🧵A touch of #Folklore following on from the earlier post. The Hole of Horcum, is a natural amphitheatre situated near Pickering. Legend tells that that the ‘Hole’ was created when ‘Wade the Giant scooped up a handful of earth from the moors to throw at his wife Bell during an argument. He missed!
stone bird bath with figure of the child Pan sitting in it playing his Pan pipes. The bird bath is surrounded by daffodils
Pan piping in Spring at Hill Close Gardens, Warwick
For me the clothing looks 19th C. Even if the image is fake, I agree there's something unsettling about it
Source: Betty Smith, Warwickshire Tales of Mystery & Murder (2001).
📷 - Newdigate Colliery Winding Wheel by Niki Walton via Wikimedia Commons
The winding wheel of Newdigate colliery. It's now on display as the colliery closed in 1982
An explosion took place in one of the shafts of Newdigate colliery in 1931 killing 8 miners. Years later those who worked in that area of the mine reported seeing strange mists and shadows and, in some cases, the figure of a miner dressed in the workwear of a previous era
#PhantomsFriday
For me it's all the banging on the walls. A really unsettling film
Illustration of a man huddled up in a dressing gown. The caption reads: 'Seen anything spooky?'
"Seen anything spooky?" Well, you will tomorrow for lo, tis #PhantomsFriday - the feed for all things ghostly. #Ghost posts on #folklore, art, literature, popular culture, #haunted locations... all contributions using the hashtag will be welcome.
#artsky #booksky #BookChatWeekly #poetry
😀
📷 by me
Warwick Castle keep
The ghost of the Dun Cow, a monstrous bovine killed by Guy of Warwick, was reputed appear in the courtyard of Warwick Castle whenever a member of the Earl of Warwick’s family was likely to die. The spectre made no sound and its hoofs left no marks.
#LegendaryWednesday
Cover of 'Dark Folklore' by Mark Norman and Tracey Norman
Purchase from a mooch to the UK Ghost Story festival on Friday 👇
#books
"1772. Obfervations through MARCH.
Now March his Horn tempeftuous blows,
Drives down the Rain, or Hail, and Snows;
But, yet, the Ground is not much Froze,
And Spring comes on, we all fuppofe."
Poor Robin 1772.
A Sure And A Very Certain Prognostication.
#March #Spring #History #1770s #FolkloreSunday
Folklore is a living current in perpetual manifestation, perpetual mutation. Each telling – whether in story swapped across pints or carved into a church's wooden bestiary – makes a bridge from then to now and onto tomorrow. Even the smallest oak dragon is transmission. – #CLNolan #FolkloreSunday
#FolkloreSunday
The return of the swallows has long been a quiet sign that spring has truly begun in Ireland. In old belief, their arrival meant winter had loosened its grip. A swallow nesting by your home was considered a blessing, a promise of warmth and renewal 💚🌿🐦
I need to check The Last Sacrifice out. Donald McCormick's book on the killing, 'Murder by Witchcraft' (1968), is very much in Margaret Murray/lingering witch cult vein.
📷 by me
Diamante running hare brooch
In Warwickshire, pulped hares’ brains were given to calm restless new-born infants. It is recorded that in Alscot, up until the 20th C, a party of villagers would visit the lady of the manor to request a hare’s head so that its brains may be used for this purpose.
#FolkloreSunday
Source: Roy Palmer Folklore of Warwickshire (1976).
📷 Meon Hill by me. Full disclosure: Palmer doesn’t mention the name of the hill but I’m wondering if it’s Meon as it’s nearby and has other folklore associations.🤔
Meon Hill seen from across fields. fence and branches in foreground
Concluding this month’s ‘You Ain’t Nuthin’ But a (Spectral) Hound Dog’ theme with the black dog witnessed running down a hill in Lower Quinton which turned into a woman. Writing in the 1970s, folklorist Roy Palmer noted that this had been seen in “living memory”.
Really enjoyed your talk at the Ghost Story festival. I never knew familiars took such a variety of forms. I will now be looking at snails in a whole different light 🙂🐌
Image: Richard Barrett Davis, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
In the 17th C an Ilmington huntsman was torn to death by his own pack of hounds. On Xmas Eve, his spectre and dogs hunt still. If you should meet him, then do not obey his instruction to open any gates. If you do, he will carry you off to ride out with him for eternity.
#PhantomsFriday
Usual weekly reminder of the frightful joy that is #PhantomsFriday. Please join in with posts on all things #ghost by using that hashtag tomorrow - words, pictures, #folklore, popular culture, #haunted sites etc etc.
📷 by me
Priests were called in to perform an exorcism, during the course of which the dog ran up Caesar’s Tower and leapt into the river Avon below
According to folklore, the black dog/Moll is still there to this day, trapped beneath the fletcher dam.
Warwick Castle
The first of this week’s phantom pooches is a spectral black dog, believed to be the spirit of a witch, Moll Bloxham. After Moll vanished when her concession for selling surplus dairy produce from Warwick Castle was withdrawn, the castle was haunted by a ferocious black dog. 🧵
😀It's the first case I've come across of a spirit splitting in two.
