The Monster of Leavenworth, Kansas July 21, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern***Thanks to Roberto for this tale*** This is a nasty little story from nineteenth-century Kansas. We are in Leavenworth in that state and enter Mrs. Green, note a suspiciously generic name. Mrs. Green is a midwife, a profession that has had many ups and downs at the hands of doctors, feminists, journalists (nota bene), witch-hunters […]
Daily History Picture: Fainted July 21, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesDaily History Picture: 1970s Party July 20, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesDaily History Picture: Eagle and Plane July 19, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesDaily History Picture: Destination Italy July 18, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesDaily History Picture: Atomium Under Construction July 17, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesThe Ghost, the Dynamite and the Fever July 17, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : ContemporaryThis is weird little story from Barnoldswick on the border between Lancashire and the North Riding. The year is 1928. Barnoldswick is affected by a ghost scare which has broken out like a fever among the schoolchildren of the town. The use of ‘fever’ is interesting thinking of that wonderful book by Robert E. Bartholomew […]
Did You Hear the One About the Ring… July 16, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval, ModernCurious about ring legends? This blogger recently went through the international folklore indexes in search of rings so you don’t have to: you can waste a lot of time there… Yes, he found the boring old chestnuts: ring found in fish; ring cut from corpse etc. etc. But there are also some marvelously bizarre and […]
Review: Primates July 15, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : ContemporaryJim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks, Primates This blog has a tradition of, from time to time, flagging up excellent children’s books on history and the supernatural. Primates, a 140-page comic, falls very much into the first of these two categories. It takes the lives of three biological anthropologists, only two of whom are still alive: […]
Daily History Picture: Bird Shooting July 14, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesVictorian Urban Legends: Pawn Trick July 13, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : ModernThis is a lovely story from Paisley (Scotland), ‘about the truth of which there is no doubt’. The other morning there were, as usual, standing the Cross several journeymen dyers, one of whom had the reputation of being clever in his way in providing the needful when thirst is requiring to be quenched. They looked […]
Daily History Picture: Don’t Put Gunpowder in Oven July 13, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesGot this from twitter but can’t find source or user: sorry! 31 Jul 2017: Larry writes I don’t think they’ll ever learn: “St. Petersburg woman injured after bullet left inside oven explodes,” Tampa Bay Times, 2017 July 13.
Daily History Picture: Boxing July 12, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesBuckinghamshire Fairies and Little Witches July 12, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary, ModernFairy legends are common in the Celtic fringes and the north of Britain. They are to be found in northern England and south central England: they also occasionally crop up in the English Midlands. However, they were as rare as gold dust in south-eastern England and East Anglia by the time that folklore records were […]