England's Worst Witch Trial: Pendle Witches

It was the original modern ghost hunt, the one that set the template for all the haunted houses to come. When a wealthy plantation family moves into a crumbling Georgian mansion in the 1760's the haunting begins. By the end even royalty were on tenterhooks. Eleanor Janega joins A ...  Show more

The Ancient Celts: feared in battle, guided by Druids, and bound together by ritual.Long before Rome pushed north, Celtic peoples ruled forests, hilltops, and river valleys. But in this episode we'll be discussing the darker aspects of this ancient civilisation...We are very luck ...  Show more

More than 200 accused, 20 executed and a village plagued with hysteria. Were the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and 1693 the work of superstition, a power struggle, fungus or actual witchcraft? What makes them stand out in the history of witch trials?

In this episode, Do ...

It’s that time of year again, Halloween. A word which conjures up images of pumpkins, ghosts, and of course…witches.

But have you ever wondered what the ancient origins of witchcraft is? How did the black-hat-broomstick stereotype emerge? And what causes the waves of ...

Forty years before the infamous witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, Hugh Parsons stepped out of his dirty, disease ridden prison cell in Boston and was carted off towards the courthouse in order to stand trial as a witch. He’d come from a small settlement named Springfield over ...  Show more

Helen Duncan is sometimes described as Scotland’s last witch, or the last person imprisoned for witchcraft in Britain, or the last person to be tried under the UK’s 1735 Witchcraft Act. None of those are quite accurate.

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