Late summer reading from my current favourite shop, The Happy Witch in Warwick

Corn dolly display at Marton Museum of Country Bygones, Warwickshire #WyrdWednesday

The last Squire Newsham (d. 1760) is reputed to haunt the grounds of Chadshunt Hall. Sometimes he is seen riding in a coach pulled by 4 horses which vanishes when it reaches a certain point in the avenue. At others, he is on horseback, accompanied by hounds.

One of Ilmington’s phantom coaches is pulled by headless horses and carries the ghost of a local man who murdered his neighbour. Its route is a lane that leads from an ancient earthwork #SpookySunday

Time to hitch your headless horses to your spectral carriage as this month’s theme is Phantom Coaches. I’ll begin with the one which travels past Kenilworth Castle once every 100 years. #SpookySunday

Some Warwickshire loaf law for Lammastide: If an ear of corn is kept in a house for 7 years, the inhabitants will never want for bread. #Lammas

Charlecote Park had the reputation of being the haunt of witches including one called Diana who rode on the back of a stag. The Charlecote witches were believed to have the ability to turn people into cattle. #WyrdWednesday

After Robert de Marmion evicted the nuns of Polesworth Abbey, the ghost of its first abbess, St Editha, threatened Marmion with a painful death & the fires of Hell if the nuns could not return. Stabbing him with her crozier she vanished. 🧵 #FolkloreSunday

Warwick Folk Festival Day 3: Some of the sides in today's Morris procession thru the town centre

The church of St Denys, Little Compton, is haunted by the ghost of a Victorian curate who took his own life after conducting the wedding of a woman he was in love with. She had chosen another suitor but insisted the curate take the ceremony. 🧵 #PhantomsFriday

Gorgeous sunset for the first night at Warwick Folk Festival

With Warwick Folk Festival starting tomorrow, I thought it would be a good time to post this photo of Ilmington Morris side from the early 1900s featuring Sam Bennett as musician. #MorrisDancing

Forget checking out forecasts and meteorological reports. Look to weather lore for predications of challenging weather. For example, in Warwickshire, a full moon on a Sunday is seen as a portent of hot weather

One winter’s night in the 1950s a major accident occurred on the A45 between Coventry & Rugby. Despite bonfires being lit to warn other motorists & the shouts of those at the scene, a large lorry still hurtled straight towards the collision, but then it suddenly vanished. 🧵 #PhantomsFriday

In Warwickshire weather lore, killing a beetle was believed to bring rain #WyrdWednesday

Got myself a second-hand copy of this classic of British folklore studies 👇 I think the cover’s quite eerie. I know it’s an image of druid but at first glance I thought it was a spectral monk.

If you’re thinking of buying a horse this weekend, here’s some helpful advice seen at Marton Museum of Country Bygones 👇

A male ghost carrying a pack wanders from the lane behind St Peter’s church, Barford, and through the yew-lined churchyard. Visiting some years ago I saw that the phantom was mentioned on the church’s notice board. #PhantomsFriday

The heatwave has hit God’s own county* so opting for some rain lore👇 A saying from Wellesbourne, Warwickshire, was that if the trains could be heard at Goldicote cutting, then rain would follow. *ignore any misguided souls who tell you that God's county is Yorkshire

Embroidered picture in Long Compton church of the King Stone, one of the Rollrights megalith complex. If the children of Long Compton were naughty, they were told that the King and his men would come up to village to take them away. #FolkloreSunday

Folklorist CS Wharton was told that on July 9th the ghosts of 2 lovers could be seen in Wolvey churchyard. A priest had secretly married a gypsy king’s daughter who died in childbirth. The priest died from a broken heart. His body was found lying on her grave. #PhantomsFriday

The witch in legend of the Rollright Stones on the Oxfordshire/Warwickshire border turned herself into an elder tree. Local lore held that if the tree was cut it bled. #WyrdWednesday

Finishing my avian theme with my favourite piece of Warwickshire lore (favourite because it’s just so random): If a peacock flies to your house, a death will follow.

More robin lore: In Warwickshire, if a robin sings in the morning then it will rain before nightfall. If it sings in the evening, the following day will have good weather.

Robins may look cute mooching around the bird feeder or as images on Christmas cards and jumpers but this piece of bird lore from Stratford-upon-Avon casts them in a more sinister light 👇 “Death is always about a house visited by a robin.”

The darker side of folk ways: In the 19th C, in Brailes at the end of harvest a rooster was brought into the field, tied to a post and all the reapers would shoot at it. One year the fowl escaped but was eventually shot by a man whose gun was loaded with a silver sixpence 🧵 #FolkloreSunday

On moonlit nights a white lady upon a white horse rides across the parklands surrounding Ragley Hall near Alcester. When she and her steed reach a certain oak tree they both vanish. #PhantomsFriday

Midsummer’s Day calls for faery lore so from the niche category of Faeries & Highwaymen 👇 In the 16th C a highwayman who plied his trade near Fenny Compton was so expert at evading capture that it was rumoured his horse wore an enchanted bridle – a gift from the fae. #InternationalFairyDay

On Midsummer’s Eve, if women ran naked around the King’s Men stone circle, part of the Rollright Stones which lie on the Warwickshire/Oxfordshire border, it was believed that they might see an image of their future husband.

Litha is the time of year when the fae are reputed to wander about and look what appeared on the lawn overnight 👇🙂 #FolkloreSunday