Chacoan Peccary
This “rangy big pig,” as University of Connecticut biology professor Ralph M. Wetzel characterized his 1974 discovery, was a big surprise—a Pleistocene Epoch survivor of…
Month: July 2021
Holywell
Just beyond Holywell, on the edge of the River Ouse, stands the Ferry Boat Inn, according to Peter Underwood, writing in 1971, ‘haunted, for perhaps…
Helpston
Woodcroft Manor, near Helpston, in the Soke of Peterborough, was where Dr Michael Hudson, one of King Charles I’s chaplains, met an untimely end. He…
Castor
The large and richly decorated church at Castor, consecrated in 1124, has the distinction of being the only church in Britain dedicated to St Kyneburgha…
Barnack
The rector of Barnack church in the early nineteenth century was the father of the novelist and historian Charles Kingsley, author of The Water Babies…
Ware
Now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, but once housed in the Saracen’s Head at Ware, was the Great Bed of Ware, made of oak…
Tring Station
According to a tradition recorded around the turn of the nineteenth century, on the site of Tring Station, just inside the parish of Aldbury, stood…
Tewin
Originally in the churchyard of St Peter’s, now inside the church, is the massive marble base supporting a huge pyramid flanked by urns which marked…
South Mimms Castle
The extraordinary career of the historical Geoffrey de Mandeville inspired many strange traditions concerning him both in the Middle Ages and long after. There are…
Sawbridgeworth
Hyde Hall in this parish was said to be haunted by the ghost of Sir John Jocelyn, the third Baronet. Tradition said that, during his…