LORE

Many stones around Britain bear the name ‘pennystone’, and have often been explained as plague stones. John Billingsley (with a little help from Robin Hood) cures these stones of their ague   Near Halifax in W Yorkshire, on Midgley Moor, and at one time on a hillside at Wainstalls, you could find large boulders called […]

Arthur O’Neill recounts how a chance visit to an old church in the Leeds area led to an investigation into Tudor magic   We are very fortunate to have ancient churches because they preserve much of historic interest. I enjoy visiting village churches whenever I pass through a place new to me. I was on

Folk cures for humans as well as beasts involved the medical, the magical and sometimes the simply mystifying. Peter Watson reveals some of the techniques in traditional and historical medical practice The library of Chetham’s school in Manchester contains a remarkable if largely forgotten herbal, beautifully written and illuminated in a hand of the early

A Yorkshire tale of presences and mysteries, related for us by Jo Hirons   What happens to those places which have a reputation for being ‘haunted’, and which may have a record of  disturbances’ going back many years, once their topography changes beyond recognition? Remembrances of previous buildings may be preserved to retain ‘character’ in the

Robert W E Farrah looks into the esoteric furore ignited by a new public artwork in Carlisle   The Curse In the very heart of the city of Carlisle, as the new millennium was beginning, a tale of the supernatural was unfolding which would be worthy of the wild imaginings of many a horror writer.

Robert W E Farrah looks into the esoteric furore ignited by a new public artwork in Carlisle   The curse  In the very heart of the city of Carlisle, as the new millennium was beginning, a tale of the supernatural was unfolding which would be worthy of the wild imaginings of many a horror writer.

David Kaiser goes in quest of the ‘original’ Long Meg. Long Meg and Her Daughters is one of northern England’s most famous prehistoric monuments. It’s an impressive site. About five miles N of Penrith, it is Britain’s sixth largest stone circle. It originally consisted of a ring of about seventy large stones standing in an

Once a charm, now a design element; but John Billingsley considers if the crossed W has become a subconscious metaphor of its traditional symbolism?               In NE165 we asked for readers’ impressions of two varieties of the letter W, and this article reports on our feedback as well as suggesting how the image aspect

When Britain’s last deep coal mine closed, I found myself conflicted* between my environmentalist, folklorist and political identities, in all of which coal miners and their industry have played an important role. My overwhelming feeling in the end was one of sadness and loss, focussed on the communities and the values they represented. Folklore, they