Tag: Curiosities
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The Hangman’s Locket
As much as the Victorians revelled in beauty and sentimentality, they really were a bunch of morbid sods at heart.
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The Ghost Dog of Tingewick
Spectral spaniel or fake Fido? You decide…
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Bent Spoons and Sensotrons: Uri Geller’s Strike!
Uri Geller’s Strike! is quite possibly one of the strangest games ever to hit toyshop shelves.
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London’s Secret Victorian Pet Cemetery
Hyde Park’s hidden pet cemetery’s once described as ‘the most horrible spectacle in Britain.’
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The Car Park Grave of Mary Ellis
Beneath the tarmac of Loews Theater car park in New Brunswick lie the remains of Mary Ellis. For the last 193 years, she has occupied…
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Ghosts on Film: Hampton Court Palace
See them walking hand in hand across the bridge at midnight…
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The Weirdest Epitaph in America: Sterling Hallard Bright Drake
“‘An idealist and a dreamer, he died of loneliness and a broken heart, searching for a shrine he never found.”
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Going Out in Style! Ghana’s Fantasy Coffins
Fantasy, figurative or proverbial coffins (abebuu adekai), are unusual, transient memorials, being elaborate representations of the deceased’s interests, dreams and achievements.
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Ye Olde Eco-Burial: The Trapdoor Coffin
In the 16th and 17th centuries, plenty of rural parishes in Scotland utilised a communal coffin of sorts called a ‘common mortkist’, ‘bier’ or ‘parish…
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The Fertile Grave of Victor Noir
The frankly massive bulge in Noir’s trousers made his memorial a popular destination for women visiting Père Lachaise for over a century…
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The Tiny Grave of Tom Thumb
According to local legend, the Tom Thumb of Tattershall measured just over 18 inches tall and had reached the grand old age of 101 upon…
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The Magic Roundabout Grave
The Magic Roundabout was a curious and brilliant children’s TV show that ran from 1965-1977 with relentless repeats throughout the following decades
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The Hexham Heads
In 1971, two young boys were digging in the back garden of their family home in Hexham. Deep in the soil, they unearthed two small…
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Collection Feature: Funeral Fans
Cardboard fans, whether folding or attached to a handle, were a particularly popular means of advertisement from the 1920s-60s.
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Mary Toft: The Woman Who Birthed Rabbits
In 1726, when the rest of the country were dealing with periodic harvest failures, Mary Toft sat at home and gave birth to rabbits.
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A Sensation in Quebec!
‘A Quebec Woman Creates a Sensation, Riding Through St. John Street in a Hearse, Reclining on the Coffin-Bed, and Smoking a Pipe…’
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The Thief’s Arm of Prague
The 400 year old arm, impaled on a meat hook, serves as a warning to all future criminals considering robbing the church.
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Nancy Luce, The Chicken Lady
For company, Nancy may not have had humans, but she had her chickens…
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‘Scratching Fanny’, The Ghost of Cock Lane
In 1762, the haunting of Cock Lane gripped a nation and sent the capital wild with fear and excitement
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Death Cheese: A Short History
In life, three things are for certain: Birth, Death and Cheese. The greatest of these is cheese.
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Hudds, Huds and Hudes: Graveside Shelters of Yesteryear
Shelters may seem to have been a rather excessive addition to the world of ecclesiastical furniture, after all; what’s a little rain between a vicar…
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Gef the Ghostly Mongoose
Ghosts and ghouls, hauntings and mournful spirits; one theme remains constant throughout. They are all human. Then there’s Gef.
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Whitby Jet: What, Why and When?
With Halloween knocking on our door and Whitby goth events calling our name, many of our minds turn to jet, indulgent dark jewellery and the…
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Victorian Iron Mummies: The Fisk Casket
Fisk’s patent explains that ‘the air maybe exhausted so completely as entirely to prevent the decay of the contained body on principles well understood; or,…
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The House of Faces
Over a period of seven days, the mysterious stain turned into the clear image of a face. A face that would not disappear, no matter…
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The World of Victorian Grave Dolls
After experiencing the death of a loved one, our mourning practises may include collecting mementos…and a full-sized effigy of the deceased.
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The Hand of Glory
When creating your mystical severed appendage, there were rules to be followed…
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A Short History of British Screaming Skulls
While sounding like a high-school punk band, screaming skulls are a not-uncommon element woven through the rich British tapestry of haunted body parts.
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The Curious Case of Edward Mordake’s Demon Face
You think you’re having a bad day? Well, imagine how bad you’d be feeling if you had a second face on the back of your…
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Invoking the Owlman
England in the 1970s; disco, flares, chilled bottles of blue nun… And a six-foot owl man.
Burials & Beyond 