iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

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.

2282

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

For reasons explained below, I’ve gone over the border today: Lady Tanfield was said to ride over Burford’s rooftops in a fiery chariot. In the 18th C she became such a nuisance it took up to 12 priests to catch her spirit in a bottle which was then deposited in the Windrush🧵 #SpookySunday

Old buildings, at a guess medieval or early Tudor, on Burford high street

34911

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

An afternoon mooch to the flower festival at St Mary's, Haseley. This year's theme is pastimes. Open again tomorrow 1-4 pm should anyone wish to peruse.

061

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The first of this week’s witches is Betty H. of Darlingscott who had a reputation for being a witch. One stormy night a farmer was getting his horses in to shelter when something rushed passed him. It was Betty flying by on a hurdle

A piece of hurdle topping a low brick wall

1122

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The ghost of the Dun Cow, a monstrous bovine killed by Guy of Warwick, was reputed to reappear in the courtyard of Warwick Castle whenever a member of the Earl of Warwick’s family was likely to die. The spectre made no sound and its hoofs left no marks. #WyrdWednesday

gatehouse opening on to the courtyard of Warwick Castle

1427

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

On the roof at Warwick Castle for this evening's 'Warwick Castle: Behind Closed Doors' event - part of the Warwick Words History Festival

070

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

A Long Compton woman, a reputed witch, lay dying surrounded by relatives. She begged them to leave but after hearing bangs & crashes they rushed back in to see a black pigeon fly out the window. The woman was dead and her possessions were strewn about the room. #FolkloreSunday

4276

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

A spectral black dog, believed to be a witch, Moll Bloxham, once haunted Warwick Castle. Moll was angry that her concession for selling the castle’s surplus dairy produce had been withdrawn. After an exorcism the dog leapt from Caesar’s Tower into the river 🧵 #SpookySunday

45512

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Betty, a Tredington witch, wasn’t invited to a neighbour’s party so she went in the form of a cat but was detected. After being jabbed with a pitchfork, the cat disappeared thru a keyhole. The next day Betty was found to have a wound in her right hand.

192

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"Ladies and gentlemen please fasten your seat belts. We are now entering October country"

181

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

A white hare once roamed around Brailes Hill which no one would ever try to kill as it was held to be sacred. #FolkloreSunday

Round enamel brooch featuring a white hare leaping over a snowy landscape

2203

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The ghost of a young nun has been seen near the Catholic chapel of St Peter and St Paul in Brailes (located in building below 👇). She is believed to be grieving for her baby which was taken from her to avoid scandal. #SpookySunday

Side view of the building housing the Roman Catholic chapel of St Peter and St Paul

0278

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Folky result of a mooch into the lovely Books On the Hill, St Albans 👇

Two book covers : The Witchcraft Almanac by and Folklore by Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook

0111

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

After the Devil went out collecting nuts on Devil’s Nutting Day (21 Sept), the Virgin Mary suddenly appeared. Startled by this, Satan dropped the sack of nuts which turned into the Devils’ Bag of Nuts (aka Alcock’s Arbour), a hill near Haselor, Warwickshire. #FolkloreThursday

Track passing by the Devil's Bag of Nuts

3266

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

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

182

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

In 1642, the sound of military drums emitted from a well in the hamlet of Hill Wooten. The drumming continued for 14 days then stopped, only to restart in 1660 and 1669. No source for the noise was discovered. 🧵 #SpookySunday

13811

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

From yesterday's mooch to one of Warwickshire's landmarks - the 17th C windmill at Chesterton

windmill in shadow with a ghostly sun behind it

Inside the mill, looking out on to the landscape beyond

1183

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

This Warwickshire harvest-home rhyme trashes images of bucolic idylls: Hip! Hip! Hip! For the harvest home. Now we’ve taken the last load home. I ripped my shirt and I seared my skin To get my master’s harvest in. #HarvestLore

1163

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Some years ago the local Pound Shop was selling Day of the Dead-style items for Halloween. I got this skull and decorated it with butterflies to represent spirits of the dead. #WyrdWednesday

Ceramic skull decorated with Day of the Dead style patterns and embellished with 3 butterflies made of feathers

0163

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Folklore/myth in unexpected places 👇 A Kodama, a Japanese tree spirit, on the Tsuru no Michi layout at the International N Gauge model railways show. The layout mixed elements from anime and mythology with trains.

A kodama by a train track with cherry tree in full blossom in the foreground

2182

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

One summer’s evening in the late 1970s, a visitor to the eerie Guy’s Cliffe House, felt a big drop in temperature when she entered the old hall and being overcome by fear. She later heard that a friend had encountered a dark figure towering over her at same spot. #FolkloreSunday

The ruins of Guy's Cliffe house peering through trees

1164

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

In the 1960s 2 boys saw an elderly lady in old-fashioned clothes exit St Lawrence's churchyard, Napton-on-the-Hill, walk some way along a path, then vanish. At home, one of the boys described the woman to his mother. She recognised her as a villager who had died 20 yrs earlier. #spookysunday

View of the church of St Lawrence from its churchyard

26210

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Most Warwickshire villages had a harvest-home rhyme. This one form Ilmington celebrated a good harvest: Up! Up! Up! A merry harvest home, A good plum pudding and a good beef bone

3 shield bugs on an ear of ripened corn in a cornfield

1112

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Some of the Tudor fairies I encountered on the Fairy Trail in the Lord Leycester gardens

Male fairy looking suspiciously like King Henry VIII

1123

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Took part in the fairy trail in the gardens of the medieval Lord Leycester hospital, Warwick. Got a sticker for bagging the requisite number of fae.

Poster describing fairies throughout time

Lord Leycester sticker and flower sticker on my green flowery dress

191

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

A headless female ghost, said to be a murder victim, was believed to wander the ruins of the medieval Bagot’s Castle. In 1934 archaeologists digging at the site were warned by an anxious local that their activities would provoke the ghost. #SpookySunday

Remains of a room in the ruins of Bagot's Castlle

1228

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Some Oliver Cromwell lore on the anniversary of his death in 1658: In 1642 Cromwell was reputed to have slid down one of the bell ropes in the church of All Saints, Burton Dassett. He had climbed the bell tower in order to view proceedings in the battle of Edgehill.

1101

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

#Halloween seems to have arrived early on social media so to get in a suitably macabre pre-Halloween spirit here’s my cemetery lantern.

Black lantern with an illuminated picture of a graveyard with crow in the foreground

0110

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

One Christmas Eve a couple were driving down a narrow lane nr Berkswell when the woman became aware of a coach and 6 horses behind them. Unnerved, her husband who was driving, sped up. The coach sped up too, so he pulled over to let the coach pass but the coach vanished.

Narrow lane near Berkswell, overhung by oak tree

1172

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

A stagecoach driver had a bet he could reach Leamington Spa from Ufton in record time. The coach went out of control, crashing at the foot of Ufton Hill. Both coach horses were killed but on stormy nights their ghosts have been seen dragging the vehicle up the hill #SpookySunday

1245

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Corn maiden from Napton-on-the-Hill in Marton Museum of Country Bygones

2195

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

As a child, folklore collector FW Bennett heard a witch predict that his grandfather would die in 5 days. When asked how she knew, she said that her dog told her by its howls. Bennett’s grandfather died at 9am on the 5th day. #WyrdWednesday

Carved dog sleeping by its master on a Tudor effigy tomb

1387

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Say "Hello" to James (named after M. R.). New addition to my Halloween decs collection. I know it's only August but in my defence, there were 3 aisles of Christmas stuff out in B&M already

Small seated skeleton holding a gravestone

1111

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

In the 1920s folklore collector FW Bennett described how an elderly woman he knew would, “for a fee”, put a spell on an individual by cutting their name into a hazelnut, then burn the nut while making “incomprehensible incantations.” #FolkloreSunday

14212

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

The Phantom Coach pub, Coventry, is named after a stagecoach which disappeared one foggy night. Searches were made but to no avail. Since that night, there have been reports of a coach travelling at high speed, passengers screaming & while the driver manically whips the horses.🧵 #SpookySunday

Front of The Phantom Coach inn. No cool pub sign just the name of the pub above the door

34310

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Postbox topper in Tredington celebrating the Tour of Britain women's cycle event which pedals thru Warwickshire this morning.

Postbox topper of a woman cyclist holding a Union Jack flag sitting besides a woolly bicycle.

0204

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Mildly alarming blue porcupine of the day 👇 At the Lord Leycester Hospital, home for for former service personne,l Warwick. The porcupine was the emblem of the Sidney family who held the hospital's patronage from the 17th C

Blue porcupine on front of half timbered building

14011

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

The first of this week’s phantom coaches is the spectral carriage drawn by 2 ghostly horses which was reputed to travel thru Hillborough. Sort of thing that would happen in a place described by Shakespeare as “Haunted Hillborough”.

Painting (or book illustration?) of Hillborough under a brooding moonlit sky

3255

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

A couple of the entries in local allotments' scarecrow competition 👇 #FolkArt

Traditional style scarecrow with wooden crows resting on his arm and a wooden crow staring at him

0162

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

A Tredington witch, Betty L., wasn’t invited to a neighbour’s party so she went in the form of a cat but was detected. After being jabbed with a pitchfork, the cat disappeared thru a keyhole. The next day Betty was found to have a wound in her right hand. #FolkloreSunday

1120

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

In the 1970s Meg Atkins (‘Haunted Warwickshire,’ 1981) was told by a woman who lived at the edge of Nun’s Wood that she regularly heard the sounds of a coach and horses on the nearby bridleway. The bridleway was now too narrow for vehicles but in the past had been a road. #SpookySunday

Path winding thru nun's Wood near the bridleway

1347

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

A mooch to the most excellent crystal shop, Feel Good Crystals, in Long Compton. Purchase may have been influenced by seeing a gargoyle ornament in garden nr where I live which gives off strong imp/bad elemental vibes. 😈😈😈

Packet of crystals labelled "Protection"

151

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Plants which grow upwards should be planted by the waxing moon. Plants like root crops which grow downwards should be planted by the waning moon. Moon planting lore found by collector C.S. Wharton to be still current in Brailes in the 1970s #WyrdWednesday

The skeletons of umbellifers at twilight with faintest ghost of a moon in the background

1245

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

In the 1920s and 30s there were reports a phantom cortege pulled by black plumed horses on Wootton Street in Bedworth. The phantom funeral procession was usually sighted on winter mornings and would vanish when it reached the end of the street. 🧵

1152

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

A phantom coach pulled by headless horses and driven by a headless coachman has been seen travelling down Harrow Hill leading into Long Compton. It is active in the winter or during periods of heavy rain. (Alternate versions only have the coachman as headless) #SpookySunday

1376

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

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

Book cover - 'Orishas, Goddesses and Voodoo Queens' by Lilith Dorsey

Book cover - 'The Little Book of Lunar Blessings' by Katalin Patnaik

140

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

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

Board displaying a variety of different styles of corn dolly ply bags made of woven corn

1307

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

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.

2102

The Folklore of Warwickshire @warksfolklore.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

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

2225