"It’s less Romeo and Juliet and more Sweeney Todd meets a Greek tragedy."

Welcome to the debut of WyrdLore, our bonus series dedicated to the strange tales, local legends, and folklore that are just too "Wyrd" for the main show.

In this first outing, Craig digs into a 17th-century "romance" from Robert Hunt’s Popular Romances of the West of England. But don't expect any Valentine’s cards—this is the story of a long-lost son returning to Cornwall from the East Indies with a bag of gold and a very bad idea.

Instead of announcing his return, he decides to play a 1618 version of Undercover Boss on his own parents. What follows is a brutal tale of greed, a "convenient scar," and a murder that allegedly left a patch of ground at Boholland Farm cursed and blighted for centuries.

In this WyrdLore session:

The Fatal Prank: Why testing your parents' greed with a pile of gold is a recipe for disaster.

The Blighted Earth: The legend of the cursed patch of ground where nothing has grown for 400 years.

Fact or Theatre?: We look at the 1618 pamphlet that inspired stage plays and local superstitions alike.

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Written by Craig Brooks and hosted by Craig Brooks and Andy Stevens

Edited by Craig Brooks

Main theme: NRA-LAB Intro

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most people visit the rolling Salisbury Plain to find peace in the Wiltshire landscape, but in 1662, one manor house became a battlefield for a year of physical warfare. In this episode, the Wyrdos trace a phantom beat from a jail cell in Gloucester to a bedroom in North Tidworth, where an invisible drummer turned a family’s life into a living nightmare.

We begin with John Mompesson, a local magistrate who thought he was simply doing his duty by confiscating a drum from a vagrant with a forged permit. He had no idea he was inviting a "demon" across his threshold. From iron talons scratching under floorboards to the "weird hounds" sitting in petrified silence while beds were hoisted toward the ceiling, we investigate how this single drumbeat convinced the greatest scientific minds of the 17th century that spirits were very, very real.

Finally, we look at the legacy of the men who tried to unmask the mystery. From the 17th-century "ghost tourists" who swamped the village to the investigative accounts of Joseph Glanvill and the legendary Harry Price, we explore how a 300-year-old case established the blueprint for every "poltergeist" trope in modern cinema—long before the movies even existed.

In this episode:

• The Cursed Permit: The true story of William Drury and the forgery that sparked a year-long siege on the Mompesson household.
• Ghost Tourism 1.0: How the village of North Tidworth became a viral sensation in 1662, with strangers taking over children's beds just to catch a glimpse of the weirdness.
• The Founding Father: Craig and Andy discuss why this case is the "original" poltergeist story and how it hits every trope from physical levitation to domestic terror.
• The Talking Mongoose: A look at the investigators, from Glanvill’s Saducismus Triumphatus to Harry Price’s disparaging takes on "talking mongooses" and the "Age of Enlightenment."
• It turns out the drumming never really stopped—it just became the blueprint for every bump in the night that followed.

Stay Wyrd!

Help keep the show alive:buymeacoffee.com/wyrdwessex

www.wyrdwessex.co.uk

Buy our merch here

Written by Craig Brooks and hosted by Craig Brooks and Andy Stevens

Edited by Craig Brooks

Intro music by Antipodean Writer: Full of Soul - Neon Waves Extended - Remix

Outro music by Colt Fingaz: Ding Ding Dong

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most people visit the ancient monuments of Wiltshire to wonder at the past, but the Avebury landscape is far from a stagnant museum—it is a living conversation. In this episode, the Wyrdos trace that conversation from the Neolithic core of Silbury Hill to a modern architectural marvel.

We begin at the base of Silbury Hill, investigating the "Hollow Hill" and the secrets revealed by its recent collapse. From there, we head into the dark of West Kennet Longbarrow with a drum and a bull-roarer to test the "God Frequency"—a 110 Hz resonance that reportedly switches off the logical brain—and the "Fear Frequency" that makes 5,000-year-old walls appear to ripple like water.

Finally, we sit down with Tim Daw, the farmer and mastermind behind the Long Barrow at All Cannings. As the creator of the first structure of its kind to be built in Britain for millennia, Tim explains the mud-soaked reality of hand-carving sarsen stones and the deep-seated human need to stay close to our ancestors in the 21st century.

In this episode:

• The Hollow Hill: The true story of the Silbury Hill collapse and the secrets found in its gravel core.
• The 110 Hz Experiment: Craig and Andy take to the dark to see if the architecture of the dead can truly "hack" the human brain.
• The Modern Architect: Tim Daw on the solstice alignments and modern planning permissions required for an ancient tradition.
• Merlin’s “Little Brother”: Why the Marlborough Mound is finally being restored to its Neolithic glory after 4,500 years.

It turns out the landscape isn’t just talking to us—it’s waiting for us to join in.

Visit the site: To learn more about Tim Daw’s modern barrow, visit: http://www.thelongbarrow.com

Stay Wyrd!

Help keep the show alive:buymeacoffee.com/wyrdwessex

www.wyrdwessex.co.uk

Buy our merch here

Written by Craig Brooks and hosted by Craig Brooks and Andy Stevens

Edited by Craig Brooks

Intro music by Antipodean Writer: Full of Soul - Neon Waves Extended - Remix

Outro music by Colt Fingaz: Ding Ding Dong

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.