Consistently Eccentric History
211 episodes - English - Latest episode: 1 day ago -The British Isles have thousands of years of history, so it's weird that all most people were taught at school was World War Two, how many wives Henry VIII had and that the Battle of Hastings took place in 1066 (always worth a try if you are trying to guess someones pin number).
If you've always wanted to learn about all the bits between these events, but only if it can be done in a random and eclectic manner why not try Consistently Eccentric History? A podcast where each week you can listen in while I tell one of my friends a story about a lesser known person or event in British history, the weirder and less believable the better. With an archive of over 150 episodes you will never again be short a weird historical fact when trying to impress others.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Episodes
Princess Caraboo - A Georgian tale of 'fake it 'til you make it'
April 26, 2024 16:00 - 1 hour - 78.9 MBThis week we are meeting Mary Willcocks, a young woman from a poor family who didn't want to accept her lot as a future housewife scraping an existence in a tiny rural village. Armed only with her own sense of self importance and a gift for making up stories, she left for London, determined to make her fortune. Free to reinvent her past she began presenting herself first as a globetrotter and then as a foreigner with a persona that drifted further and further from Britain as time passed. T...
John Evans - Claiming the wild west for the Welsh
April 19, 2024 16:00 - 1 hour - 89.4 MBThis week we are heading Stateside with a young Welshman who was determined to prove that the continent had been discovered by a Welsh Prince. Convinced that somewhere in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains was a Tribe of Welsh native Americans, John Smith headed out into the wilds with only the clothes on his back and less than two dollars in his pocket. Did he find the tribe? Did he even survive? And what legacy did his adventures leave. Join us to find out. Guest Host: Pamela Lotterle (w...
Arthur English - Retiring in Canada involves a lot of hanging around
April 05, 2024 16:00 - 1 hour - 75.3 MBDeciding what to do with your retirement is always difficult. But for Arthur English an advertisement from Canada provided him with a chance to fulfil a lifelong dream at the age of 48. That lifelong dream was to become an executioner. Donning a fake name and a sharp suit he became the go to guy for hanging prisoners throughout the 1910s and roaring 20s. But would even a former soldier be able to cope with such a stressful job into his old age? It was all likely to be fine, just so long...
Hertha Ayrton - Breaking into a male dominated industry is a gas
March 29, 2024 17:00 - 54 minutes - 62.4 MBThis week we are discussing a woman who broke multiple glass ceilings in the world of Victorian Science. The daughter of a Jewish Watchmaker, Phoebe Marks couldn't have expected to climb too far socially, however her intelligence, tenacity (and the fact that her aunts just so happened to run a school) allowed her to pursue her love of science and mathematics all the way to Cambridge university. An inventor, a suffragette, and a woman responsible for saving countless thousands of lives on t...
Henry Cavendish - Who needs a social life when you have access to acid?
March 15, 2024 17:00 - 1 hour - 81.4 MBScience! This week we are discussing the life and times of one of the most influential scientists of the Georgian era. Henry Cavendish was a man who liked playing with acid much more than spending time with people, and was fortunately rich enough to dedicate his entire life to scientific discovery. Pausing only for his weekly dinner with the Royal Society Henry spent over half a decade dedicating himself to scientific discovery, and was so prolific in his work that he often forgot to write t...
Sir George Somers - (or) You don't have to let a shipwreck get you down.
March 08, 2024 17:00 - 1 hour - 84.3 MBAll aboard! This week we are going to be sailing with one of the lesser known of Queen Elizabeth's sea dogs. Sir George Somers, a boyhood friend of Sir Walter Raleigh, was a man with almost obscene amounts of luck. Everything he tried his hand at seemed to go well and by his 50s he was a rich and successful landowner, MP and Mayor. However when his old buddy Walter needed someone to lead a fleet to save the Jamestown colony, George answered the call, taking to the seas one last time... .....
John Lethbridge - Barrels of laughs (and profit) under the seas
March 01, 2024 17:00 - 49 minutes - 56.3 MBNo more cats! This week we are discussing an inventor/adventurer from Devon whose large family meant he had to get experimental to find ways of feeding them. Originally a wool trader, and probably aware of just how many ships were sinking as global trade increased, John Lethbridge realised that the sea floor was now awash with free money. If only there was a way of getting to it. With a simple plan and more bravery that engineering know how John set out to begin harvesting the ocean floors ...
Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office - The only real Great Office of State in the UK
February 23, 2024 17:00 - 1 hour - 71.9 MB150 Episodes of Consistently Eccentric History! After nearly four years of talking about the weirder bits of history I have finally relented and agreed to give Emma a full episode of nothing but cats cats cats. Specifically a motley collection of eight moggys who have held the prestigious role of Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office over the past nearly 100 years. It is a story full of scandal which is at times equal parts tragedy and farce. We hope you enjoy, and here's to the next 150! Gu...
The Calendar Act of 1750 - Do you want to be accurate, or do you want to be English?
February 16, 2024 17:00 - 1 hour - 87.8 MBThis week we are looking at how the English were out of sync with the rest of Europe for nearly 200 years because of a refusal to accept that a pope might be right about something. The history of identifying where in the yearly cycle you are is an interesting one and, for the most part, one that has been defined by a move to ever greater accuracy over the centuries. That was until a minor adjustment was suggested by the Vatican, at which point the Anglican Bishops decided that being approxim...
Elizabeth of York - It is hard to become a Queen when your uncle is a Dick
February 09, 2024 17:00 - 44 minutes - 51.2 MBThis week we are talking about a princess born in the midst of a civil war and whose future plans had to change on an almost yearly basis. Despite the constant uncertainty, the potential marriages to foreign princes and the deaths of most of her family members, Elizabeth of York managed to remain in England and eventually managed to help end the war with the power of love.... .... well, arranged marriage at least. Guest Host: Evie Heathcote Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mo...
Edward 'Ned' Low - I fancy taking my grief out on sailors
February 02, 2024 17:00 - 1 hour - 80.9 MBThis week we are talking about a man who dealt with his grief in a particularly extreme manner. Former petty London Criminal Edward Low was a man of extremes, which is why he responded to the untimely death of his wife by becoming a pirate and engaging on a three year campaign of death and destruction. Capable of extreme cruelty which he would justify with a very idiosyncratic moral code Ned Low provided the exclamation mark to the end of the golden age of Piracy and has gone down in histo...
Jonathan Martin - Absolutely mad about worshipping God in the right way
January 26, 2024 17:00 - 1 hour - 98.7 MBWe are over in the North East of England today to meet a radical preacher and sometime asylum inhabitant, Jonathan Martin. A man who was never backwards in coming forwards about his views on the state of the Christian Church. Born into a nomadic family, Jonathan consoled himself by convincing himself that his life would be in service of a greater purpose. While this allowed him to cope with extreme situations it also lead to him developing a very singular moral compass which at times brough...
Isabella and Catherine of Valois - because every childhood should include marrying the King of England
January 20, 2024 09:20 - 47 minutes - 54.1 MBA day late but with double the content, this week we are discussing two sisters who married the King of England (luckily it was not the same king each time, or we might have needed a Jerry Springer style intervention) in order to shore up the position of their father Charles, the mad king of France. However despite both Isabella and Catherine doing the dutiful thing it was a later decision by Catherine to marry a simple Welsh Knight that would actually have the most long reaching impact on ...
Arthur Owens - I'm a narcissist and I'll spy if I want to
January 12, 2024 17:00 - 1 hour - 86.9 MBThis week we are delving into the murky world of espionage during the interwar years, with a tale about a man who took advantage of the fact that the emerging intelligence services were not actually sure how to run a spy network effectively. Arthur Owens, a Welshman with a chip on his shoulder, was a man who wanted money and was not in the least bit concerned about the amount of treason he might need to commit to get it. Flip flopping wildly between the British and the Nazi's he somehow man...
Robert Curthose - On a crusade to prove his claim to the English crown wasn't shit
January 05, 2024 17:00 - 1 hour - 81.4 MBFor our first episode of 2024 we are talking about a son of William the Conqueror who couldn't help but to sabotage his own chances of inheriting all the lands his father had fought for Robert Curthose, the oldest son and heir to William, was a young man with a chip on his shoulder. This was partly due to his derogatory nickname, but also due to the fact that his father made it clear that he wasn't willing to give him any responsibilities. Unfortunately it turned out that his father was rig...
The first official attempt to swim the Atlantic Ocean - a bonus conversation with Jack
December 29, 2023 18:40 - 27 minutes - 31.7 MBNo official episode this week as we are busy celebrating the holidays. However for those of you who love to know what goes on behind the scenes, please enjoy this bonus conversation with Jack when we stumble upon the story of the first official transatlantic swim attempt. See you for more official new episodes in 2024. Guest Host: Jack Heathcote Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A quick history of Christmas in England - of course it doesn't begin with the birth of Jesus, that would be too obvious
December 22, 2023 17:00 - 50 minutes - 57.2 MBIt is a very Merry Christmas from all at Consistently Eccentric, as this week we talk about how the festive season has been celebrated in Britain over the past 10,000 or so years. Beginning in the Neolithic, join us for a whistle stop tour of how a pagan celebration of renewal developed into the unstoppable juggernaut of presents and overeating that we enjoy today. Just watch out for the hot cockles! Guest Host: Evie Heathcote Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Cedric Allingham - (or) a hundred miles north of Dundee, I once stumbled upon ET
December 08, 2023 16:40 - 1 hour - 73.7 MBThis episode we are venturing into outer space to discuss a very British UFO encounter in 1950s Scotland. While our American cousins had been seeing aliens regularly for almost a decade, the British had been much less willing to disclose any extraterrestrial encounters. That was until pulp fiction writer and amateur astronomer Cedric Allingham spotted a saucer while walking on the Scottish coast. Cedric wrote a book on his experience of meeting and trying (with little success) to chat to ...
Kowloon Walled City - For tea? We will create anarchy!
December 01, 2023 17:00 - 1 hour - 74.5 MBThis week we are heading to the other side of the world for a story of how the British desire for tea accidentally led to the creation of a truly unique city. After forcing China to give up Hong Kong for the grave offence of having tried to stop traders from the East India Company smuggling opium into the country a plan to extend the newly British territory led to a small area in Kowloon being essentially outside of the control of either government. Which is a situation that would never lea...
Catherine of Braganza - If I give you tea will you stop accusing me of treason?
November 24, 2023 17:00 - 42 minutes - 49 MBThis week we are discussing one of the lesser known Queen consorts of England, Catherine of Braganza. Promoted to princess status at the age of 2 thanks to her dad's efforts to kick the Spanish out of Portugal, little Catherine was destined to be Queen of France. But plans change and new alliances suddenly left Catherine with the prospect of having to sail across the channel to a wet little island to become the new wife of Charles II... which I am sure was just as good. Guest Host: Evie He...
The London Beer Flood - (or) acts of God only apply if you are poor
November 17, 2023 17:00 - 59 minutes - 67.5 MBThis week we are talking about beer, so naturally I have a guest host on board who hates the stuff. The development of porter in Georgian Britain led to a boom time for brewers across the country including the Meux family, who were able to become fabulously wealthy supplying the people of London with the means to forget their troubles. Unfortunately the chasing of profit above all else does not sit particularly well with good health and safety practices. Join us as we follow three generati...
The Patron Saints of the British Isles - (or) How Wales did it right
November 10, 2023 18:34 - 1 hour - 86.8 MBThis week we discussed what it takes to become a saint, and it was so exciting that I did it twice. That is to say that I thought I had recorded the episode with Emma, but it turns out the recording had cut out after 15 minutes, so we had to re-record with Ollie stepping into the breach. And what a story it is! covering over 500 years and thousands of miles we follow the four men (possibly 5) who were destined to be remembered evermore in the British Isles as the patron saints of each count...
The Loch Line - Sailing against the winds of change (and all reason)
November 03, 2023 22:39 - 52 minutes - 60.4 MBThis week we are going back to a story we told before releasing our first episode back in August of 2020. The Loch Line was a shipping company set up by two idealistic Scotsmen who wanted to recreate the golden age of sail ships in the grime of Victorian Britain. But while their cause was noble, their business sense (and ability to choose competent captains) left much to be desired. It is less a case of 'will they succeed' and more 'will anyone survive?' Guest Host: Emma Heathcote Hosted ...
The Halifax Gibbet - Cutting your losses in Yorkshire in a very literal sense
October 27, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour - 85.9 MBThis evening we invite you to join us for a tale of blood and death as we discuss one of the more unique execution methods ever used in England. A head chopping machine with a lovely view of the nearby brook, the Halifax gibbet was essentially a business sponsored initiative to reduce the amount of cloth theft in the local area. An obscenely over the top (though arguably very successful) method of ensuring profits were protected, the gibbet was infamous throughout the land for over 100 year...
Sir Patrick Moore - (or) Lie me to the moon
October 20, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour - 81.3 MBThis week we are discussing a man who could be described as the perfect example of a truly British eccentric. Sir Patrick Moore's enthusiasm for astronomy was a passion so intense that he was able to create a 50 year television institution based on the sheer force of his personality alone. A man who believed that the truth should never get in the way of a good story, he was more than happy to continually update his own biography in order to increase his status as a national treasure. So ...
Sir Gilbert Heathcote - Tangential family history from London, New York and Derbyshire
October 13, 2023 16:00 - 43 minutes - 50.1 MBWE'RE BACK! ... and ready to get rolling with the new series of episodes by introducing Evie to the concept of family history via the story of a fellow Heathcote made good. Hailing from the same area of Derbyshire as the forefathers of Consistently Eccentric, Gilbert Heathcote was the eldest of a set of very industrious brothers who raised the bar for the concept of social mobility. To the point that he was even able to claim ownership of a swan or two. We follow his sometimes rocky rise f...
Claude Grahame-White - Why build one plane when you can build dozens?
May 26, 2023 21:33 - 57 minutes - 65.8 MBThis week we are trying to satisfy Emma's need for transport based history by talking about Claude Grahame-White, an early aviation engineer who loved to design planes, oh so many planes. Convinced that planes were the key to future wars, Claude launched a one man crusade (sponsored by the Daily Mail) to ensure that the British would be the premier European force when it came to air power. Despite lacking both the creativity of the French and the discipline of the Germans. What resulted wa...
The colony of New Caladonia (Darien Part 2) - Wherein things start badly and it gets worse from there
May 05, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour - 91.3 MBIn the second part of our discussion of the Darien scheme we cover the voyage to South America and the experiences of the would-be settlers once they arrived. This is a tale of incompetence and bad luck conspiring together to create a the perfect conditions for misery. Even the endless naive optimism of William Paterson is no match for the sheer amount of reality that the expeditions experienced over the course of two harrowing years that almost bankrupted a country and set Scotland on the...
William Paterson (Darien Part 1) - A man with a scheme
April 29, 2023 08:32 - 55 minutes - 63.9 MBThis week we have a story so big that we will not be able to get through it all in one sitting. The tale of William Paterson and his dream of setting up a trading colony on the isthmus of Darien. He was not bothered by the fact that he had never visited the place. By the fact that he could not get anyone to invest outside of Scotland. By the open hostility of the English East India Company and the lack of support from the King... William knew that so long as he was in charge everything wou...
Edward Wightman - Burning with a passion for the Lord
April 14, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour - 80.9 MBThis week we are dabbling in the world of organised religion to discuss a dissenting Christian Lay-preacher who is remembered to history for a singularly grizzly reason. Starting out as a middle-class draper with all the advantages of a private education and tonnes of family connections it seemed like Edward Wightman would be living life on easy street (or as easy as it could be in Elizabethan England). Unfortunately his education turned out to be a bit more liberal than his parents might ...
The Invasion of Fishguard - Excusez-moi, où est Cardiff ?
March 31, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour - 78.8 MBMany English people erroneously think that the last invasion of mainland Britain took place in 1066. While this was indeed the last successful invasion it was not the last time a military leader managed to get boots on the ground. That honour goes to William Tate, an Irish-American working on behalf of the French to invade England in order to support republicanism in Ireland at the end of the 18th century. This week we follow his ill-fated mission, trying to decide if he was merely overly ...
John O Gaunt - With family like this, who needs enemies?
March 18, 2023 14:39 - 51 minutes - 59.5 MBJohn O Gaunt was a man who was loyal to a fault. As the third son of King Edward III he spent most of his life dutifully doing whatever his father, his brother or even his Nephew (King Richard II) wanted him to do. Naturally this led to him being hated by the people of England and always seeming to be quite unhappy. Eventually he decided that if he would never be king of England he may as well try to be king of somewhere, that somewhere being Castile in modern day Spain. Join us this we...
Peter Wildeblood - I'm coming out (due to a police investigation), I want the world to know.
March 03, 2023 17:00 - 1 hour - 71.6 MBWe are delving into the world of civil rights this week to meet a man who inadvertently contributed to the single most important moment in Gay rights history. Peter Wildeblood was a man happy to keep his public and private lives irreconcilably separate. A successful journalist with many friends he had no reason to think that the regressive anti homosexuality laws still on the statute books would ever be used against him. That was until the threat of communism in America led to a crackdown o...
Jack Whicher - On the Road to catching a murderer
February 17, 2023 17:00 - 1 hour - 79.3 MBThis week we are looking into the origins of the Great British detective by following one of the pioneers of the new form of policing through his groundbreaking career. Johnathan 'Jack' Whicher was considered the gold standard for investigating in the early Victorian period. However at a time when a man's home was his castle, how far was Whicher willing to go to get his man.* With special guest appearance from Richard Tanner! (See episode 113 for details) Guest Host: Emma Heathcote *Gende...
Suffragettes - Or, why you will be able to vote in 11 years
February 03, 2023 17:00 - 57 minutes - 65.8 MBThis week Evie is learning all about how women gained the right to vote in the UK (as well as how they lost the right in the first place). It is a tale of steadily increasing tension with an inspiring cast of characters and a surprise twist-ending that no one could have predicted. With special guest appearances from Winston Churchill and the Daily Mail (neither of whom come off well). Deeds Not Words! Guest Host: Evie Heathcote Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Black Dogs of Britain - What is it with the Devil and bridges?
January 20, 2023 17:00 - 1 hour - 73 MBThis week we are entering the world of British Folklore to look at some of the many accounts of supernatural Black Dogs that have troubled good God-fearing people since at least the middle of the 14th Century. So prepare for tales of blood, flame, mind-bending terror and a lord of darkness seemingly obsessed with building civic infrastructure. Guest Host: Ollie Green Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
George Wombwell - A man who saw the natural world purely in terms of profit margins
January 06, 2023 17:00 - 1 hour - 75.2 MBTo start the new year we are dipping a toe into the world of the late-Georgian/ early-Victorian world of the travelling menagerie. Caravans of cages that offered the people of Britain their only opportunity to see animals from different continents. Possibly the most successful of these pre-zoo proprietors was George Wombwell, a man who traded in a shoe making business in Soho to start his own travelling menagerie in 1810. But did 40 years of travelling in close quarters with some of the m...
Colonel Thomas Blood - All I want for Christmas is an extensive range of Irish estates
December 23, 2022 17:00 - 1 hour - 96 MBFor a special extra-long Christmas episode come with us into the swashbuckling world of Colonel Thomas Blood. A protestant Irish landowner who was determined to keep alive his family legacy. Claiming things he hadn't technically been entitled to by cosying up to whoever was in power at the time. But when the powers that be took away his lands and titles Thomas decided that he would just cut out the middleman, arrange a quick coup and make himself ruler of a country (preferably Ireland, but ...
John Snow - The smell of that poo might knock you out, or will it?
December 16, 2022 17:00 - 43 minutes - 50.2 MBThis week we are discussing the most deadly disease of the 1800s and the self-made doctor from the poorest part of York who set out to defeat it. John Snow may have been born into filthy conditions but he grew up to be a poster boy for clean living. A vegetarian teetotaller who regularly attended church, he seemed like the kind of guy you would listen to when he suggested that contaminated water might be the cause of Cholera... You know, as long as posh London doctors wouldn't discriminate...
Isabella Bird - It is a rocky road to freedom when you are a Victorian woman
December 09, 2022 17:00 - 1 hour - 74.1 MBIt's time to book passage on a steamship (of questionable reliability) this week, as we follow in the wake of Isabella Bird, a Victorian travel writer for whom staying at home was literally bad for her health. Born into a rich family Isabella would almost certainly have lived as a respectable, if boring, upper-class Victorian housewife, but luckily for her she developed a spinal tumour and was prescribed travel by her doctors as part of her recovery. This sparked a lifelong love of going p...
Emperor Norton - Who says America should be a republic?
December 02, 2022 23:04 - 1 hour - 74.3 MBThis week we are learning all about the relative nature of mental illness with Joshua Norton. A man born in Kent who decided to promote himself to Emperor of the USA after an unfortunate incident with Peruvian Rice. Join us as we travel from the UK to South Africa and beyond before settling in San Francisco to look at how one of the most liberal cities in America was happy to accept the rule of an Emperor from England for over 20 glorious years. Featuring Freemasons, false arrest and a dog ...
The Spanish Armada - Let's settle our religious differences... with full scale Naval warfare!
November 25, 2022 17:00 - 52 minutes - 60.5 MBThis week we discuss what happens when former siblings-in-law have a disagreement, and access to hundreds of warships. Following the death of Queen Mary, her former husband, King Philip of Spain, was determined to continue the enforcing of Catholicism in England by moving on to Mary's half-sister (and new Queen) Elizabeth. When she rebuffed his advances, he did not take it well. Leading to a decades long spat that eventually escalated to Philip deciding that his only option was to plan an ...
Borley Rectory - A ghost story full of Bull
November 18, 2022 17:00 - 1 hour - 77.7 MBWe are venturing into Essex this week to explore the tale of the most haunted house in England! Borley Rectory may have only been build in the mid Victorian era but it's holy custodians were convinced that it was a hotbed of paranormal activities. Join us as we discover ghostly nuns, spectres in dressing gowns and all manner of poltergeist shenanigans over the course of nearly a century. Featuring special guest star, Harry Price! Guest Host: Emma Heathcote Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/...
Ulric Cross - How to be overqualified, no matter the job
November 11, 2022 17:00 - 1 hour - 74.8 MBWe are heading off to warmer climes this week. To the island of Trinidad, in order to meet Ulric Cross, a man who can claim to have both helped to preserve and dismantle the British Empire. After seeking adventure as part of the RAF in WWII, Ulric yearned to reinvent himself as a lawyer. Struggling for opportunities in England he accepted an invite to head over to West Africa to help in the process of disentangling brand new nation states from their colonial pasts... Which was sure to be ...
A quick tour of Henry VIII's wives - Quantity is never a replacement for quality
November 04, 2022 17:00 - 39 minutes - 44.9 MBWe are going a bit more in depth than the rhyme everyone knows this week to give Evie a primer on the love life of our most corpulent King. Six wives in less than six decades on the planet, Henry was a marrying machine. But were any of the marriages good? And more importantly why does Evie insist that he once married a woman called Amber Lynn? Guest Host: Evie Heathcote Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The original Murder on a Train - You can't escape Tanner and Clarke!
October 28, 2022 16:00 - 1 hour - 72.2 MBThomas Briggs was an old banker who will go down in history as the first person who was murdered on a train in the UK in 1864. But who killed him? Why did they do it? And what pair of amazing Met Detectives could be relied upon to crack the case whatever it took? Tune in this week to find out the answers to all of these questions and more. Guest Host: Emma Heathcote Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A second helping of alphabet themed mini-stories (M-Y)
October 14, 2022 16:00 - 1 hour - 85.5 MBFollowing on from last week we complete the alphabet (mostly) with tales including the snobbiest man England has ever produced, a prolific poisoner and yet another elderly fraudster! *Warning - There is discussion of suicide in this episode* Guest Host: Ollie Green Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Eleventy First Alphabetical extravaganza! (A-L)
October 07, 2022 16:00 - 1 hour - 80.6 MBOver the next few weeks Consistently Eccentric HQ is moving, so to tide you over we are doing a collection of mini stories about eccentrics throughout history in a two part special. 24 stories in alphabetical order (I couldn't find a good one for X or for Z at short notice) So settle in for 12 stories including: An avid fan of funerals, a terrible murderer, an elderly fraudster and an attempted assassination... of a Queen! Normal service will be resumed with episode 113 on October 21st. G...
The Peasants Revolt - Because there is never a wrong time to teach a child to fight the power
September 30, 2022 16:00 - 56 minutes - 65 MBWe are taking a trip back to the 1300's and the aftermath of the plague this week, to talk about how the decimation of the English population impacted on the working classes. While you would expect that there being few workers for many jobs would push up wages, the King and his nobles decided that they didn't want to pay more so they instead introduced laws to force the working class to accept a real terms cut in living standards (Imagine a government trying to do similar today?!) I am sur...
Mr Cratwell and Stump-leg - willing to execute even the weirdest of commands
September 23, 2022 16:00 - 59 minutes - 68.3 MBThis week I am joined by Ang and Mel from 'Dissecting Medical History' to talk about a pair of executioners working in London at the time of Henry VIII. Needless to say they were never short of work, or variety, from a monarch who sent tens of thousands of people to their deaths during his 36 year reign. What kind of impact does a lifetime of torturing and killing have on the human mind? Well, needless to say that neither man died peacefully in their bed. Guest Hosts: Ang and Mel Hosted...