Castle Stories

The witch hurtling through the air on her broomstick is a familiar image around this time of year. So too is the image of the medieval period as full of angry and ignorant peasants roaming around looking for innocent people to accuse of witchcraft (she turned me into a newt!) and burning them at the stake. But is the reputation of the medieval period as the “Burning Times” when 9 million women went to the stake really justified? And just what did medieval people really believe about witches and witchcraft anyway? Find out in this week’s episode of Castle Stories as Dave dusts off his grimoire and looks at the medieval witch.

In this weeks episode of Castle Stories, David is taking a look at one of the most enduring, and weirdest, tales of Old Newcastle - the legend of the Flying Donkey. Join us and find out about rope dancers, bull baiting, cock fighting, flying men and of course, a plummeting donkey. Sorry, I mean flying donkey.

The standard view of the medieval period is that it was a time when hygiene had been abandoned. Abandoning fancy Roman ideas like bathing, the average medieval person never washed and was consequently covered in vile filth, while people threw their waste into the streets and let it fester and breed rats and plague. This unfortunate and stinky image though isn’t the whole truth. Find our more in this week’s podcast

It’s a popular idea that everyone in the middle ages was constantly swilling beer and mead in a desperate attempt to escape the filthy state of the water. In this week’s episode of Castle Stories, George will be peering through his beer goggles at the world of booze in medieval Newcastle, with an overview of the kinds of alcoholic drinks that were available as well as how they were made and what they would have tasted like! So if you like a little tipple, or if you don’t, join us on this dive into the ale vat.

Everyone knows that until “Columbus sailed the ocean blue” in 1492, every medieval sailor worth their salt thought that the Earth was flat and that sailing too far in any direction would lead to you plummeting over the edge. But like a great many things everyone knows, there may not be much truth behind the myth of medieval flat earthers. So what did medieval people believe about the Earth and its shape? And where did the idea of these medieval flat earth believers come from in the first place?

The stories of King Arthur are among the best-known literary works from medieval times, and have inspired countless novels, poems, TV shows and films over the years. Was there a real King Arthur who ruled England, Britain or anywhere else? And if there wasn’t why did stories about Arthur spread all over Europe in medieval times and persist into the modern day? In this episode we’ll give you a concise intro to the history and legends behind Camelot, Excalibur and Arthur.

Dragons are mythical creatures of fantasy, and although many people associate them with the world of knights and castles, there never were any real dragons in the Middle Ages, right? Well, you might be interested to learn about the dragon brought to Durham from Ethiopia in the 16th century, or the “immense fiery dragons seen flying through the air” over Northumbria in 793CE. To medieval people, dragons were far from mythical, even if they did populate the legends of knights and saints. They were real animals whose appearance in the skies presaged disaster! This week, we take a look at medieval dragons…

The chivalrous and honourable knight is a familiar figure from the medieval period, but just how much reality is there behind the romantic image of the knight in shining armour, fighting for king, country and the love of a lady? Find out as this week’s episode of Castle Stories explores the myths and reality of the medieval code of chivalry. It’s about much more than holding doors open.

On looking at the full suits of armour worn by medieval knights, many modern people wonder how on earth they managed to fight while wearing all that steel. Images of knights falling into the mud and being weighed down by their armour, or having to be winched onto their horses given the massive weight of their protective gear. But was the real medieval knight a helpless tortoise if they fell over? This week’s episode looks at myths surrounding knights and their armour.

In this week’s episode, we’ve invited a guest, Rosie Bristow, to tell us all about everything flaxen. Along with wool, flax was a mainstay fabric in medieval England, and the trade in it plugged Newcastle into extensive trade routes across Europe. We’ll chat about how flax was processed and used in medieval times, and about Rosie’s project to bring back small scale flax processing in the UK. You can find links below to some of the projects we talk about!

Flaxland

Slow Factory

Fiber Shed

and Rosie’s Project,

Straw Into Gold