Ghost Tales by the Fireside - True Ghost Stories Podcast

Doctor John Lambe was one of the most notorious alleged sorcerers of seventeenth-century England — a physician, astrologer, crystal-gazer and supposed conjurer whose story began in Tardebigge, Worcestershire, before carrying him into the heart of Jacobean London.

In this episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside, we follow the extraordinary life of the man who became known as the Duke’s Devil. Lambe was accused of using witchcraft against Lord Windsor, invoking spirits, telling fortunes through a crystal glass and communicating with an entity named Benias. Stories claimed that he could reveal future husbands and wives, summon a mysterious boy dressed in green and even bring misfortune upon those who prosecuted him.

His reputation eventually brought him into the orbit of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, one of the most powerful and controversial men in England. To an increasingly suspicious public, Lambe became Buckingham’s private conjurer — a man supposedly protected by influence at the very highest levels of the royal court.

But behind the folklore lies a much darker documented history, including criminal proceedings, a royal pardon and growing public hatred that finally exploded on Friday 13 June 1628, when Lambe was pursued through the streets of London and brutally beaten by a mob.

Was John Lambe really an occult practitioner, an astrologer and folk healer, an elaborate confidence trickster, or a man whose reputation simply grew beyond his control?

This episode explores the surviving records, the supernatural stories and the remarkable way in which history, rumour and folklore became almost impossible to separate.

John Lambe’s story also takes us back to the landscape of Tardebigge in the English Midlands, where surviving records describe him as “John Lambe, late of Tardebigge”. At the time, the nearby settlement of Redditch still formed part of that ancient parish.

Throughout October, Ghost Tales by the Fireside is exploring the history, hauntings and folklore of Redditch and the surrounding area.

I’m leading the Redditch Ghost Walk every Monday to Thursday throughout October. Tickets are £8.50 per person, with proceeds going to Redditch Local History Museum.

Details and tickets:

ghosttales.co.uk/ghostwalk

My book, The Redditch Ghost Walk: History, Folklore and Haunted Places from the Old Town to the Kingfisher Centre, is available on Amazon:

https://amzn.eu/d/093Shix6

Music from the October season includes “Chasing Ghosts” by Kindred Spirit.

Ghost Tales by the Fireside explores real haunted places, historical ghost stories, folklore, strange encounters and paranormal cases from Britain and beyond.

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A listener from Blyth, Northumberland shares a disturbing series of unexplained events that began inside an ordinary family home.

It started with flickering lights and a CD player apparently turning itself down. Then, during the early hours of the morning, the witness woke to find a small boy standing silently beside the bed.

Days later, a young child visiting the house ran downstairs terrified, claiming that a little boy had grabbed her arm on the landing. She also remembered one strange detail — he was carrying a small polar bear toy.

Soon afterwards, a medium reportedly asked an unexpected question: “Who’s the little boy?”

In this short Listener Stories episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside, I look at the account alongside possible explanations, from electrical faults and sleep-related experiences to coincidence, childhood fear and something altogether harder to explain.

And then there is the strangest part of all.

After the witness simply asked whoever was in the house to leave them alone, the activity stopped.

They still live in the house today.

Music featured

Among The Graves — Clem Dallaway

ISRC: QZNWR2463170

The Dark One — Clem Dallaway

ISRC: QZWFS2504572

Ghost Tales by the Fireside

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In the summer of 1955, Frank Pell and his family moved into 32 Coxwell Road in Ladywood, Birmingham, then geographically part of Warwickshire.

Within weeks, their new home had become the centre of one of Birmingham’s strangest poltergeist cases.

The family reported unexplained knocking, whispering voices, strange smells and disturbing activity around the staircase. Then tragedy struck when their baby daughter died. Days later, their four-year-old son Alan began talking about a mysterious little white dog that nobody else could find.

A Catholic priest became involved. Journalists spent the night inside the house. Psychical researchers investigated. Birmingham Corporation examined the property.

And then another family moved in.

The haunting stopped.

In this episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside, I return to the original 1955 reports to separate the documented events from the folklore that grew around them, while exploring the history of Ladywood, Rotton Park and one of Birmingham’s strangest haunted-house stories.

Was 32 Coxwell Road genuinely haunted, or did tragedy, grief and the strange atmosphere of an old Birmingham house create a legend that outlived the building itself?

Ghost Tales by the Fireside

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Music Featured

Among The Graves — Clem Dallaway

ISRC: QZNWR2463170

The Dark One — Clem Dallaway

ISRC: QZWFS2504572

In 1956, the owner of Priors Court in Callow End told a valuation court that the house's haunted reputation was making it difficult to find staff.

But the stories went back much further.

Archive records from 1905–1907 preserve accounts of a luminous human figure moving through the house, a woman appearing beside a honeymooner's bed, the rustling of an unseen silk dress and a disturbing monk-like apparition accompanied by an overwhelming feeling of anger.

Then came an attempt to rid Priors Court of its haunting and an extraordinary story involving a false monk, murder and a woman searching for her daughter.

But how much of that story was true?

In this Dark Folklore episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside, we travel to Callow End in Worcestershire to investigate the strange history of Priors Court and the identity of its mysterious Grey Lady.

Music featured in this episode

Among The Graves — Clem Dallaway

ISRC: QZNWR2463170

The Dark One — Clem Dallaway

ISRC: QZWFS2504572

Ghost Tales by the Fireside

More ghost stories, folklore and haunted history:

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In the early hours of 6 July 1685, the quiet fields near Westonzoyland, Somerset became the scene of the bloody final battle of the Monmouth Rebellion.

James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, had challenged his uncle King James II for the English throne. His rebel army marched silently across Sedgemoor under cover of darkness, hoping to surprise the Royal forces. Instead, drainage ditches, confusion and a single alarm helped turn the attack into disaster.

Hundreds were killed. Survivors faced imprisonment, execution, transportation and the notorious Bloody Assizes under Judge Jeffreys.

But Sedgemoor has another history.

Phantom horsemen are said to cross the fields. Ghostly soldiers have been reported around King’s Sedgemoor Drain. Voices call through the darkness, while an old Somerset legend tells of a murdered runner and the White Lady who still follows the route of his final race.

In this episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside, we explore the history, archaeology, ghost stories and folklore surrounding the Battle of Sedgemoor — and ask what might still linger on the Somerset Levels.

Music featured in this episode

Among The Graves — Clem Dallaway

ISRC: QZNWR2463170

The Dark One — Clem Dallaway

ISRC: QZWFS2504572

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In the summer of 1873 or 1874, Charlotte Goodhall and her daughter May were travelling by pony carriage along a quiet road between Wilden and Ravensden in Bedfordshire when they saw a woman dressed entirely in black.

She wasn't walking.

She appeared to glide across the grass.

As their carriage passed within only a few feet of her, the woman turned towards them, revealing what Charlotte later described as a terrifying “fiendish” face. May looked back and saw the mysterious figure staring after them.

Seconds later, she had vanished.

Nearly twenty years later, the extraordinary encounter was investigated by Frank Podmore of the Society for Psychical Research and preserved among its studies of apparitions and collective hallucinations.

But there was another disturbing detail.

When Charlotte tried to discover who they had seen, she learned that the road was already said to be haunted.

Over the following century, the mysterious Woman in Black became part of Bedfordshire folklore, eventually acquiring another identity, the Witch of Wilden.

But was the witch story ever true?

In this episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside: Dark Folklore, we return to the original Victorian testimony and follow the strange evolution of one of Bedfordshire's most intriguing roadside ghost stories.

Ghost Tales by the Fireside

Ghost stories, haunted places, British folklore, dark history and unexplained encounters from across the UK.

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Blackness Castle has stood on the Firth of Forth for nearly 600 years. Known as “The Ship That Never Sailed,” this extraordinary Scottish castle has been a royal stronghold, artillery fortress and state prison.

In this episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside, we uncover the real history behind Blackness Castle — from its medieval origins and Cromwell’s devastating siege to the Covenanters and political prisoners confined within its walls.

We also explore the archaeology still hidden beneath the castle, the legend of a secret underground tunnel and the paranormal stories that followed — including unexplained noises in empty rooms and the woman who claimed she was chased from the Prison Tower by the ghost of an armoured knight.

Is Blackness Castle really haunted, or have nearly six centuries of history created one of Scotland’s most atmospheric ghost stories?

Ghost Tales by the Fireside

True ghost stories, haunted places, folklore and the history behind the legends.

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In early 1975, a signalman working at OA&GB Junction near Ashton Moss heard footsteps climbing the stairs to his signal box. He saw an unfamiliar man carrying a bag reach the top — but when he opened the door, nobody was there.

One week later, a mysterious figure appeared beside the railway. This time, two signalmen saw him from separate locations and approached from opposite directions. The man should have been trapped between them.

Instead, he vanished.

In this episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside, we explore the history of the Oldham, Ashton and Guide Bridge Railway and one of Greater Manchester's quietly disturbing railway ghost stories.

Was the mysterious visitor simply a trespasser who somehow escaped unnoticed, or had an old railwayman returned to a place he once knew?

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Battle Abbey stands on the site of one of the most famous battles in English history, where King Harold fell and William the Conqueror defeated the English army in 1066.

But the ghosts said to haunt Battle Abbey are not only the dead of the Battle of Hastings.

There are sightings of mysterious monks wandering the medieval ruins, a silent horseman crossing the battlefield, unexplained sounds from empty rooms and the unidentified Woman in Red. In 2002, a teacher and two pupils reportedly saw a monk they believed was a costumed interpreter — only to discover that nobody was dressed as a monk that day.

There is also the extraordinary curse supposedly placed upon Sir Anthony Browne after the Dissolution of the Monasteries: a warning that his family would perish by fire and water.

And after heavy rain, the battlefield itself can appear to bleed.

In this episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside, we explore the history, folklore, ghost stories and reported paranormal encounters surrounding Battle Abbey and the battlefield of 1066.

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Everyone knows the nursery rhyme. Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown, and Jill came tumbling after.

But in the Somerset village of Kilmersdon, an old local legend gives those familiar words a much darker meaning.

Here, Jack and Jill are remembered not as children, but as young lovers. The story tells of a secret pregnancy, a fatal falling stone, a child left behind and a local surname supposedly born from the tragedy.

And Kilmersdon has something else.

A real Jack and Jill Hill — and at the top of it, a genuine medieval well.

So could one of Britain's best-known nursery rhymes preserve the memory of a real Somerset tragedy?

In this episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside: Dark Folklore, we follow the old path through Kilmersdon and discover where history ends and one of Somerset's strangest legends begins.

Website: www.ghosttales.co.uk

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