Ghost Tales by the Fireside - True Ghost Stories Podcast

On Halloween night in 2009, a woman dressed as the Corpse Bride entered a costume competition at the Foxlydiate Arms in Redditch. The organiser remembered speaking to her. Some of the people watching remembered seeing her too. Others insisted there had been nobody there at all.

Then the guest list was checked.

The strange Halloween encounter is only one part of the Foxlydiate story. Long before the pub was built, travellers were already telling stories about a ghostly vehicle heard racing through the darkness. It became known as the Flying Hearse, and according to an old warning, anyone who actually saw it would be dead within a year.

In this episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside, we explore the haunted history and folklore of Foxlydiate, including the Corpse Bride, the Flying Hearse, the White Lady, the mysterious figure known as Tom, and the real-life murder of Hannah Middleton in 1902.

Which parts are history? Which are folklore? And what really happened inside the Foxlydiate Arms on Halloween night?

Music used

“Chasing Ghosts” – Kindred Spirit

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/6n58iB0o66y2o062ypvuRy?si=kIc5luYtRQSG68LecMUmEA

Explore more haunted Redditch

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

Redditch Ghost Walk information and tickets:

ghosttales.co.uk/ghostwalk

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In 1995, a family living in Headless Cross, Redditch, Worcestershire, began seeing a very tall man inside their home.

He was dressed completely in black, appeared to wear a wide-brimmed hat and had large buckles on his shoes that seemed to catch the light.

At first, the sightings were brief. Then the activity became more intense.

Banging and crashing began inside the house, and one night the man of the house went downstairs believing somebody had broken in. The moment he entered the large living room, the noise stopped.

At the far end of the room, beside the kitchen door, a figure was standing there.

The family left the house that night.

The following morning they asked a local vicar for help.

What happened when he returned to bless the house became one of the strangest parts of the entire Headless Cross haunting.

In this episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside, I investigate the Tall Man of Headless Cross and look at the history of this part of Redditch, including the ancient routes that once crossed the area.

There is also a much older ghost story connected with the road from Headless Cross towards Tardebigge.

Redditch-born writer Sir James Yoxall remembered hearing the legend during his nineteenth-century childhood. Travellers were said to hear the sound of wheels, a cracking whip, horses and rattling harness moving through the darkness.

Yet when they looked towards the sound, nothing was there.

It became known as The Flying Hearse.

There is no evidence connecting the Flying Hearse with the Tall Man. They are separate stories, generations apart, but both form part of the strange folklore surrounding this corner of Redditch.

A haunted house, an unidentified figure, a terrified family and an old Worcestershire road with its own ghost story.

This is The Tall Man of Headless Cross.

https://www.ghosttales.co.uk

The Redditch Ghost Walk

Tickets and information:

https://ghosttales.co.uk/ghostwalk

The Redditch Ghost Walk Book

The Redditch Ghost Walk: History, Folklore and Haunted Places from the Old Town to the Kingfisher Centre

Available on Amazon:

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

Music Used

Among The Graves — Clem Dallaway

ISRC: QZNWR2463170

https://open.spotify.com/track/4hvMSzbWhO5U7cB1SONmAU?si=8gbSnYFTQXyD_cUnGYmUew

The Dark One — Clem Dallaway

ISRC: QZWFS2504572

https://open.spotify.com/track/58IwqgxMwiwedfWHF8wtyl?si=Bwv7d1RcQJKLDegEp2gl-g

Chasing Ghosts — Kindred Spirit

https://open.spotify.com/track/6n58iB0o66y2o062ypvuRy?si=kIc5luYtRQSG68LecMUmEA&utm_source=copy-link

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A woman screams inside an isolated house. Something falls into the moat. By morning, Mariolle Moon has vanished — and centuries later, a female figure is still said to return.

Hidden amongst the houses and footpaths of Church Hill in Redditch is the remains of a medieval home surrounded by a moat. More than seven hundred years ago, people lived on the small island at its centre, crossing a bridge over the water to reach the house.

But Moon’s Moat has another story.

In 1692, Captain Richard Hill murdered actor William Mountfort in London and fled. Almost two hundred years later, an extraordinary account connected the fugitive killer with Moon’s Moat and a young woman named Mariolle Moon.

According to the story, screams were heard coming from the old house one January night. A local constable hurried towards the moat and saw what appeared to be a living body fall into the water. By morning, Mariolle had disappeared. No body was found.

Only a cloak.

And Mariolle Moon was never seen there again.

Years later, another tradition tells of a woman known as Lady Moon or Lady Mohun, who is said to return to Moon’s Moat on St Agnes’ Eve.

Could the two stories be connected?

In this episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside, we explore the archaeology and history of Moon’s Moat, the real murder committed by Captain Richard Hill, the strange Victorian account of Mariolle Moon, and the old Redditch legend of the woman who still walks beside the moat.

History, folklore and ghost story meet in one of Redditch’s oldest surviving landscapes.

Throughout October, I am also leading The Redditch Ghost Walk every Monday to Thursday. Tickets are £8.50 and proceeds go to Redditch Local History Museum.

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.

And providing part of the musical backdrop to this October season is “Chasing Ghosts” by Kindred Spirit.

Chasing Ghosts on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/track/6n58iB0o66y2o062ypvuRy?si=26ubKi7eR6GEGD8gIbb3zw&utm_source=copy-link

Chasing Ghosts on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/IZl1T6As31g?is=eM-OaBFEq1mctb1V

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Redditch has more than one White Lady story. From the woman seen at the windows of Beech House on Church Green, to a pale figure in woodland near Batchley and strange sightings around Smallwood, the same image appears again and again: a woman dressed in white.

In this Dark Folklore episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside, Clem Dallaway explores the stories behind Redditch’s White Ladies, including the mysterious woman said to walk near Beech House, the figure seen among the trees, and the woman reportedly spotted picking flowers in a garden at night.

Are these separate ghosts, mistakes of perception, or part of a much older folklore pattern that keeps repeating itself?

The episode also looks at how White Lady legends grow, why ghost stories so often attach tragic backstories to unidentified female apparitions, and the idea of residual hauntings.

Explore more of Redditch’s haunted history in my book, The Redditch Ghost Walk: History, Folklore and Haunted Places from the Old Town to the Kingfisher Centre.

Book:

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

Redditch Ghost Walk:

Monday to Thursday throughout October

Tickets: £8.50

Proceeds support Redditch Local History Museum

https://ghosttales.co.uk/ghostwalk

Music connected with Ghost Tales by the Fireside:

Among The Graves – Clem Dallaway

https://open.spotify.com/track/4hvMSzbWhO5U7cB1SONmAU?si=8gbSnYFTQXyD_cUnGYmUew

The Dark One – Clem Dallaway

https://open.spotify.com/track/58IwqgxMwiwedfWHF8wtyl?si=Bwv7d1RcQJKLDegEp2gl-g

Chasing Ghosts – Kindred Spirit

Clem Dallaway on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4q4UZstxVT6XbsOkBkfP6f

Website:

https://ghosttales.co.uk

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A family moved into an ordinary house on Abbeydale in Redditch, Worcestershire, in 1996. Almost immediately, they began experiencing things they could not explain.

A scruffy middle-aged man appeared repeatedly in the garden before being seen walking through the house and straight through the staircase. A young child spoke to someone called Albert. Another talked about an imaginary friend named Ballot, shortly before the family began seeing the apparition of a little girl in a white dress.

As the years passed, the activity became increasingly strange. Objects vanished and reappeared in unexpected places. Unfamiliar jewellery appeared inside the house. Footsteps crossed empty rooms. A woman was seen in the hallway. Members of the family heard voices belonging to people who had not spoken.

A paranormal investigation later introduced the names Charlotte and Albert, along with the suggestion that some kind of supernatural “portal” crossed the house.

The family moved in thirty years ago.

They are still there.

And in 2026, the activity is still happening.

In this episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside, we explore one of Redditch’s longest-running modern haunting accounts alongside the changing landscape of Abbeydale, the farmland that existed before the estate and the much older history surrounding the nearby Arrow Valley and Bordesley Abbey.

This episode forms part of the October season of haunted Redditch stories.

You can explore more of Redditch’s haunted history on the Redditch Ghost Walk, running Monday to Thursday throughout October. Tickets are £8.50 per person, with proceeds going to Redditch Local History Museum.

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.

Music featured in this episode includes Chasing Ghosts by Kindred Spirit which will be released on 12th of October alongside original music by Clem Dallaway, including Among The Graves and The Dark One.

Among The Graves — ISRC QZNWR2463170

The Dark One — ISRC QZWFS2504572

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Why are so many of Redditch's ghostly monks described as wearing brown when the Cistercians of Bordesley Abbey were known as the White Monks?

In this episode of Dark Folklore, Clem Dallaway follows one of Redditch's most persistent supernatural traditions through the medieval landscape of Bordesley Abbey and into the modern town. Stories tell of hooded figures near Bordesley Corner, apparitions apparently walking below the modern ground level, monks crossing gardens and walls, strange figures around Ipsley Church Lane and sightings inside modern buildings.

But the brown habits may not be a mistake.

Bordesley Abbey's Cistercian community also included lay brothers, known as the conversi, who worked the farms, fields and outlying granges belonging to the monastery. Their darker clothing raises an intriguing possibility: could some of Redditch's brown-robed apparitions represent the working brothers rather than the familiar White Monks?

Then, on the morning of 9 June 2025, the story became personal.

At approximately 9:20 AM, while walking his dog through Bordesley Meadows beside the River Arrow, Clem saw what appeared to be a man in a bright white hood standing amongst dense brambles. He walked towards the figure.

It disappeared.

There was no obvious route away, no sign that anybody had moved through the undergrowth, and the place where the figure appeared to have been standing seemed almost impossible to reach.

A strange man in a white hoodie? A trick of distance and landscape? Or something connected with the White Monks who once lived and worked beside the River Arrow?

This is the story of Redditch's ghostly monks, the forgotten working landscape of Bordesley Abbey, and one unexplained encounter that Clem still cannot account for.

Throughout October, Clem is also leading The Redditch Ghost Walk, exploring the history, folklore and hauntings of the old town and Kingfisher Centre every Monday to Thursday. Tickets are £8.50 per person, with proceeds going to Redditch Local History Museum.

Ghost Walk information and tickets:

https://ghosttales.co.uk/ghostwalk

Discover more from Ghost Tales by the Fireside:

https://ghosttales.co.uk

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

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

Music featured during the October season includes the upcoming debut single “Chasing Ghosts” by Kindred Spirit, Clem's own new musical project with singer Hollie James. The song was written to inhabit the same atmospheric world as these stories: haunted places, memory, loss and the urge to keep following the traces left behind.

Ghost Tales by the Fireside explores true ghost stories, paranormal encounters, haunted places, dark folklore, local legends and the history behind them.

Presented by Clem Dallaway.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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

www.ghosttales.co.uk

www.buymeacoffee.com/ghosttales⁠

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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

www.ghosttales.co.uk

Support the podcast:

www.buymeacoffee.com/ghosttales

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:

ghosttales.co.uk

Support the podcast and find exclusive content:

buymeacoffee.com/ghosttales