Peculiar Britain: Odd Crimes & Bizarre Mysteries

1806. Ashford Carbonell, Shropshire. Arabella Yate died, and was commemorated with a cast-iron chest tomb in the churchyard of St Mary Magdalene. Our search of Shropshire parish records found nothing concrete about her life.

Local children were still afraid of her grave in the 20th century.

What this episode examines

In this episode of Peculiar Britain: Odd Crimes and Bizarre Mysteries, we look at the facts and folklore around Arabella Yate and her unusual iron grave. It matters because almost nothing is documented, and the legend has filled the gap.

This episode explores

• The Grade II listed memorial and what Historic England says about it
• Why so little is recorded about Arabella’s life
• Her claimed link to Ashford Court, built in the 1780s by Samuel Yate Sprott, and why the ownership records don’t support it
• Shropshire’s ironworking history and other early iron memorials in the county
• The witchcraft rumours and the superstition about circling her grave
• What the evidence does and doesn’t support: the claim she was buried deeply in metal is folklore

Some mysteries fade with time. Others grow louder in silence.

Every general election, somewhere between the solemn returning officer and the ashen-faced incumbent, a man in a bin costume elbows his way onto the stage.

This week on Peculiar Britain, we ask why. From the 2026 Makerfield by-election, where a man in a full fox costume cornered Andy Burnham mid-count, to Clacton, where Nigel Farage's hasty resignation turned Count Binface into the nation's unofficial opposition, we trace the strange and surprisingly serious lineage of Britain's novelty candidates.

Screaming Lord Sutch. Bus-Pass Elvis. H'Angus the Monkey, who actually ran a town rather well. We dig into the folklore of the "carnivalesque", the Ofcom rules that force broadcasters to take these people seriously, and why Britain, alone among nations, has built democratic safeguards specifically so its citizens can mock power to its face. Dark humour, deep history, and a surprising amount of legislation.

For the full story and show notes, visit peculiarbritain.wordpress.com.

Every country has strange corners on its map, but Britain has a particular gift for place names that sound like a dare. In this episode of Peculiar Britain, we take a tour of the nation's rudest, silliest and most unfortunate signposts, from a Dorset hamlet named after an open sewer to a Cornish lane that warns you about your own neck. Along the way we dig into medieval prostitution, Old Norse farming terms, Victorian squeamishness, and the local communities who've had quite enough of tourists nicking their village signs.

Grounded in genuine etymology and historical record, but told with a wink, this is the story of how Britain got so rude by accident.

New episodes and full write-ups at peculiarbritain.wordpress.com.

A masked figure in the mud, a county gripped by fear, and the case that blurred the line between urban legend and criminal reality.

For five years, something crawled through the villages of North Somerset. Reports came in from Yatton, Claverham, Cleeve and Bleadon: a figure in a skin-tight black suit and a crossed-eye mask, writhing on the ground, stepping in front of cars, terrifying lone drivers on quiet lanes. The press called him the Somerset Gimp. The truth turned out to be far more troubling than the tabloid nickname suggested. In this episode of Peculiar Britain, we trace the timeline from the first sightings around 2018 to the 2023 conviction of Joshua Hunt, examine the psychology of rumour and rural fear, and ask what this very modern case of "gimp panic" tells us about the old folklore of the woods made flesh. Full write-up and sources at peculiarbritain.wordpress.com.

Where Victorian graves meet modern madness, and something ancient refuses to stay buried.

In 1970, hundreds of stake-wielding Londoners stormed Highgate Cemetery on Friday the 13th, hunting a vampire. This is that story.

Dead London: The Highgate Vampire Files uncovers one of Britain's most extraordinary urban legends. We explore the crumbling Victorian necropolis that sparked mass hysteria, the bitter rivalry between two eccentric occultists, and the tabloid press that gleefully fanned the flames. Was the Highgate Vampire real, or something far more fascinating?

Perfect for fans of British history, folk horror, and the stranger side of London life.

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In 1693, a Dublin publican cut her hair, borrowed a name, and walked into the British Army to find her missing husband. What followed was thirteen years of infantry combat, cavalry charges, a skull fracture at Ramillies, and a husband she eventually found flirting with a Dutch woman after Blenheim.

Christian Davies fought at Landen, Schellenberg, Blenheim, and Ramillies. She killed a sergeant in a duel. She paid child support to a prostitute rather than prove the claim impossible. She buried her husband under two hundred bodies on the field at Malplaquet. She was so convincing as a man that her regiment called her the pretty dragoon.

She was eventually admitted to the Royal Hospital Chelsea as a pensioner. Daniel Defoe wrote her story. Queen Anne gave her fifty pounds and a shilling a day.

Nobody gave her a category to fit into. She didn't seem to need one.

A birthday dinner. A trivial row over bubble and squeak. A husband dead in the kitchen.

But the case of Penelope Jackson was never as simple as the headlines made it seem. Behind the sensational 999 call lay allegations of coercive control, long-buried violence, lockdown pressure, and a marriage built on fear, silence, and image.

In this episode of Peculiar Britain, we explore one of Britain’s most controversial domestic homicide cases and ask: where is the line between murder and psychological breaking point?

In this gripping episode of Peculiar Britain, we unpack the infamous “dine-and-dash” spree that captivated the UK and exposed the fragile trust underpinning the hospitality industry. Between 2023 and 2024, Bernard and Ann McDonagh orchestrated a calculated campaign of fraud across South Wales—exploiting social norms, manipulating identities, and even using their own children as part of the con.

But this isn’t just a story about unpaid restaurant bills. It’s about the rise of digital vigilantism, the power of viral justice, and what happens when the public takes policing into its own hands. From the pivotal Bella Ciao incident to the courtroom reckoning at Swansea Crown Court, we explore the criminological, social, and ethical implications of one of Britain’s most bizarre modern crime sprees.

In this episode of Peculiar Britain, we revisit the 2010 manhunt for Raoul Moat, which followed the fatal shooting of Chris Brown, the serious injury of Samantha Stobbart, and the blinding of PC David Rathband before Moat was cornered near Rothbury after a week-long police operation.

But this is also the story of an astonishing sideshow: former England star Paul Gascoigne turning up at the police cordon in a dressing gown, carrying chicken, lager and fishing gear, insisting he could help Moat. Gascoigne was refused access, and years later said he had been heavily intoxicated and delusional, believing he had some bond with Moat.

This episode explores the collision between a live national tragedy and a very public personal collapse. It is a story about media spectacle, addiction, mental health, and the way one surreal moment nearly eclipsed the suffering of the real victims. We also look at why later dramatizations chose to leave Gazza out entirely, arguing that his appearance distracted from the human cost of Moat’s crimes.

In this disturbing episode of Peculiar Britain, we examine the chilling rise of digitally mediated murder plots through the lens of what has become known as the “Sausage Factory Hitman” phenomenon.

Centred on a Norfolk case involving obsession, revenge, and an alleged contract killing threat, this episode explores how ordinary grievances are increasingly funneled through the language and systems of professional violence. What happens when a person no longer confronts their target directly, but instead turns to the dark web, cryptocurrency, and the fantasy of outsourced murder?

From Fakenham in 2025 to King’s Lynn in 2023, and even back to the infamous 1897 Chicago “Sausage Vat” murder, this case reveals a grim continuity: the industrial reduction of human life into something disposable, manageable, and transactional.

We unpack the forensic, sociological, and psychological dimensions of these cases—looking at workplace obsession, stalking escalation, digital hitman scams, and the role of modern media in turning bizarre crime into cultural mythology.

This is not simply a true crime story. It is a portrait of revenge in the digital age.