The image of the wizard has become synonymous with the Cheshire village of Alderley Edge largely thanks to a nineteenth century legend. Yet the deeper history of the area suggests that this connection to such magical figures is far from fantasy, and in fact may be the result of a very real, if extraordinary, historical legacy.

Mythstoric Journeys, the hardback anthology collection from Eli, is available here!

Visit thelocalmythstorian.com

A quick update to let folks know that in honour of the 80th anniversary of VE Day I've made my grandfather's war memoir available in PDF for those so interested. A sergeant in the Royal Engineers, he saw action throughout North Africa and Italy.

Just click on the link below and you can get it from the website. 

Download Albert's War here

The Vale Royal Rebellion is a medieval tale of murder, manipulation and struggle set amidst one of the most turbulent periods in all of English history. Yet it is only when we bring the contributing political factors, key players and major events of the story together as one, that we can really appreciate just what a remarkable piece of Cheshire history the story truly is.

Mythstoric Journeys, the hardback anthology collection from Eli, is available here!

Visit thelocalmythstorian.com

Arbor Low is regarded as one of the most important prehistoric sites in England and a bastion of our ancient cultural identity. It is most definitely a place of wonder, but its vision comes complete with the seemingly unanswerable conundrum as to how its once magnificent stone circle came to be pulled down and laid flat. Could the mystery become a little clearer when placed against the location’s direct and intimate connections to the religious wars of Dark Age Britain?

Mythstoric Journeys, the hardback anthology collection from Eli, is available here!

Visit thelocalmythstorian.com

The Cheshire monk Ranulf Higden is remembered to historians today as the author of a distant world history from the fourteenth century. However, beyond his daily religious work in the abbey at Chester, he was an inquisitive and curious man of his age; traits that can help us understand better why such a figure of Christian piety would come to be buried with a notorious totem of the magical arts.

Mythstoric Journeys, the hardback anthology collection from Eli, is available here!

Visit thelocalmythstorian.com

The story of the Bakewell witches is unique within the annals of English witchcraft and a tale thought by some to be so fantastical that it may not even be true. Yet research cannot only place the event firmly in the context of the times, but it can also help create a picture of the events that originally brought the story into being.

Mythstoric Journeys, the hardback anthology collection from Eli, is available here!

Visit thelocalmythstorian.com

The story of Robert Nixon, the 'Cheshire Prophet’ starved to death by the king, was once the best known legend of the county, retold and republished dozens of times across the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Precisely who the man was however, has always been something of a mystery, with many assuming he was little more than a fairy tale. Yet research suggests that not only was Robert a real-life figure, but that his bizarre and tragic end might just have been a reality too.

Mythstoric Journeys, the hardback anthology collection from Eli, is available here!

Visit thelocalmythstorian.com

The castle at Shipbrook near Davenham is long lost to us today, its last traces being cleared from the land in the 1790s. However, in balancing the brutal events of early Norman England together with the history of a key local family, not only can we better appreciate this often overlooked corner of medieval Cheshire, but perhaps for the first time, look to understand the story of Shipbrook Castle and its ties to a bloody revolt against King Henry IV.

Mythstoric Journeys, the hardback anthology collection from Eli, is available here!

Visit thelocalmythstorian.com

The story that originally inspired The Local Mythstorian project and a tale quite unlike anything else in the British Isles! The Headless Horseman of the Staffordshire Moorlands is one of the best known pieces of folklore in the region, but where did it come from? Tracing the story of the horseman back through 650 years of local history, via Victorian ghost sightings and Arthurian literature, we uncover the shocking true story of medieval murder that lies at the heart of the spectre’s inspiration.

Mythstoric Journeys, the hardback anthology collection from Eli, is available here!

Visit thelocalmythstorian.com

The figure of Samuel Johnson serves to both intrigue and fascinate, but so little of his story has been properly examined that ultimately he is little understood beyond triviality. Seeking to address that balance by casting a light across the life of one of the most remarkable and bizarre characters in all of Cheshire history, we discover that sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction.

Mythstoric Journeys, the hardback anthology collection from Eli, is available here!

Visit thelocalmythstorian.com