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

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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.

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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

www.ghosttales.co.uk

www.buymeacoffee.com/ghosttales⁠

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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.

Website: https://ghosttales.co.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.

Website:

https://ghosttales.co.uk

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https://buymeacoffee.com/ghosttales

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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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In August 1977, strange events began inside an ordinary council house at 284 Green Street, Enfield.

Peggy Hodgson's children claimed their beds were moving. Knocking sounds came from the walls. Furniture appeared to move by itself. Neighbours were called into the house, followed by the police and WPC Carolyn Heeps later reported seeing an armchair move across the living-room floor.

What followed became one of Britain's most famous and controversial paranormal cases.

Investigators Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair spent months at Green Street, witnessing and recording extraordinary phenomena. Objects were reportedly thrown, furniture moved, and eleven-year-old Janet Hodgson began producing a strange, deep voice that claimed to belong to a former resident named Bill Wilkins.

But there is another side to the story.

Janet and her sister were caught faking some incidents, and several famous pieces of evidence have much simpler possible explanations.

Sceptics have argued that the entire case can be explained by tricks, exaggeration and credulous investigators.

Yet some incidents were reportedly witnessed by neighbours, journalists, police officers and others outside the Hodgson family.

So what really happened at 284 Green Street?

This episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside goes back to the original Enfield Poltergeist case, separating the documented events from the mythology that has grown around them and asking the question that still hangs over Green Street nearly fifty years later:

If some of it was faked… was all of it?

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Out on the lonely marshes near Faversham, Kent, stands the Shipwrights Arms — an isolated old pub with a ghost story that has lingered for generations.

Local tradition tells of a sailor whose ship foundered in the Swale on a bitter winter night.

Somehow he survived the wreck and struggled across the freezing mudflats towards the lights of the pub. He reached the door and knocked... but nobody let him in.

By morning, he was dead on the doorstep.

And according to the old story, he never really left.

Landlords, landladies and customers have reportedly encountered a thickset, bearded sailor wearing a heavy reefer jacket and peaked cap. Sometimes his arrival is announced only by a sudden chill — and the unmistakable smell of rum, tar and tobacco.

This is the strange story of the ghost of the Shipwrights Arms near Faversham.

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