BleakChesneyWold

            ' Peppermint Billy  William Brown and the Tollgate Murders of 1856'    By Joanne Vigor Mungovin                                                                          A few months ago,t he Leicester Museum service website announced : On July 14, 2023, The Guildhall in Leicester will recreate the trial of William 'Peppermint Billy' Brown - 167 years to the day after he was convicted of the murder of Edward and James Woodcock in Melton Mowbray. Peppermint Billy was the last man publicly hanged in Leicester in 1856. His conviction has always been questioned and shrouded in mystery. In order to make this event more memorable, we have found descendants of the witnesses to read the words of their ancestors during the trial. The trial is then recrea...

                           Can  Chesney Wold Be Located    ?                                                      Haunted House by John Atkinson Grimshaw ( Public Domain courtesy of Wiki Gallery )   Dickens ninth novel 'Bleak House' appeared in installments from March 1852 until 1853.  A major theme concerns the legendary Jarndyce v Jarndyce case featured in the Chancery court : A  dreary legal dispute regarding a will which drags on year after year, effectively destroying the lives of potential benefactors, Predictably, once the case is settled, it is discovered that all the money held in the estate has been devoured by legal fees. The chapters set in the area surrounding the Chancery are claustrophobic and dark. 'Bleak House' also contains some...

                                      A Sceptical View of  Victorian Spiritualism                                                                                  So far historian and fiction writer  Linda Stratmann has written six novels featuring an unusual lead character, Mina Scarletti. Mina is in her 20's, particularly small with a curved spine due to scoliosis. Living in her mother's home- and from an upper middle class background, in Brighton.  The first novel opens in 1871,Mina writes children's stories and has some horror fiction published under an assumed name. Throughout the series, Mina's main role is to expose fake mediums and associated charlatans, whilst still ma...

                   Catherine Crowe (1790-1872) At the Park Gate by John Atkinson Grimshaw ( 1836-1893) painted 1878, Public domain,courtesy of  Wikimedia Commons               The Victorian era saw a massive rise in respect of deliberate communication with the Dead. Those who had passed over weren't just spectres who haunted the living, they were being invited to return. And contact with spirits had consequences. But was a seance really to blame for the 1854 breakdown of a prominent author in the mid Victorian era?  Mrs Catherine Crowe wrote a series of novels published from around 1841  including, The Story of Lilly Dawson   ,The Adventures of Susan Hopley  or Circumstancial Evidence (  her most famous work ),   The Adventures of a Beauty , Linny Lockwood.   The 'Household Words' magazine, whilst edited by Charles Dickens published three short stories ...

  The Progress of Crime, or, The Authentic Memoirs of Maria Manning  by Robert Huish (1777-1850) The figure of the Woman in Black is one of the most famous recognisable figures in the Dark Victorian landscape . Forty years ago the novel of this name, written by Susan Hill appeared in print. There was a 1989 television play with a script by Nigel Kneale, a  very successful stage play, then of course the film version starring Daniel Radcliffe in 2012. The latter with its famous 18 minute sequence without music or dialogue, featuring the young solicitor facing various sounds as he wanders around a  haunted house. One quite neglected Dickens short story is 'The Black Veil' from 1836. A young doctor await his first patient in the early 1800's.  A lady in a black shawl and black veil appears who seems to be in a fever. She tells about him about a man who is about to die, and will pass into her care tomorrow. The young doctor seeks her out in the following morning as r...

          The Parlour Game is book one in The Corvidae Hauntings                                                                                                  Quite a gripping novel. Probably belongs more to the category of horror than more standard historical fiction. A young lady from a good home in the countryside, with a love of plants and nature, sensitive to voices and visions, embarks on a quest to find a friend of her recently deceased mother,who has vanished after conducting a seance in London. A harrowing experience at times which builds up to quite a staggering ending. Bleak,brutal and unromantic. Dealing with addiction, suicide, and loss.  Probably not for readers who want a sentimental read. But ...

    James Pratt and John Smith -executed at Newgate 1835 for  Sodomy "their doom was sealed... they well knew that for them, there was no hope in this world."- Charles Dickens            On 20th October 2019 I went to see local folk band Bird in the Belly perform live at The Ropetackle Centre,  Shoreham by Sea. The group were celebrating the release of their second album 'Neighbours and Sisters'. And this was the first time I heard their track '45 George Street'. Bird in the Belly are certainly very accomplished and admired in their field. Part of their appeal is that they track down little known songs or construct their own tracks, based on lesser known scenes from 'People's History', anything from beekeeping through to highwaymen.  '45 George Street' is not typical of the band's music and concerns the wretched plight of James Pratt (30) and John Smith (40), the last two men to be hanged in Britain after being found guilty of commi...