The Grey Men, found throughout Essex, are mostly sufferers of an unnamed disease, recently found to be caused by a mildly mutated form of the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae, harbinger of Leprosy. The mutation of this bacteria causes irreparable rotting of the synapses in the brain, categorised most clearly by an increase in the amount of [...]
At various times throughout history different methods have been employed to combat the threat of The Dead, and one of the most sinister attempts at control was employment of The Eater. The Eater would be forced to live on the edge of town, subsisting on naught but the flesh of the dead. At first bodies [...]
Many times have I asked myself why does the witch seem to be more prevalent in Essex than it does in the further lands. Walking down every road I see swarms of them, cackling, groping, eating, displays of such grotesquery I find it unbelievable that there is not more screaming within these towns. Not even [...]
The dead have long been a source of irritation for the people of Essex. Somtimes seen shambling here and there on the egdes of the towns, and often found clogging up brooks and rivers (the dead cannot swim), no matter how much they are ignored they never seem to fully go away. 12th Century Essex [...]
Alan Headbold – or ‘The Alan’ as he is known in Suffolk – was a popular man in 19th century Chelmsford, having won the annual wife lifting competition four years in a row. He also achieved fame for rescuing Patsy, the Mayor’s Labrador after she fell through the ice on the local skating pond one [...]
The first appearance of the Brain Tree in Essex folk-lore is in the Cronicle of Chelmesford. Under the entry for 1352, following a brief description of the recurrence of bubonic plague in this year, a meat-fisted scribbler briefly displaces the usual neat monkish hand and scrawls “Bee ware ye BRANETRE”. Recent attempts to link this [...]
Of all the recurring stories of Essex, the most pervasive is that of the ape gone wild. In our journey through the history of Essex it crops up again and again with such frequency it is tempting to believe that it must be more than the terrified bellowing of generations of feckless mothers haunted by [...]
Feared by all, from the mouth of the river Blackwater to the anus of England known as the Thames Estuary, talk of the Bobby was always confined to whispered warnings even in the relative safety of a popular tavern. Known to prey on the weak and drunk, the Bobby terrorised the gentlefolk of Essex for [...]
