Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

Loved this…

A few days ago Beach had some Tripadvisor hotel fun looking at the variety of ghost/haunting/poltergeist experiences reported there. What most impressed him from his small sample was the number of incidents when the witnesses felt something pressing down on them. Two of these hauntings were quoted then, the rest are new. All italics Beach’s […]

Sir Thomas Elyot (c. 1490-1546) was a Tudor polymath who wrote on politics, classical learning and Christian living: his day job, meanwhile, was as a diplomat to Henry VIII. In Elyot’s most interesting book (at least to the modern reader) The Castell of Helth the author sets out tips for good living and cures based […]

Fighting against Miss America

Philip Thomas Tucker, Pickett’s Charge ‘For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it’s still not yet two o’clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and […]

Chinese in Roman London? It is well known that the Roman empire was a cosmopolitan place, even a tedious, sorry backwater like Britannia. The combination of soldiers, slaves and solid economic infrastructure meant unprecedented movement of individuals. However, what about the history story of the week, the claim that two Chinese bodies have been dug […]

Dear Reader, What a month. A phantom pregnancy (farce and fear), watching a five year old start school (tragedy), and lots of book editing (the highlight?), then there has been the fun of the American elections and new students (outstanding classes). There follow the c. 10000 most interesting words sent in to StrangeHistory. Thanks to […]

***Congrats to Melissa for getting this one*** The Index Biography is a new form of biography pioneered by this blog and introduced in a previous post. The creator must find a biography of a famous individual from history, they must turn to the index and write down eight peripheral facts about the individual’s life. We offered […]

Sometime after the Battle of the Wilderness…

There are two versions of the history of Pook’s Hill: the official version; and the official-official version. First, the official version. Kipling wrote in the Edwardian period a book for his children about English history: Puck of Pook’s Hill, published in 1906. A fairy, Puck, introduces Kipling’s two children to the marvelous wonders of the […]

Love the ‘Dangerous’ and the little girl…

The unquiet dead. One put his head on a railway line and was decapitated by an obliging train. One was stabbed between twenty and thirty times by her ex boyfriend. The third was drowned in a canoeing accident late one night. These three incidents are the closest that Beach has come to violent death. Happily […]

Bit weak, but it appealed…

Beach recently ran across this sordid but fascinating episode in Otis, Prostitution in Medieval Society (71). Those of a sensitive disposition might just want to go and do the washing up now. Those who are determined to read on prepare yourselves… Significant, too, is the Venetian court register that records, in the trial of a […]

‘Good morning! Good morning’ the general said