Series 5 Episode 5: Cambridgeshire

The Three Ravens Podcast

With Haunting Season 2024 now over, we're back to our regular business, and this week Eleanor is punting us along misty waterways as we explore the history and folklore of Cambridgeshire!

We start off chatting about Guy Fawkes, St Cleer and "Ringing Night," after which we cavort into Cambridgeshire, a soggy county whose landscape today is nothing like it once was.

Aside from chatting about the draining of the fens, the county's success in the lucrative field of fossilized poop mining, and the network of secret tunnels under Cambridge itself, Eleanor uses a boar bristle to bake bread, weighs up the possibility of us eating brawn, and teaches us how to make traditional Fenland Mead for week's County Dish.

When it comes to folklore, interspersed with some excerpts from next Saturday's Local Legends interview with celebrated author and Cambridge University folklore professor Dr Francis Young, we talk about a surprisingly lively Roman skeleton, protective ghostly bulldogs, hilltop duels with Otherworldly knights, and much more besides.

Then it's on to the main event: Eleanor's story, "The Tale of a Toadman" in which she channels the spirit of Edith Porter to narrate a spooky adventure which runs the gamut from hedge magic to bodily mutilation to mythical bog serpents.

We really hope you enjoy the episode, and we'll be back on Thursday with a new Magic and Medicines bonus episode about the ancient runic language of Ogham and its connections to the trees of the British Isles, ahead of Saturday's full Local Legends chat with Francis!

The Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.

Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...

Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays (Magic and Medicines about folk remedies and arcane spells, Three Ravens Bestiary about cryptids and mythical creatures, Dying Arts about endangered heritage crafts, and Something Wicked about folkloric true crime from across history) plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.

With a range of exclusive content on Patreon, too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?

Learn more at www.threeravenspodcast.com, join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeravenspodcast, and find links to our social media channels here: https://linktr.ee/threeravenspodcast

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