Episode Details

On the week's episode of Three Ravens we're mining out the black gold of history and folklore of Staffordshire - a county with some pretty dark parts, and some very silly ones, too.

We start off discussing the tradition of Rogationtide, a week-long celebration that would have started today, which basically involved smacking the ghosts out of your village, all before we sally forth to Staffordshire!

We begin with some pretty cool bits of history, including the Black Country industry of chain-making and its relation to the Chained Oak of Alton, the mythical slaughter that gave Lichfield its name, and the rather lofty 'Old Man of Mow,' all before Martin tries to excite us with pretty meagre fare, before pulling out a military-themed pudding for this week's County Dish.

Next, we get elbow-deep in folklore, from the doings of Jacobean giant 'Big Wally' Parsons and the church-eating Dragon of Wednesbury to boggarts including Rawhead and Bloody Bones and Dumb Baw to so much else besides, all enhanced by some excerpts from Saturday's upcoming Local Legends interview with Jack Raven, the canny corvid behind the Staffordshire Folklore YouTube channel.

Then it's on to the main event: Martin's telling of "The Mermaid of the Black Mere of Morridge" - a slightly murky legend about love, murder, and a mysterious pool that might just lead down the fairyland...

About Three Ravens 🔮

Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.

Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’

We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.

Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.

Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…

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