My first bonus episode with two additional stories ~ both extracts from The Folklore of Pagham-on-Sea Vol. 1.
I talk about the New Estate and Hangman’s Walk, and read the tale of the Meteorite Strike in Roman times, and the Punch & Judy Man of Hangman’s Walk
Bonus Ep ~ The New Estate and Hangman’s Walk
You can find versions of the tales I read out here and here for free. You can also buy the whole companion volume for 99p from my Ko-Fi Shop!
I’m not able to transcribe all the bonus episodes, but this one elaborates on the stories I linked to above, and considers the origins of the New Estate’s urban legend (or is it?) that there is something in the darkness that sucks the life from whoever it catches. You can find out more about this in my short story, ‘The Sound of Darkness’, published in F is for Fear with Red Cape Publishing.
One view is that the farisee stones mentioned in the medieval account of the meteorite strike were taken from the site, unwashed, by some of the first children to move into the estate in the 1960s. The stones cursed the estate and possibly brought forth a dangerous kind of soul-stealing fae than now lurks in the dark corners.
The medieval account also seems to suggests an origin myth for lycanthropy localised to Pagham-on-Sea, but many places have such myths including the village of Hangingstones in Yorkshire, which tells of a demon dog that attacked parishioners in the parish church during the later middle ages. It was said that the survivors of this attack became werewolves.
I elaborate a little on Hangman’s Walk in this episode too – Hangman’s Walk is the name of a street along which those sentenced to death by hanging (smugglers and witches, for example) would be led to the gallows. I cover this in The Folklore of Pagham-on-Sea Vol. 1 and will talk more about the folklore of the town and its history in volume 2. I might explore Hangman’s Walk with you in future episodes, but it’s also the name of my RedBubble shop, so if you want some exclusive official merch designed by me, check that out!
This is the first bonus episode where I discuss different aspects of the town and its history and urban legends.
What did you think of the episode?
C. M. Rosens 