Share

cover art for Wyrd Wessex

Wyrd Wessex

Sometimes Wyrd is better...


Latest episode

  • 118. Unearthing the Forest Folklore, Fake Lore, and Fiery Fates with Brice Stratford

    01:40:16||Ep. 118
    In this episode of Wyrd Wessex, Andy and Craig head to Lyndhurst in the heart of the New Forest to sit down with author, folklorist, and storyteller Brice Stratford. Over a series of pints at historic local spots, the conversation dives deep into what it truly means for folklore to be anchored to a specific landscape, contrasting genuine rooted community traditions with modern "fake lore" and commercialized New Age myths. Brice pulls back the curtain on why he takes issue with the ubiquitous New Forest witch Sybil Leek, championing instead real historical figures like Mary Dore—an 18th-century woman whose legacy of shape-shifting, stick-gathering, and feuding with the Duke of Montague remains etched into local memory. The trio also unpacks the oral endurance of the William Rufus legend, the legendary Cobb's arrows, the mechanics of dragon-slaying motifs, the fiery ghost stories of the Fox and Hounds, the whispered panels of St. Michael and All Angels Church, the shadowy history of the Hawkhurst smuggling gang at the Crown Hotel, and local cryptids like the Stratford Lion.Explore the Wyrd Wessex Map:Every local UFO encounter, ghost story, cryptid sighting, and ancient earthwork featured on the show is plotted directly onto our custom interactive Google Map. Head to our Instagram bio or join our Discord to explore the locations!Send Us Your Stories: Have you experienced high-strangeness, seen something unexplained in the skies, or have local folklore to share? Fill out our form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10MVzaWqJXVbLonxf1WiwM4n41-R2fiDMqDN3WKQzYMA/edit?usp=drive_web&ouid=100798326189189740063Join the Wyrdo Community: Buy Me a Coffee (Ad-Free Episodes, Discord & Bonus Shows): https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wyrdwessexInstagram: @Wyrd_Wessex (Make sure to include the underscore!)Shop our merch: https://www.redbubble.com/people/saxonforageruk/shop?asc=uStay Wyrd!Written and hosted by Craig Brooks and Andy Stevens Edited by Craig Brooks

More episodes

View all episodes

  • 117. Borley Rectory: part 2

    01:01:44||Season 3, Ep. 117
    In this episode—part two of our deep dive into Borley Rectory—Craig and Andy pick up the story as the chaos enters its most turbulent and heavily documented chapters. Moving past the early years, we tackle both the infamous Marianne Foyster residency and the dramatic 1937 investigation scheme led by Harry Price.From violent poltergeist phenomena, wall scrawlings, and flying objects to Price's ambitious recruitment of independent observers to spend time in the haunted ruins, we explore how the legend cemented its place in history. We break down the accounts, the investigators, and the lingering mysteries of Britain's most notorious rectory.Explore the Wyrd Wessex Map:Every local UFO encounter, ghost story, cryptid sighting, and ancient earthwork featured on the show is plotted directly onto our custom interactive Google Map. Head to our Instagram bio or join our Discord to explore the locations!Send Us Your Stories:Have you experienced high-strangeness, seen something unexplained in the skies, or have local folklore to share? Fill out our form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10MVzaWqJXVbLonxf1WiwM4n41-R2fiDMqDN3WKQzYMA/edit?usp=drive_web&ouid=100798326189189740063Join the Wyrdo Community:Buy Me a Coffee (Ad-Free Episodes, Discord & Bonus Shows): https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wyrdwessexInstagram: @Wyrd_Wessex (Make sure to include the underscore!)Shop our merch: https://www.redbubble.com/people/saxonforageruk/shop?asc=uStay Wyrd!Written by Craig Brooks and hosted by Craig Brooks and Andy StevensEdited by Craig Brooks
  • 116. Borley Rectory

    41:23||Season 3, Ep. 116
    In this episode, Craig and Andy dive into the early, creeping hauntings of Borley Rectory—a location once dubbed "the most haunted house in England." Before the infamous Marianne Foyster era brought absolute chaos to the blue room, the Rectory spent decades quietly accumulating strangeness under the Bull family and the brief, chaotic tenure of Eric Smith.We explore how Britain's premier ghost hunter, Harry Price, first arrived at the scene with his kit of fingerprint powder and mercury gauges, and we chat about how our modern fear of ghosts compares to historical perspectives on the paranormal.Explore the Wyrd Wessex Map:Every local UFO encounter, ghost story, cryptid sighting, and ancient earthwork featured on the show is plotted directly onto our custom interactive Google Map. Head to our Instagram bio or join our Discord to explore the locations!Send Us Your Stories:Have you experienced high-strangeness, seen something unexplained in the skies, or have local folklore to share? Fill out our form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10MVzaWqJXVbLonxf1WiwM4n41-R2fiDMqDN3WKQzYMA/edit?usp=drive_web&ouid=100798326189189740063Join the Wyrdo Community:Buy Me a Coffee (Ad-Free Episodes, Discord & Bonus Shows): https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wyrdwessexInstagram: @Wyrd_Wessex (Make sure to include the underscore!)Shop our merch: https://www.redbubble.com/people/saxonforageruk/shop?asc=uStay Wyrd!Written by Craig Brooks and hosted by Craig Brooks and Andy StevensEdited by Craig Brooks
  • Finding the Real Faye: Sam the Sandown Clown Update

    18:02|
    Andy and Craig return for a special edition of AfterWyrd to dissect a major development in one of the Isle of Wight’s most bizarre modern legends: Sam the Sandown Clown.Following up on their previous discussions and their recent interview with folklorist Paul A. T. Wilson at the Strange Days Festival, the Wyrdo co-hosts dive into new research sent in by a listener.They explore the findings from the debut episode of the Cease to Exist podcast, which uses newspaper archives, ancestry records, and investigation trails connected to BBC’s Uncanny to track down the real "Faye." Is Sam the Sandown Clown an elaborate hoax, a misremembered childhood event, or living folklore in action? Craig and Andy examine the paper trail, discuss whether the story holds up, and ask the lingering question: why has nobody ever tracked down the second child from the 1973 encounter?Explore the Wyrd Wessex Map: Every local UFO encounter, ghost story, cryptid sighting, and ancient earthwork featured on the show is plotted directly onto our custom interactive Google Map. HERESend Us Your Stories: Have you experienced high-strangeness, seen something unexplained in the skies, or have local folklore to share? Fill out our form HEREJoin the Wyrdo Community: Buy Me a Coffee (Ad-Free Episodes, Discord & Bonus Shows): HEREInstagram: @Wyrd_Wessex (Make sure to include the underscore!)Don't blame the Owls!Website: www.wyrdwessex.co.ukMerch: https://www.redbubble.com/people/saxonforageruk/exploreHosted by: Craig Brooks & Andy StevensEdited by: Craig BrooksIntro music by: Universfield Dark 80s Sci-Fi Atmosphere
  • Bonus Tarot Card Draw

    03:39|
    Broadcasting live from the final night of Strange Days Festival, Craig and Andy are running on absolute empty, a questionable amount of coffee, and pure festival adrenaline. Between nonsensical theories on koalas, farts, and untrustworthy hippos. To mark the end of a wild weekend, they draw two tarot cards live on air to seal their fate: The Lovers (prompting a very necessary, very tired debate on unity and human centipedes) followed immediately by The Tower (symbolising chaos, dramatic collapses, or perhaps just their desperate desire to escape and go to sleep). Win Signed Tarot Cards: Every guest in this episode drew and signed a card from our Major Arcana tarot deck. Follow us on Instagram @Wyrd_Wessex for details on how to win these one-of-a-kind festival pieces! Explore the Wyrd Wessex Map: Every local UFO encounter, ghost story, cryptid sighting, and ancient earthwork featured on the show is plotted directly onto our custom interactive Google Map. Head to our Instagram bio or join our Discord to explore the locations! Send Us Your Stories: Have you experienced high-strangeness, seen something unexplained in the skies, or have local folklore to share? Send your encounter to: wyrdwessex@pm.me Join the Wyrdo Community: Buy Me a Coffee (Ad-Free Episodes, Discord & Bonus Shows): https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wyrdwessex Instagram: @Wyrd_Wessex (Make sure to include the underscore!) Shop our merch: https://www.redbubble.com/people/saxonforageruk/shop?asc=u Stay Wyrd! Written and hosted by Craig Brooks and Andy Stevens Edited by Craig Brooks Intro music by Antipodean Writer: Full of Soul - Neon Waves Extended - Remix Outro music by Colt Fingaz: Ding Ding Dong
  • 115. Kitchen Shadow Figures, Dragon Sightings & Devon Time Slips

    01:29:42||Season 3, Ep. 115
    In the fifth and final instalment of our live coverage from the Strange Days Festival, Craig and Andy wrap up an incredible weekend of high strangeness. We sit down with Fortean Times TV critics Stu and Ruth Neville to discuss British folk horror, low-key hauntings, and a terrifying kitchen-dwelling shadow figure. Festival organiser Matt Page drops by to debrief on the weekend's highlights, followed by cryptozoologist Richard Freeman sharing tales of hunting the Tasmanian wolf, the Mongolian death worm, and modern dragon encounters at Waverly Abbey. Plus, Jackie Tong details an astonishing 1940s GI time slip in Devon, and performer Jacqueline Haig from Witchy Finger joins us to raise the cone of power. Grab a brew, settle in, and join us for the festival finale!Win Signed Tarot Cards:Every guest in this episode drew and signed a card from our Major Arcana tarot deck. Follow us on Instagram @Wyrd_Wessex for details on how to win these one-of-a-kind festival pieces!Explore the Wyrd Wessex Map:Every local UFO encounter, ghost story, cryptid sighting, and ancient earthwork featured on the show is plotted directly onto our custom interactive Google Map. Head to our Instagram bio or join our Discord to explore the locations!Send Us Your Stories:Have you experienced high-strangeness, seen something unexplained in the skies, or have local folklore to share? Send your encounter to: wyrdwessex@pm.meJoin the Wyrdo Community:Buy Me a Coffee (Ad-Free Episodes, Discord & Bonus Shows):https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wyrdwessexInstagram: @Wyrd_Wessex (Make sure to include the underscore!)Shop our merch: https://www.redbubble.com/people/saxonforageruk/shop?asc=uStay Wyrd!Written and hosted by Craig Brooks and Andy StevensEdited by Craig BrooksIntro music by Antipodean Writer: Full of Soul - Neon Waves Extended - RemixOutro music by Colt Fingaz: Ding Ding Dong
  • 114. Doppelgängers, Shadow Men & Lacock Ghosts

    01:22:50||Season 3, Ep. 114
    Featureless doppelgängers on dark roads, a 7-foot blonde-hating entity at Tudor World, phantom calls on disconnected payphones, and the morality of paranormal YouTube.Andy and Craig are back backstage at the Strange Days Festival for Part 4 of our special coverage!We’re sitting down with an incredible lineup of researchers, ghost tour hosts, and paranormal creators to explore local high-strangeness, chilling location hauntings, and the ethics of content creation.What We Cover In This Episode:Paranormal YouTube & Ethics with Peter Laws: Host of Into the Fog, Peter Laws joins us to unpack creator monetisation ethics, absurd sex toy sponsorship, and the hallucinatory dangers of festival homebrew wine.Phantom Calls & Tudor World Shadows with Claire: Claire (Don't Scare Claire) shares terrifying historical ghost research, including an impossible time-slip encounter involving a disconnected payphone in an abandoned building, and Tudor World's terrifying 7-foot shadow man with a targeted grudge against blondes.The Wolverton Doppelgänger with Steph: Creator of City of Secrets, Steph discusses her ongoing paranormal mapping project across Milton Keynes and breaks down a chilling eyewitness account of a featureless, pitch-black double matching a runner’s stride step-for-step down a lonely road.Lacock Tithe Barn Hauntings with Charlie: Ghost tour operator Charlie takes us inside his investigations at Wiltshire’s 14th-century Laycock Tithe Barn, sharing remarkable spirit contact with a young woman named Lily and unexpected phantom encounters right behind unsuspecting tour guests.Win Signed Tarot Cards:Every guest in this episode drew and signed a card from our Major Arcana tarot deck. Follow us on Instagram @Wyrd_Wessex for details on how to win these one-of-a-kind festival pieces!Explore the Wyrd Wessex Map:Every local UFO encounter, ghost story, cryptid sighting, and ancient earthwork featured on the show is plotted directly onto our custom interactive Google Map. Head to our Instagram bio or join our Discord to explore the locations!Send Us Your Stories:Have you experienced high-strangeness, seen something unexplained in the skies, or have local folklore to share? Send your encounter to: wyrdwessex@pm.meJoin the Wyrdo Community:Buy Me a Coffee (Ad-Free Episodes, Discord & Bonus Shows):https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wyrdwessexInstagram: @Wyrd_Wessex (Make sure to include the underscore!)Shop our merch: https://www.redbubble.com/people/saxonforageruk/shop?asc=uStay Wyrd!Written and hosted by Craig Brooks and Andy StevensEdited by Craig BrooksIntro music by Antipodean Writer: Full of Soul - Neon Waves Extended - RemixOutro music by Colt Fingaz: Ding Ding Dong