In this instalment, we recap our journey making homemade cider and take you along for our very own Wassail! (Wassail!!!)

For those wondering why we were shouting at apple trees, the tradition of wassailing generally falls into two camps:

• The House-Visit: Traditionally held on the Twelfth Night (January 5th), people would go door-to-door with a communal bowl in exchange for gifts.
• The Orchard-Visit: This is the cider-country classic. We headed into the orchard to sing to the trees, a custom meant to ensure a massive harvest for the coming year.
• 
  

The word "wassail" comes from the Old Norse ves heill (Old English wes hál), literally translating to "be in good health." It started as a simple salutation like "hail" or "farewell,".

To round out the episode, you are treated to some live electronic music from Ross to keep the energy going.

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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11aI_MQ-uxknR1lucg4e3oumz7k3cxAkqFf0jtK-lwH4/edit?usp=sharing

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From the Poole pirate Harry Paye to smugglers’ caves, spectral bells and wartime wrecks, the trio pick through centuries of myth and mischief along the Purbeck coast. Expect talk of devils sleeping on cliffs, parsons blessing sea caves, and ships dashed to pieces in the dark.

Back at the virtual Dark Darzet Studios, the discussion drifts between folklore, local history, and questionable nautical knowledge – with a generous helping of chaos. Two out of three hosts weren’t wearing trousers, and quite a lot of farting had to be cut out in the edit.

All that, plus the usual meandering chat and unverified facts, in an episode recorded entirely online – because kayaking home with recording gear seemed like a terrible idea.

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Once a Neolithic long barrow, the Hellstone was reassembled in 1866 after its mighty capstone collapsed. But history isn’t the only thing lurking among the stones.

On the way back, as the shadows deepened and the air turned cold, they crossed paths with a man tormented by the presence of a large black dog. He spoke of other strange creatures seen roaming the darkness.

Music: Fantasy Overture by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Sound Effect by petrakwn and Gregor Quendelfrom Pixabay

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They originally set out to discuss the pub’s haunted history and the lifeboat disaster that launched from the station just around the corner. However, after too much rum, beer, wine, and whiskey, they ended up completely sidetracked, diving into the origins of nautical terms instead.

We can also heartily recommend the steak and chips—it might be the beer talking, but it's probably the nicest pub we've been to in Weymouth in ages. Highly recommended!

Grab your headphones, pour yourself a drink (or several), and enjoy this chaotic but entertaining virtual pub experience. Cheers!

https://theredlionweymouth.co.uk

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Stops on Our Tour:

Maumbury Rings

Story by Ross

• The ancient grounds of Ghostly Romans and the legend of the Bleeding Phantom.

Antelope Walk

Story by Kate

• Tales of Judge Jeffreys sightings and the mysteries of Dorchester’s Haunted Tunnels.

Dorset Museum

Story by Caz

• The story of the Sobbing Lady, a spirit whose mournful presence lingers in the museum’s quiet halls.

Hangman’s Cottage

Story by Henry

• Henry tells the tale of the Drowned Prisoner’s vengeful spirit and the cottage’s grim history with the hangman himself.

The Town Pump

Story by David

• Sightings of the Faceless Boy near the old pump have spooked many over the years.

The Balti Express

Story by Becca

• Finally, the tragic tale of the Distraught Girl, a ghost said to haunt this unexpected place.

Walk Along With Us!

If you’re ever in Dorchester, you can follow the same route and listen along!

Here’s our route: Our Ghost Walk Route

Happy Hauntings! Listen if you dare.

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Back at the Dark Darzet Studios, they’re joined by Henry to reflect on the field visit and dive into the folklore surrounding these two intriguing sites. They also catch up on some bizarre local news, including a new crop circle near Badbury Rings, the Neolithic burial site at Thomas Hardy’s former home in Dorchester, which was recently granted special protection as a scheduled monument on the advice of Historic England, and the temporary arrival of a second moon orbiting Earth.

All this, plus plenty of uninformed chatter, chaos, and fun as they return—now even less organized than ever!

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Nestled beneath a canopy of ancient holly and fir trees, the trio explores the weathered remains of this 4,000-5,000-year-old monument. Their exploration takes an unexpected turn as they encounter remnants of local tradition. They craft a symbolic "Green Man" offering and fling mud at a bewildered Ross.

Intrigued by the site's history, our intrepid hosts delve into local lore, unearthing whispers of magical rituals once performed by the infamous Aleister Crowley. Stay tuned for a discussion on whether "hung like a shew" is truly an insult or a peculiar compliment!

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Join Ross, David, and Henry for a chilling journey to Wareham, Dorset, where ancient traditions meet modern mysteries.

This episode delves into the intrigue of the Court Leet, a centuries-old legal system with eccentric roles like:

The Steward: The Lord's right-hand man, presiding over proceedings.

The Bailiff: Enacting the court's decisions.

The Reeve: The Bailiff's deputy.

Constable: Keeping order.

Carniters and Chimney Peeper: Ensuring the town's hygiene.

Scavenger: Battling unseen plagues in the town's alleys and privies.

But the darkness deepens with a recent ghost hunt in a local pub maybe linked to a shocking burglary at the historic church. Explosions rock the night as thieves make off with priceless treasures. Did they have spectral help, or is something more sinister at play?

Join the Dark Darzet crew as they:

Unravel the secrets of the Court Leet and its ghostly guardians.

Investigate the chilling ghost hunt and its paranormal encounters.

Piece together the clues behind the church burglary, a crime with explosive consequences.

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Derived from the Celtic word "durnov", meaning "fist", Durnovaria was founded by the Romans in 60 AD. The name aptly reflects the landscape of the area, with fist-sized pebbles found in abundance.

The Romans established Durnovaria as their administrative center for the Durotriges tribe, a Celtic group that inhabited southwestern England. Conquered by the Romans in 43 AD, the Durotriges adapted to Roman rule, adopting their customs and practices, and continuing to reside in the region after the Romans left.

Maiden Castle, an Iron Age hillfort, stands as a testament to the Durotriges' ingenuity. Built for both defense and ceremonial purposes, it stands as one of the few surviving Roman temples in Britain.

West Dorset boasts numerous hill forts, each serving as a stronghold against invaders and a hub for trade.

Intriguingly, some locals claim to have witnessed UFO sightings in the skies above Dorchester. Additionally, a nuclear bunker lies beneath Poundbury, adding to the town's aura of mystery.

Join Ross David and Henry as they unravel the secrets of Durnovaria, a town steeped in history and intrigue.

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Dorchester Prison was a Category B men's prison located in Dorchester, Dorset, England. It was built in 1855 and closed in 2013. The prison was originally designed to house 200 inmates, but by the time it closed it was holding over 500.

The team used a variety of methods to try to contact the spirits of the prison's former inmates, including table tipping, Ouija boards, and processed robots.

Also, we hear more about Nigel's friend's ghost encounter.

Music and SFX provided by https://slip.stream and Audio jungle

https://www.mosthauntedexperience.com/dorchester-prison

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Ross and David explored the island's hidden corners, searching for clues to its past. They discovered a dark side to Brownsea Island, a place where strange things have happened and secrets have been buried.

What mysteries does Brownsea Island hold? What happened to Mary Bonham-Christie? What secrets lie hidden in Maryland? Ross and David's visit to Brownsea Island is a journey into the unknown, where the past is still alive and the mysteries are waiting to be solved.

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The graveyard is a popular tourist destination, and it is said to be haunted by the ghosts of pirates. There are also a number of other legends associated with the graveyard, including the story of a pirate who was buried alive, and the story of a young woman who was killed by a pirate.

Beer featured in this episode:

Hattie Browns - Crow Black

http://www.hattiebrownsbrewery.co.uk/craft-beers-hattie-browns-brewery-swanage/

Hawkstone

https://hawkstone.co/

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The Blue Boar

The Blue Boar is a pub in Poole, Dorset, England. It is said to be haunted by the ghost of a young woman who was murdered in the tunnels beneath the pub in the 18th century. The tunnels are no longer accessible to the public, if they exist at all?

The Angel

The Angel is another pub in Poole, Dorset, England. It is said to be haunted by the ghosts of two children who were killed in a fire in the 19th century. The children's ghosts are said to play in the window of the pub, and their laughter can sometimes be heard at night.

The Crown Hotel

The Crown Hotel is a hotel in Poole, Dorset, England. It is said to be the most haunted building in Poole. Guests and staff have reported seeing a variety of ghosts, including a headless horseman, a woman in a white dress, and a group of soldiers.

The Old Harbour Office

The Old Harbour Office is a former office building in Poole, Dorset, England. It is now a museum. The building is said to be haunted by the ghost of the mayor of Poole, who was murdered in the building in the 18th century. The mayor's ghost is said to walk the corridors of the building at night.

The King Charles Inn

The King Charles Inn is a pub in Poole, Dorset, England. It is said to be haunted by the ghosts of two people who committed suicide in the pub in the 19th century. The ghosts are said to be seen sitting at a table in the pub, and their voices can sometimes be heard.

The Quay Front

The Quay Front is a waterfront area in Poole, Dorset, England. It is said to be haunted by the ghost of a woman who was whipped to death by her husband in the 18th century. The woman's ghost is said to walk along the quayside at night, crying and begging for help.

The Portsmouth Hoy

The ghostly galleons of Poole are a series of phantom ships that are said to haunt the waters around Poole Harbour in Dorset, England. The ships are said to be the spirits of ships that were lost at sea, and they are often seen sailing through the harbour at night.

The Lord Nelson

The Lord Nelson is a pub in Poole, Dorset, England. It is said to be haunted by the ghost of an artist who committed suicide in the pub in the 19th century. The artist's ghost is said to be seen sitting at a table in the pub, painting.

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The Nine Stones is part of a tradition of stone circle construction that spread through much of Great Britain, Ireland, and Brittany between 3,300 and 900 BCE, during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age.

The purpose of such rings is unknown, although archaeologists speculate that the stones represented supernatural entities for the circle's builders.

At least nine of these stone circles are known to have been constructed near modern Dorset. They are smaller than those found elsewhere in Great Britain and are typically built from sarsen stone.

The word "sarsen" is a shortening of "Saracen stone" which arose in the Wiltshire dialect. In the Middle Ages, "Saracen" was a common name for Muslims, and came by extension to be used for anything regarded as non-Christian, whether Muslim or pagan in contrast to Christianity.

Located in the bottom of a narrow valley, the Nine Stones circle has a diameter of 9.1 by 7.8 metres (29 feet 10 inches by 25 feet 7 inches). It consists of nine irregularly spaced sarsen megaliths, with a small opening on its northern side.

Two of the stones on the northwestern side of the monument are considerably larger than the other seven. This architectural feature has parallels with various stone circles in southwestern Scotland, and was potentially a deliberate choice of the circle's builders, to whom it may have had symbolic meaning.

Local folklore has grown up around the circle, associating it with the Devil and with children petrified into rock.

We also discuss David’s pub adventures, going to see Enys Men and Ross drinks 

Freedom Hiker from gyle59

https://gyle59.co.uk/beershop/p/freedom-hiker-500ml

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Watch the video where we visited the site:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDazGx2TAk0&list=PL7hdqQ7VjXDqDZLUuiVPzdV5VuonOPWFV&index=6

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A witch, who had taken the form of a black cat, was killed while sitting on the toll gate in Ulwell near Swanage. Since then, the gate is said to open for those who travel late at night...

The Sheela Na Gig of Studland

St Nicolas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, and students.

After raiding Lindisfarne Priory in Northumbria in AD793, the Vikings occupied, harassed, and sacked parts of England until the Norman Conquest. Studland's own church was destroyed in C9, and Wareham was sacked at least three times.

Studland's St Nicola church is unmistakably Norman and probably dates from the end of the 11th century. Oral tradition tells us that it was used by smugglers to store contraband between the 16th and 19th centuries. One of its most notable features is its corbels.

An ornamental bracket that juts from a wall to support a superincumbent weight is called a corbel. A corbel is an integral piece of the wall, while a console is attached to the structure. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger" in England.

The corbels in Studland include a copulating couple, one (maybe two) shela na gigs and a couple of men who have had their knobs knocked off.

Sheela na gigs are figurative carvings of naked women displaying an exaggerated vulva. They are architectural grotesques found throughout most of Europe on cathedrals, castles, and other buildings. The greatest concentrations can be found in Ireland, Great Britain, France and Spain, sometimes together with male figures. Ireland has the greatest number of surviving sheela na gig carvings; Joanne McMahon and Jack Roberts cite 101 examples in Ireland and 45 examples in Britain

Most of all the surviving in situ sheela na gigs are found in areas of Anglo-Norman conquest (12th century). The areas that remained "native Irish" have few sheela na gigs. It is argued that their location on churches and the grotesque features of the figures, by medieval standards, suggest that they represented female lust as hideous and sinfully corrupting.

Another theory is that the carvings are remnants of a pre-Christian fertility or mother goddess religion. They note what they claim are differences of materials and styles of some sheela na gigs from their surrounding structures, and noting that some are turned on their side, to support the idea that they were incorporated from previous structures into early Christian buildings.

Jørgen Andersen writes that the name is an Irish phrase, originally "Sighle na gCíoch", meaning "the old hag of the breasts"

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Thorncombe Wood has been a wonderful feature of the Dorset countryside as far back as the time of famous novelist Thomas Hardy in the 1800s.

David and Ross went to explore the site of the haunting, beautifully described in the book Mysterious Dorset by Rodney Legg, kindly donated to the podcast by friend of the show Gareth

Watch the videos we made visiting these sites here:

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Find the places we visited on our Dark Darzet map here:

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Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence CB DSO was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer, who became renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.

Lawrence lived (for a time) and died in Dorset. Tales have been told of his ghostly motorcycle haunting the road where he died. There’s a conspiracy theory about his death, did he die? Or was he taken somewhere else? His ghost has also been seen in several places nearby.

We visited Lawrence's home: Clouds Hill, the site of his grave: St Nicholas' Church, Moreton, and the site of his effigy: St Martin On The Walls Church, Wareham. 

Watch the videos we made visiting these sites here:

https://tr.ee/te6j3DEKxS

Find the places we visited on our Dark Darzet map here:

https://tr.ee/dtg8GstU2i

Buy a badge and sticker here:

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Buy a Tshirt here:

https://tr.ee/58AK3noXCV

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Listen to Ross on his other podcast here:

https://tr.ee/58AK3noXCV

Also, we’d like to acknowledge another podcast that ignited the idea to do this, listen to Eerie Essex here:

https://linktr.ee/EerieEssex

Eight Arch: Square Logic

https://www.8archbrewing.co.uk/product/square-logic/

Dorset Brewing Company Jurassic Dark

https://www.dbcales.com/

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It would seem that the specific barrows they are talking about are the line of six barrows known locally as the Bincombe Bumps.Bincombe, which probably means ‘valley where beans are grown’, lies midway between Dorchester and Weymouth on the South side of the Dorset Ridgeway.

The bumps are Round Barrows or Tumulus a mound of earth and stones piled over a bronze aged grave (another name for a Tumulus is a Kurgan - which we all know is the name of the baddie in Highlander).

There seems to be a number of references to music emanating from these structures, with most of the online stories pulling you back to Bincombe.

Other methods to keep Fairies off your back are:

Turn your clothes inside out. Even a pocket inside out will do –this would appear to confuse fairies, much the same way people seem to be confused by my shaving off my beard.

Wear a holed stone amulet or bells apparently also works for cattle.

Open scissors hung above a baby’s cot: apparently stops the baby been taken and replaced by a changeling. 

Don’t eat any food offered to you. If you do you are obligated to give them something in return, and therefore you are under their power.

Apparently any fairy music you may hear will be fantastic, however will be impossible to remember.

I also came across an Artist called Tessa Farmer who made a brilliant set of sculpture/installations showing what it may look like in side the fairy mounds at Bincombe, it would appear to be a mixture of taxidermy (is this what you call Mounting and Preserving Insects?) she includes my favourite depiction of fairies yet which seem to be made of bits of flying ants reconfigured to look like tiny people with wings.

http://www.tessafarmer.com/new-gallery-4/4rcozjju450uywyo96d1mmji3u58rr

HELLEBORE

a collection of writings and essays devoted to British folk horror and the themes that inspire it: folklore, myth, history, archaeology, psychogeography, witches, and the occult. 

https://helleborezine.bigcartel.com/

https://helleborezine.bigcartel.com/product/occult-britain

Ancients of MuMu – Raspberry Ripple

"Re-brew of our collab with Elusive Brewing combining two of our favourite things… beer and ice cream.

Juicy malts combine with tart raspberry and sweet vanilla to create this dessert in a glass."

https://www.8archbrewing.co.uk/product/ancients-of-mumu/

Bluebeard’s Revenge

"We have begun work with another Devon based company, Bluebeards Revenge. With a leading range of men’s grooming products that all have distinctive branding Bluebeard have wanted a beer to compliment their ‘manly’ range!"

http://huntersbrewery.com/portfolio-item/blubeard/

Watch the videos we made visiting these sites here:

https://tr.ee/te6j3DEKxS

Find the places we visited on our Dark Darzet map here:

https://tr.ee/dtg8GstU2i

Buy a badge and sticker here:

https://tr.ee/Y0m3vWrIXc

Buy a Tshirt here:

https://tr.ee/58AK3noXCV

Tweet at us here:

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Listen to Ross on his other podcast here:

https://tr.ee/58AK3noXCV

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The Woodwose of Yellowham Forest.

-David and Ross go in search of the Dorset Bigfoot-

During our quest we drink:

Dark Ages Vanilla Porter - Copper Street Brewery, Goram IPA - Butcombe Brewery.

Check out our field report on YouTube here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFHcnYE8rPM.

Listen to our review of ‘The Ritual’ on General Witchfinders here: https://shows.acast.com/general-witchfinders/episodes/fih002-the-ritual-2017-uk-canada.

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Watch the videos we made visiting these sites here:

https://tr.ee/te6j3DEKxS

Find the places we visited on our Dark Darzet map here:

https://tr.ee/dtg8GstU2i

Buy a badge and sticker here:

https://tr.ee/Y0m3vWrIXc

Buy a Tshirt here:

https://tr.ee/58AK3noXCV

Tweet at us here:

https://tr.ee/xS47fz4rDC

Listen to Ross on his other podcast here:

https://tr.ee/58AK3noXCV

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.