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The strange side of Peterborough
History · folklore · memory · mystery

Peterborough
Folklore

A Wild Hunt thundered through the medieval record. Demons still pull at a falling man on the Cathedral. John Clare watched unexplained lights move through Helpston, Fen horsemen whispered about toad bones, and ordinary streets acquired ghosts of their own.

Explore a growing collection of Peterborough's myths, legends, strange encounters and old traditions, grounded in chronicles, churches, poetry, landscape, archaeology and the stories people kept telling.

Explore the stories ↓ Try a Weird Weekend → Peterborough’s Strange Literary Tradition →
Choose your way into the strange

Stories without
a compulsory route.

Start with ghosts, Cathedral mysteries, Fenland creatures, John Clare, early England or stories that simply refuse to fit anywhere else. Filter the collection, search for a place or name, or let Peterborough choose a story for you.

Peterborough Folklore Story Atlas Find your story
Showing all stories
Button Cap of Barnack Barnack · ghost Button Cap The rectory ghost everybody heard. Enter story Come Devil and Blow on the Fire Abbey · fire · 1116 Come, Devil A reckless sentence and a real medieval catastrophe. Enter story Drumming Up the Dead River Nene · old custom Drumming Up the Dead A loaf, quicksilver and a search for the drowned. Enter story Hereward and the White Wolf Hereward · wolf · vision Hereward and the White Wolf History becomes legend in the darkness beyond the abbey. Follow the wolf Lady Conyburrow's Way Castor · saint · landscape Lady Conyburrow's Way A saintly path through a landscape much older than the legend. Follow the way Old Scarlett Cathedral · Tudor Old Scarlett Peterborough's sexton and two extraordinary royal burials. Meet Old Scarlett Robin Hood and Little John Alwalton · ancient stones Robin Hood and Little John Two old stones acquired one extremely ambitious archery story. Find the stones Simon Magus at the West Door Cathedral · demons Simon Magus An upside-down man is pulled apart beneath the West Front. Look down St Mark's Eve in Paston Churchyard Paston · omen · 24 April St Mark's Eve One night was said to reveal the year's weddings and funerals. Enter the churchyard St Pega of Peakirk Peakirk · Anglo-Saxon St Pega of Peakirk The woman whose name still survives in the place itself. Meet St Pega Sugar Cupping at East Well Helpston · Whitsun Sugar Cupping John Clare preserved a gentle Helpston wishing custom. Visit East Well The Disembowelled Knight Orton Longueville · effigy The Disembowelled Knight One carved detail inspired a much darker local explanation. Examine the knight The Finger Holes in the Hedda Stone Cathedral · Anglo-Saxon The Hedda Stone Six mysterious holes in one of Peterborough's oldest monuments. Find the holes The Garton End Ghost Garton End · 1926 The Garton End Ghost A black-hooded figure appeared repeatedly on an ordinary road. Follow the witness The Ghost of Woodcroft Castle Woodcroft · Civil War The Ghost of Woodcroft Castle A haunting built around a very real killing in 1648. Enter Woodcroft The Hare in the Minster Close Cathedral Close · omen The Hare in the Close A hare in the precinct was said to warn that fire would follow. Follow the omen The Paschal Pickerel Cathedral · lost glass The Paschal Pickerel Why was a pike remembered at the Last Supper? Find the fish The Plough Witches Plough Monday · John Clare The Plough Witches Disguise, misrule and one wild day in the working year. Join the procession The Princes, the Hart and the Well in the Cloister Cathedral · foundation legend The Princes and the Hart A hunt, a saint and the legendary beginning of Christian Peterborough. Follow the hart The Shag Foal Barnack · Helpston · creature The Shag Foal Darkness turned a familiar landscape into something much stranger. Meet the creature The Three Dead Kings of Longthorpe Longthorpe · medieval warning The Three Dead Kings Three living kings meet the future waiting for every one of them. Enter Longthorpe The Toadmen Fenland · horsemen · ritual The Toadmen One bone was said to give its owner extraordinary power over horses. Enter the ritual The Wild Hunt of 1127 Peterborough Abbey · 1127 The Wild Hunt of 1127 Black riders and monstrous hounds entered Peterborough's chronicle. Hear the hunt The Will-o'-the-Wisps of Helpston Helpston · John Clare · lights The Will-o'-the-Wisps Strange lights frightened one of England's sharpest observers of nature. Follow the lights The Witch of Ailsworth Ailsworth · early England The Witch of Ailsworth Her name vanished. The accusation and the land survived. Meet the widow The Woman in Black of Woodston Woodston · remembered haunting The Woman in Black An ordinary street kept an extraordinary memory alive. Walk into Woodston Wansford in England Wansford · Nene · old legend Wansford in England A floating haycock became a village identity. Float into the story
Nothing matches that search yet. Try another name, place or kind of strange.

The stories are only the beginning.

Folklore becomes more interesting when you put it back into the buildings, landscapes and lives that produced it.

Go and find it Peterborough Weird Weekends Turn the strange stories into real places, curious objects, short missions and weekend routes through Peterborough. Start a Weird Weekend → Put it in context Peterborough History Go beyond legend into the archaeology, people, events and turning points that shaped Peterborough across thousands of years. Explore the history → Meet the people Peterborough People Discover the saints, rebels, poets, queens, chroniclers and remarkable characters who keep appearing inside these stories. Meet Peterborough's people →