Author: Jo

Ep 61: Wollaton Gnomes Special with Kate Ray and Dr Neil Rushton

This episode, is part of a Wollaton Special which initially released on Sunday evening as a video on my YouTube channel. If you are not familiar with the Wollaton Gnomes encounter here’s a short explanation:

On 23rd September 1979, six school children reported encountering thirty gnomes driving ‘Noddy’ type cars around Wollaton Park, near where they lived in Nottingham. It had taken place around 8.15pm, while they were playing.

After a series of events, they ran from the park and some of the younger children appeared to be traumatised afterwards. Upon return to school, their headmaster tape recorded separate interviews with all the children.

They answered a number of questions about their experiences and gave detailed descriptions of the gnomes. This transcript still exists and is available here.

In the following days, local and national press released articles about the incident. The case eventually went quiet. To date, the witnesses have been unresponsive to multiple appeals to discuss the event.

In 2022, Dr Simon Young published a collection of essays about the Nottingham fairy mystery which, I contributed to along with some other researchers including Dr Jack Hunter, Dr Neil Rushton, and Kate Ray.

Neil, Kate and I recently took an expedition to Wollaton Park and in the YouTube version I’ve included a short film about what we did there. If you are interested, I’d recommend going there and watching the film and please do subscribe as it all really helps the Project. But Effectively, we we aimed to connect with the landscape and sense out the areas where events may possibly have taken place.

At the end of our gnome wander video we hold a debrief session which took place a couple of days after our trip. I’ll be sharing that debrief session here in this episode. We plan further expeditions later this year and I will produce more episodes about the case later in the year.

Watch this space for further action in this area and I hope you enjoy the episode.

⭐️Join the Curious Crew to support the show and access bonus content on Patreon ⭐️

Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

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Shownotes

I highly recommend Dr Simon Young’s and Chris Woodyard’s episode about the Wollaton Gnomes on their and Boggart and Banshee Podcast.

Kate Ray and Neil Rushton also produced an episode about the Wollaton Case and a further one involved a chat with Dan Green who was also a contributor to the book.

And Kate will be releasing a gnome-themed novel set in Wollaton Park in June 2023

If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon

Ep 60: Owen Staton Storyteller: Welsh Fairies and Legends

I chat with Owen Staton, host of storytelling podcast, Time Between Times and Spectre of the Sea, an atmospheric thriller series weaving Welsh legend and folklore, which he co-hosts with Bethan Briggs-Miller (pictured above). We are treated to not one but TWO fantastic stories…including my personal favourite about the Tylwyth Teg (Welsh Fae folk) plus we hear Welsh legend, Gwion and the Witch .

Time Between Times Podcast

We hear about Owen’s childhood orb experience and he recounts some strange occurrences that took place during his days working as a police officer in south Wales.

Get yourselves comfortable and settle down for this tremendous treat of a storytelling session. Warning: while listening to Owen’s stories do not drive or operate machinery.

Main Image: Owen and Bethan Briggs-Miller host Spectre of the Sea.

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Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

Please subscribe, rate and share this podcast 💚 

🌟 Please subscribe to the YouTube Channel 🌟
Owen hosts ‘Spectre of the Sea’ podcast with Bethan Briggs-Miller.

Two Bonus Patreon Episodes!

⭐️The first bonus episode on Patreon is a Pixie talk by Claire Casely, fairy researcher and Host of Faery Whispering Podcast, who lives in Devon. As a further bonus, Owen will join The Curious Crew on Patreon, 22nd August for a Zoom chat, Q and A plus an exclusive story-time.⭐️

If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon

Ep 59: The Burgundy Kingdom – Shropshire Fairies

This episode, full of childhood encounters, holds a particularly enchanting quality. As a sick child lies in bed, he is visited by pixies. On another occasion, at the end of the Second World War, a terrifying goblin appears at the end of his bed. A member of the same family later experiences a bedtime parade of magical wonders. Her resulting dream journeys to a ‘Burgundy Kingdom’ makes her wish dearly that she could return.

Some of those experiences are beautiful and wondrous while others are quite unsettling. A further reminder that this podcast is not suitable for children or for those who are sensitive to creepy content.

⭐️On the bonus episode we hear more about the history of the house including a particularly unnerving event which took place soon after the passing of its owner. In that same bonus we will hear about our guest’s experience at the famous 800 year old oak tree, Old Knobbly in Essex.⭐️

Main Image: ‘The Sleepless Child’ by H. Stratton from ‘Songs for Little People’ (1896)

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Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

Subscribe, rate, review and share the wonder ❤️✨

If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon

Ep 58: Professor Ronald Hutton’s Encounter with a Leannán Sídhe

Professor Ronald Hutton of University of Bristol

Professor Ronald Hutton, a leading expert on ancient and medieval paganism and magic, shares an Otherworldly encounter which took place near the Ring of Kerry on the west coast of Ireland, during his twenties.

We discuss his personal experience and he offers what traditional fairylore can tell us about modern encounters with the Unseen.

A video version of this interview is available on Patreon. An exclusive bonus episode will follow this coming week!

⭐️Join the Curious Crew to support the show and access bonus content on Patreon ⭐️

Please subscribe, rate and share this podcast 💚 

Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon

Ep 57: Processional Gnomes, Psychopomps and Chanting Monks of Staffordshire

A plethora of encounters and experiences from two sisters who grew up in the Staffordshire Moorlands. Twins, Gemma and Kate lived on a farm in Leek and their experiences shared here include: trooping gnomes, lights in trees, a visitation from a Raven at a funeral, spectral chanting monks, disappearing and reappearing objects and much much more!

⭐️In the exclusive bonus on Patreon, our guests share further spooky events which took place at a haunted hotel in Devon that used to be owned by a member of her family. Plus, I will read some supernatural lore and weird tales of Staffordshire including the headless horseman of Onecote, local fairies dancing in a ring near Leek, the Black Mere of Morridge and Lud’s Church. Staffordshire seems to be quite a hot spot!⭐️

*Bonus will release on Monday 24th April at 4pm at https://www.patreon.com/themodernfairysightingspodcast

Main Image: “Pro Pàtria” fragment of verses from the same chapter of Liliana.
by Apel les Mestres 1907

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Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

Show notes

A photo I took on the path to Tintagel Castle in Cornwall (the legendary place of King Arthur’s conception and birth!). I think it’s a raven. Or is it a crow?


Ravens

Ravens, the largest birds in the corvid family, are well known in folklore as psychopomps – creatures who lead the recently deceased souls to and from the afterlife as part of the transmigration process.

The Morrigan famously takes the form of the raven as does the Welsh god, Bran the Blessed. In Native American mythology they are known as messenger spirits and guardians of magic. In Northern European folklore, ravens were viewed as guides for the dead. Odin himself had two ravens, Huginn (thought) and Muninn (memory) who flew around the world gathering knowledge on his account, similar to Lugh the Irish God who also had two ravens.

Processional Gnomes

It was the Irish poet, William Butler Yeats who originally divided the fairies into ‘trooping’ and ‘solitary’ in his book, Irish Fairy and Folk Tales. The general sense is that the troopers are largely benevolent while the solitary folk can be mischievious or dangerous. However, from my own pleasant experience with what appeared to be a solitary Fae man, the above does not necessarily ring true!

Other instances of these observed formation of Fairies are in Episode 31: Arrival of the Fairy Host. I also mention previous guests of the show, Dr Jack Hunter and Dr Neil Rushton‘s experiences.

Mentions

Lights in the Sky https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12367516/reviews

Mixon Mine Fairies: https://ludchurchmyblog.wordpress.com/places-of-other-local-interest/mixon-mine-fairies/

Gem’s She-Shed and Garden Sightings

Gem talks about some anomalous lights in her shed, which I will upload on Monday 24th April. In the meantime, check out this strange photo which seems to capture a being with a hat wandering around her garden!! If anyone out there is an expert on photos and videos, please contact me.

Gem’s ‘Missing Jewellery’ story on BBC Sounds:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0f3108w

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If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon

Ep 56: London Goblins Pt 2 “They Live Among Us”

Following Episode 55: Terrified by Goblins in my London Flat, in this second part of our interview, my guest reveals what was going on in her life at the time of the encounter. She describes the sense of trauma that these types of experiences can sometimes leave you with.

We also discuss her childhood and how home environment, family traditions and beliefs can encourage children’s imaginations to foster a sense of limitless possibility, which can continue into adulthood.`

⭐️ In the bonus episode on Patreon, we hear some further reflections from our guest about the location where the events took place. Join us there for just £3 a month and get access to the Discord group, Zoom chats and meet each other at exclusive events ⭐️

This episode features amazing FAN ART inspired by the previous episode by artist and listener of the show, Jonathan Dodd. Thank you Jonathan for allowing me to share your creation! Our guest said that she felt the artwork will either help listeners visualise the situation or give them nightmares! She said she remembers them, “looking a bit different to this (much more evil, dirty and intense) but the green bodies, angle and the window behind is really very good and it’s a wonderful picture.”

Main image: ‘The Goblins That Watch You Poo’ by Jonathan Dodd inspired by the previous episode.

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Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

Show notes

Image Reddit: https://i.redd.it/mamehuq8as141.jpg

Hypnopompia

Our guest rising in the night to use the loo provides a potential hypnopompic aspect to the event. The state when we are still heavy with sleep and not quite awake is called hypnopompia relating to the Greek words hýpnos, meaning “sleep,” and pompḗ, meaning “a sending away”.

We may gain access to the unconscious mind during these times as we’re not fully integrated in the material world but hovering at an etheric level where we can access enlightening information and visions.

Visionaries such as Salvador Dali, Mary Shelley and Thomas Edison enlisted these states for inspiration, by holding objects in their hands while relaxing. When their hands became limp as they fell into a sleep state, the object’s falling clattering noise would arouse them. That altered state allowed them to access ideas and visions from deep within their consciousness.

Here’s a nice article on hypnogogia (altered state when going into sleep): https://lonerwolf.com/hypnagogia/

Old Maps Online

I mentioned this website https://www.oldmapsonline.org/ which can overlay historical maps with contemporary ones.

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If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon

Ep 55: Terrified by Goblins in my London Flat!

In 2018, after months of unusual phenomena in her London flat, a woman finally came face to face with the troublesome culprits. During a night time trip to the bathroom she was horrified to see two goblins, stacked one atop the other, peering at her from the threshold of the door. 

Since that time, she has struggled to come to terms with the reality of what happened.  In our western society, people are wholly unaccepting that these experiences take place, least of all that they could ever happen in urban areas. 

We discuss the events that finally led to that night, her relationship with the flat, which had always unnerved visitors and how the decision to share her story was not taken lightly. 

Is it purely location that invokes these visitations? What other factors are involved? We discuss aspects of liminality including thresholds, stages of life and geographical landmarks. 

✨In the bonus episode on Patreon, I narrate several other modern encounters which bear a striking resemblance to our guest’s experience. Join us there for just £3 a month and get access to the Discord group and regular events.✨

Main image: Created by the guest as a close likeness of the one of the goblins she saw in her flat.

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Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

Show notes

Briggs, K. (1976) An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies and Other Supernatural Creatures. New York: Pantheon Books.

Bathing Fairies of Ilkley on Boggart and Banshee Podcast (Simon Young and Chris Woodyard)

Bord, J.  (1997) Fairies: Real Encounters with Little People. London: Michael O’Mara Books

Goblin Market, Christina Rossetti (composed in 1859 and published in 1862)

Subscribe, rate, review and share the wonder ❤️✨

If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon

Ep 54: Claire Casely ‘The Fairy Whisperer’

A relaxing chat with Claire Casely, known as The Fairy Whisperer. Claire lives in Magical Dartmoor and is an intuitive artist, researcher, and storyteller, engaging people with faery enchantment through nature, the landscape and creativity. She has a podcast called Faery Whispering and she also writes and makes faery art.

Claire shares the pixie experience that she had alongside her mum and reveals a mini initiation she was called to, as an introduction to a Fae being, in a local walking spot that she visited.

We also discuss how it’s sometimes difficult to discuss our fairy interests with loved ones and how we can manage those situations. Plus pre-cognitive dreams, fairy guides and much much more!


The bonus for members of Patreon is an exclusive faery guide audio pathworking from Claire’s Faery Journey of Heart Awakening which she talks about during our chat.
 
This episode was also released on the Modern Fairy Sightings YouTube channel.

https://youtu.be/wlraJt9IpzQ

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Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

Subscribe, rate, review and share the wonder ❤️✨

If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Show notes

I’m Claire Casely, a Faery Whisperer, take my hand and I’ll guide you through the twilight woodland, where They are waiting to meet you…listen for the whispers from your heart and be the change.

Claire’s Faery Whispering Podcast explores the multi-sensory pathways into the Otherworld of faeries and other Supernatural beings, from listening to messages in owl hoots, singing to the sea in a moonlit cove, seeing through the eyes of a faery artist, or what to give a gnome when they come to dinner…

Photos from the Show

The naturally formed ‘fairy door’ discussed in the episode with the ‘bow tie’ rune: Dagaz ᛞ meaning “day”, “dawn”, “awakening” :

A selection of Claire’s insightful artwork is available at Etsy.com

Claire Casely ‘The Fairy Whisperer’ www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheFaeryWhisperer

Claire’s Links:

Art available on Etsy: www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheFaeryWhisperer

Intuitive Faery Portrait Readings: www.faerywhisperer.co.uk/faery-guide-portrait/ 

Webpage: www.faerywhisperer.co.uk/about_claire/

Social Media:

Podcast Facebook Group

Twitter

Instagram

Support Claire’s podcast & art:

Faery Whisperer Patreon Community:

www.patreon.com/faerywhisperer

Ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/faerywhisperer

Other links:

I mentioned Graham Hancock’s Ancient Apocalypse:
ahttps://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81211003

and Quest for the Lost Civilisation:

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/quest-for-the-lost-civilisation

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon
Become a Patron!

Ep 53: Dartmoor Gnomes and Seer Lineage

Another delve into the original interview recordings I made in early 2017 when the Modern Fairy Sightings Project first launched.  Mark Norman and I were at the time researching for the Devon chapter in Simon Young’s book Magical Folk.

One particular woman responded to a poster I’d pinned up in Dartmoor, calling for people to contact with their fairy encounters! We spoke about her family history with fairies and her own understandings of the Otherworld. 

Later on in the show, I share more reported fairy sightings on Dartmoor featured in Janet Bord’s book, Fairies: Real Encounters with Little People.

In the bonus episode on Patreon, we explore  20th century Dartmoor folklore by Theo Brown, which mentions a few stories of sightings in Postbridge, not far from Bovey Tracey, where our guest had lived.

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Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

Shownotes

Janet Bord’s Fairies: Real Encounters with Little People (1997)

Theo Brown’s Tales of a Dartmoor Village: Some Preliminary Notes of the Folklore of Postbridge (1973)

Susan Chittenden’s A Romance of Two Worlds (2021) (pls email me for Susan’s contact)

J. R. W. Coxhead – Devon Traditions and Fairytales (1959)

Edward L. Gardner: Fairies: A Book of Real Fairies (1974)

Marjorie T. Johnson’s (Simon Young ed) Seeing Fairies: From the Lost Archives of the Fairy Investigation Society, Authentic Reports of Fairies in Modern Times (2019)

Dermot MacManus Middle Kingdom: The Faerie World of Ireland (1980)

Simon Young’s Magical Folk: British and Irish Fairies: 500AD to the Present (2020)


Subscribe, rate, review and share the wonder ❤️✨

If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon

Ep 52: Interview with Kate ‘Hare Girl’ Ray

I speak with paranormal investigator, Kate ‘Hare Girl’ Ray from her excellent YouTube podcast show, Hare in the Hawthorn.

Originally hailing from Nottingham, Kate has a particular interest in the Wollaton Gnomes case, and is a published author on the subject. She also writes for Haunted Magazine and creates magnificent mushroom-related art pieces in her spare time!

Kate shares a gnome encounter that took place in her teens at the Uffington White Horse and describes the time she acted as a mediator between a troubled home owner and an angry French Fae being, for the TV show Help my House is Haunted.  We also discuss the strange potency of this time we are living through. 

A video version of this episode will release on The Modern Fairy Sightings YouTube channel next weekend. 

 
In the bonus episode waiting for you on Patreon, Kate shares a shocking experience which left her terrified but offered a greater understanding and respect for the Fae.  Join us there for access to a whole back catalogue of bonus episodes.

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Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

Shownotes

In the main episode, Kate describes a being she saw on the way down to Wayland Smithy from the Uffington Horse. Here’s what she created in its likeness:

Likeness of a Fairy Being seen by Kate Ray in the bushes near Wayland Smithy
By Kate HareGirl Ray of Hare in the Hawthorn

Subscribe, rate, review and share the wonder ❤️✨

If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon