Ghost Tales by the Fireside - True Ghost Stories Podcast

Why are so many of Redditch's ghostly monks described as wearing brown when the Cistercians of Bordesley Abbey were known as the White Monks?

In this episode of Dark Folklore, Clem Dallaway follows one of Redditch's most persistent supernatural traditions through the medieval landscape of Bordesley Abbey and into the modern town. Stories tell of hooded figures near Bordesley Corner, apparitions apparently walking below the modern ground level, monks crossing gardens and walls, strange figures around Ipsley Church Lane and sightings inside modern buildings.

But the brown habits may not be a mistake.

Bordesley Abbey's Cistercian community also included lay brothers, known as the conversi, who worked the farms, fields and outlying granges belonging to the monastery. Their darker clothing raises an intriguing possibility: could some of Redditch's brown-robed apparitions represent the working brothers rather than the familiar White Monks?

Then, on the morning of 9 June 2025, the story became personal.

At approximately 9:20 AM, while walking his dog through Bordesley Meadows beside the River Arrow, Clem saw what appeared to be a man in a bright white hood standing amongst dense brambles. He walked towards the figure.

It disappeared.

There was no obvious route away, no sign that anybody had moved through the undergrowth, and the place where the figure appeared to have been standing seemed almost impossible to reach.

A strange man in a white hoodie? A trick of distance and landscape? Or something connected with the White Monks who once lived and worked beside the River Arrow?

This is the story of Redditch's ghostly monks, the forgotten working landscape of Bordesley Abbey, and one unexplained encounter that Clem still cannot account for.

Throughout October, Clem is also leading The Redditch Ghost Walk, exploring the history, folklore and hauntings of the old town and Kingfisher Centre every Monday to Thursday. Tickets are £8.50 per person, with proceeds going to Redditch Local History Museum.

Ghost Walk information and tickets:
https://ghosttales.co.uk/ghostwalk

Discover more from Ghost Tales by the Fireside:
https://ghosttales.co.uk

Clem's book, The Redditch Ghost Walk: History, Folklore and Haunted Places from the Old Town to the Kingfisher Centre, is available from Amazon:
https://amzn.eu/d/093Shix6

Music featured during the October season includes the upcoming debut single “Chasing Ghosts” by Kindred Spirit, Clem's own new musical project with singer Hollie James. The song was written to inhabit the same atmospheric world as these stories: haunted places, memory, loss and the urge to keep following the traces left behind.

Ghost Tales by the Fireside explores true ghost stories, paranormal encounters, haunted places, dark folklore, local legends and the history behind them.

Presented by Clem Dallaway.
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Doctor John Lambe was one of the most notorious alleged sorcerers of seventeenth-century England — a physician, astrologer, crystal-gazer and supposed conjurer whose story began in Tardebigge, Worcestershire, before carrying him into the heart of Jacobean London.
In this episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside, we follow the extraordinary life of the man who became known as the Duke’s Devil. Lambe was accused of using witchcraft against Lord Windsor, invoking spirits, telling fortunes through a crystal glass and communicating with an entity named Benias. Stories claimed that he could reveal future husbands and wives, summon a mysterious boy dressed in green and even bring misfortune upon those who prosecuted him.
His reputation eventually brought him into the orbit of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, one of the most powerful and controversial men in England. To an increasingly suspicious public, Lambe became Buckingham’s private conjurer — a man supposedly protected by influence at the very highest levels of the royal court.
But behind the folklore lies a much darker documented history, including criminal proceedings, a royal pardon and growing public hatred that finally exploded on Friday 13 June 1628, when Lambe was pursued through the streets of London and brutally beaten by a mob.
Was John Lambe really an occult practitioner, an astrologer and folk healer, an elaborate confidence trickster, or a man whose reputation simply grew beyond his control?
This episode explores the surviving records, the supernatural stories and the remarkable way in which history, rumour and folklore became almost impossible to separate.
John Lambe’s story also takes us back to the landscape of Tardebigge in the English Midlands, where surviving records describe him as “John Lambe, late of Tardebigge”. At the time, the nearby settlement of Redditch still formed part of that ancient parish.
Throughout October, Ghost Tales by the Fireside is exploring the history, hauntings and folklore of Redditch and the surrounding area.
I’m leading the Redditch Ghost Walk every Monday to Thursday throughout October. Tickets are £8.50 per person, with proceeds going to Redditch Local History Museum.
Details and tickets:
ghosttales.co.uk/ghostwalk
My book, The Redditch Ghost Walk: History, Folklore and Haunted Places from the Old Town to the Kingfisher Centre, is available on Amazon:
https://amzn.eu/d/093Shix6
Music from the October season includes “Chasing Ghosts” by Kindred Spirit.
Ghost Tales by the Fireside explores real haunted places, historical ghost stories, folklore, strange encounters and paranormal cases from Britain and beyond.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A listener from Blyth, Northumberland shares a disturbing series of unexplained events that began inside an ordinary family home.
It started with flickering lights and a CD player apparently turning itself down. Then, during the early hours of the morning, the witness woke to find a small boy standing silently beside the bed.
Days later, a young child visiting the house ran downstairs terrified, claiming that a little boy had grabbed her arm on the landing. She also remembered one strange detail — he was carrying a small polar bear toy.
Soon afterwards, a medium reportedly asked an unexpected question: “Who’s the little boy?”
In this short Listener Stories episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside, I look at the account alongside possible explanations, from electrical faults and sleep-related experiences to coincidence, childhood fear and something altogether harder to explain.
And then there is the strangest part of all.
After the witness simply asked whoever was in the house to leave them alone, the activity stopped.
They still live in the house today.
Music featured
Among The Graves — Clem Dallaway
ISRC: QZNWR2463170
The Dark One — Clem Dallaway
ISRC: QZWFS2504572
Ghost Tales by the Fireside
www.ghosttales.co.uk
www.buymeacoffee.com/ghosttales⁠
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the summer of 1955, Frank Pell and his family moved into 32 Coxwell Road in Ladywood, Birmingham, then geographically part of Warwickshire.
Within weeks, their new home had become the centre of one of Birmingham’s strangest poltergeist cases.
The family reported unexplained knocking, whispering voices, strange smells and disturbing activity around the staircase. Then tragedy struck when their baby daughter died. Days later, their four-year-old son Alan began talking about a mysterious little white dog that nobody else could find.

A Catholic priest became involved. Journalists spent the night inside the house. Psychical researchers investigated. Birmingham Corporation examined the property.
And then another family moved in.

The haunting stopped.

In this episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside, I return to the original 1955 reports to separate the documented events from the folklore that grew around them, while exploring the history of Ladywood, Rotton Park and one of Birmingham’s strangest haunted-house stories.

Was 32 Coxwell Road genuinely haunted, or did tragedy, grief and the strange atmosphere of an old Birmingham house create a legend that outlived the building itself?

Ghost Tales by the Fireside
www.ghosttales.co.uk

Support the podcast:
www.buymeacoffee.com/ghosttales

Music Featured

Among The Graves — Clem Dallaway
ISRC: QZNWR2463170

The Dark One — Clem Dallaway
ISRC: QZWFS2504572

In 1956, the owner of Priors Court in Callow End told a valuation court that the house's haunted reputation was making it difficult to find staff.
But the stories went back much further.
Archive records from 1905–1907 preserve accounts of a luminous human figure moving through the house, a woman appearing beside a honeymooner's bed, the rustling of an unseen silk dress and a disturbing monk-like apparition accompanied by an overwhelming feeling of anger.

Then came an attempt to rid Priors Court of its haunting and an extraordinary story involving a false monk, murder and a woman searching for her daughter.

But how much of that story was true?

In this Dark Folklore episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside, we travel to Callow End in Worcestershire to investigate the strange history of Priors Court and the identity of its mysterious Grey Lady.

Music featured in this episode
Among The Graves — Clem Dallaway
ISRC: QZNWR2463170

The Dark One — Clem Dallaway
ISRC: QZWFS2504572

Ghost Tales by the Fireside

More ghost stories, folklore and haunted history:
ghosttales.co.uk

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