The Devil's Fingermarks | Series 6 Episode 1: Bedfordshire
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Show notes
On the first episode of Three Ravens Series 6, we are making a right old fuss about an often overlooked county when it comes to folklore - Bedfordshire, the county of John Bunyan, little blue spacemen, and mysterious Medieval serial killers...
We start off chatting about both St Winwaloe's Day, which is surprisingly saucy actually, and all the madness of Shrove Monday, after which we bustle across to Bedfordshire!
After chatting through some amazing aspects of Bedfordshire's history, as represented by three pretty jaw-dropping historical finds, including the Dunstable Swan Jewel, a magical Viking sword, and a bunch of long-hidden skeletons, Martin then sits us down for Afternoon Tea, revisits the topic of Clangers, and introduces us to Chocolate Toothpaste, all of which are contenders for Bedfordshire's County Dish!
After that, we get stuck into some folklore, including the spooky afterlife of the airmen who died in the R101 airship disaster, the now-leveled ancient henge arena and worship ground where the Celtic god Lugh drank the wellsprings of revelation, and discuss Bedfordshire's plethora of Shucks - all supplemented by some excerpts from next Saturday's Local Legends interview with local historian David Longman, who has a very naughty rector he wants to warn you about...
Then it's on to the main event: Martin's story "The Devil's Fingermarks" which combines the Dark Lord himself with horse-stealing Georgians, Horace Walpole, William Beckford, and a rather haunted gothic castle!
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Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.
Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’
We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.
Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.
Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…
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