Illustration of strange creatures

Weird and wonderful history

A model of the so-called ‘Piltdown Man’ and a replica of its skull,

Edwardian

Q&AWho was the Piltdown Man?

General History

7 real moments in history you might think are made up

Vintners in an ale house, 1642. From a broadsheet titled ‘Health to All’, artist unknown. (Photo by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Stuart

Did Oliver Cromwell ban Christmas? The Puritan assault on Christmas during the 1640s and 1650s

John Duval Gluck, Jr, 'the Santa Claus man', pictured left, visiting the General Post Office to promote the Santa Claus Association’s benefit show

Membership

The con man who saved Christmas. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Tom Smith's Surprise Cosaques, Christmas Crackers 1878. (Image by Getty)

Victorian

The history of Christmas crackers

Depiction of a musician and dancing fool in Paris, 14th century

Medieval

What was life like for a court jester?

Black and white drawing showing King George V using a broom to sweep away several crowns adorned with the words 'Made in Germany'.

General Modern

Fake history: 3 historical untruths that shaped the world

Victorian

Q&AWhat is gaol fever and how was it caused and spread?

Londoners flee the city during the earthquake panic of April 1750. (Getty Images)

Membership

The earthquakes that rocked Georgian London (plus three more seismic events that shaped history). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Membership

3 curious medieval ghost stories. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Membership

Irving Finkel“Ghosts were taken for granted as part of everyday Mesopotamian life”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Membership

Bulldog burners and dungboys: classifying occupations in British censuses (1841-1911). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Membership

QuizWeird and wonderful history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Membership

Medieval ghost stories. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Membership

Q&AWhat was clog fighting?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Membership

7 weird and wonderful Georgian beauty treatments. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

(Illustration: Clair Rossiter for BBC History Magazine)

Membership

Beans, ale & 'windy meats': surprising 17th-century aphrodisiacs. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Membership

Danny Robins' paranormal cold casesAlanbrooke Hall, Belfast. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Membership

Supernatural stories: 9 unusual British folktales. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A scene from the German film 'Ways to Strength and Beauty', 1925. (Ullstein Bild via Getty Images)

Second World War

Germany’s naked truth: the 19th-century nudism movements co-opted by the Nazis

Suffragettes photographed in a dispute with the police

Membership

Jujitsu suffragettes: how women fought for the vote with an ancient martial art. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A depiction of folk figure Dick Whittington

Membership

Dick Whittington, the Loch Ness Monster and a talking mongoose: 8 mythical figures of British history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Membership

A homemade ouija board, a treasure hunt and fake madness: the great escape of World War I. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Dinosaur dung became a valuable commodity in 19th century Cambridgeshire. (Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Membership

Dinosaur dung billionaires: the Victorian 'gold rush' for fossilised faeces. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The fabled ‘Vegetable Lamb of Tartary’ was a plant said to grow sheep as its fruit.

Medieval

Q&AWhat was the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary?

A woodcut showing the interior of a kitchen in Elizabethan England. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Membership

Hold your noses: the smells, sounds and sights of Elizabethan England. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Membership

Unexpected Edwardians. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration of a man without a head, but with his face on his chest. This is one of many creatures Sir John Mandeville claimed to have met on his travels

Membership

A knight's (tall) tale: why medieval traveller Sir John Mandeville was more popular than Marco Polo. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Bal des Ardents (the 'Ball of the Burning Men'), from 'The Chronicler of European Chivalry' by GG Coulton (London, 1930). The 1393 tragedy claimed the lives of four people. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Medieval

Q&AWhat was the ‘Ball of the Burning Men’?

The burgundy cover of a British passport

Medieval

Q&AWhen were passports as we know them today first introduced?

You're currently on page 5

Prev Page

Next Page