Show Notes
The Higgins Bedford (a museum and art gallery.) has a long history of unexplained and supernatural phenomena witnessed by customers and staff alike. It became so infamous that from the 1980s until 2010 ghost tours and investigations were held at the museum. The site includes an old brewery, beautiful town house, munitions tower, and the mound of Bedford castle. Can this history shed any light on the paranormal activity reported and recorded in a ghost dossier. Why did the haunting activity cease in 2011?Nat, investigates with the help of The Higgins curators, Victoria Partridge and Lydia MacDonald.
One museum item, a doll named Queenie comes under some scrutiny, so Nat also speaks with Fiona Dodwell author of A Cursed Collection of Haunted Dolls.
Special thanks to The Higgins Bedford and Victoria and Lydia in particular.Thank you also to Fiona Dodwell for her insight into haunted dolls and why so many of us find these childhood items so creepy.
More information, images and links can be found on the show blog weirdinthewade.blogDo you have a memory of Bedford Museum and the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery from the last 40 years? You can get in touch with Nat about this or anything else weird in the wade related at: [email protected]
Weird in the Wade will be on a short break during February returning with an episode celebrating women who haunt, are haunted or investigate the paranormal with special guests Evelyn Hollow and Deborah Hyde of Uncanny fame, and Bethan Briggs Miller of Eerie Essex, and Steph Lay from the City of Secrets project
Weird in the Wade is researched, written, presented and produced by Nat Doig.Additional editing on this episode by Tess Savigear.Theme music and the creepy doll theme by Tess Savigear.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from Weird in the Wade
It seems rather strange that two of the world’s most famous aviation mysteries originated in Bedfordshire, those of the Flying Duchess and Glenn Miller. Nat has always had a fascination with the Glenn Miller disappearance and that of Amelia Earhart, but the story of the flying Duchess was new to her, along with the ghost stories attached to the Duchess.
In this final exploration of abandoned places Nat explores haunted hospitals. Busy thriving hospitals seem to attract many ghost stories, but what of the hospital buildings which become disused or are repurposed? Do these former centres of medicine have particular ghost stories and paranormal experiences associated with them?
In this third episode exploring why abandoned, ruined and derelict places attract so much folklore and urban legends, Nat looks at more recent ruins.
In a second episode considering abandoned places in Bedfordshire, Nat explores the devastation caused by the Black Death in the 14th century. This includes the myths and legends which grew up around the plague, as well as the villages and settlements left in ruins.
!!! Last chance to get tickets to Bedfordshire's Dark History a show created by Nat Doig and Olie Campbell. Saturday 25th July 2pm The Quarry Theatre Bedford. Grab tickets here !!!