Other Edens

Coming Soon... The Town That Didn't Stare

Other Edens

Show Notes

There is a town in southern England, nestled between the ancient Ashdown Forest and the untamed beauty of the High Weald, called East Grinstead. Locals refer to it as "the town that didn't stare"; a place where you are not judged by what you look like or how you live your life. It's no surprise then, perhaps, that it's the the nexus of Britain's alternative religious scene: from the Scientologists to the Mormons, Opus Dei to Paganism, East Grinstead has it all.

The Town That Didn't Stare follows the history of East Grinstead from early humans through to the present day, via the incredible story of Archibald McIndoe in the Second World War. It is a story for the ages.

The Town That Didn’t Stare is written, produced and presented by Nick Hilton.

Intro and incidental music by George Jennings. End credits music by Matt Payne and Ollie Lloyd at Shipyard Audio. Podcast artwork by Tom Humberstone.

This is the trailer for a 6-part series available on all good podcast platforms. You can find out more about the show on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook – just go to @thetownpod – or visit www.thetownpod.com for episode notes and more information.

The Town That Didn’t Stare is a Podot podcast, for more information visit podotpods.com. For sales and advertising, email [email protected]

More from Other Edens

Dec 23, 2022

Christmas Day, 2021. I stop at Reading motorway services and find graffiti on the wall of a toilet cubicle: two locals, Gavin and Chelsea, are hacking brains using their iPhones. This Christmas special episode of Other Edens is the story of Reading motorway services, toilet graffiti, and the strange native poetry that binds them together.

Nov 29, 2022

What makes the quintessential English village? A church? A pub? A post office? A cricket pitch?

Nov 21, 2022

In 1942, an engineer named Guy Maunsell constructed a series of audacious defensive towers out where the Thames estuary meets the North Sea. These structures – known now as the Maunsell Sea Forts – remain to this day, rusting and abandoned. But they also had a strange, eerie afterlife, from pirate radio to the micronation of Sealand.

Nov 4, 2022

Remember, remember the fifth of November. Gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.

Oct 31, 2022

Nestled away in Kent is the small village of Pluckley. It looks charming and chocolate boxy: a pub, a butcher, a post office and a churchyard. But scratch that veneer and you find a place that has become famous over the past century as England's most haunted place. Ghosts and apparitions, strange sights and noises. Murder, mysteries and the macabre, all haunt this Kentish village.

See all episodes →