Eerie Essex

Eerie Essex – delve into the darker side of the county

Red Lion Walk, Colchester

In this edition we speak to Bethan Briggs-Miller and Ailsa Clarke, the team behind Eerie Essex to find out more about the podcast, their plans for the future, and how you can get involved when the team take Eerie Essex on the road later this year.

Tell us about Eerie Essex, how would you sum it up? Eerie Essex is a podcast which delves into the darker side of the county. We explore the folklore, urban legends and supernatural encounters that form part of Essex’s rich history. From ghosts to cryptids, UFOs to witches we want to share these stories as they were meant to be told, in the voices through the generations.

How did you get started? We met whilst working as gallery assistants at Firstsite. It was here that we would spend time talking to visitors and swapping any recent tales and legends we’d discovered. During lockdown we started listening to ‘Weird Norfolk’ and we asked if they’d ever include tales from Essex, they said ‘well why don’t you do it’, so we did.

Do you have any favourite stories? Probably the most surprising episode was the one we did on haunted woods. That led us down some very dark rabbit holes but the episode we did on fairies with Jo Hickey-Hall from the Modern Fairy Sightings podcast was such a joy and left us all in giggles at some points.

What’s next? We have recently been awarded a grant from the Essex County Council Arts and Cultural Fund to expand into a proper oral history project. This grant will allow us to upgrade our recording equipment, launch a professional website and most importantly take the podcast on the road to record people’s stories across Essex.

How can people get involved and share their own stories? We want people to share with us any strange stories they grew up with. Any tale told by a grandparent, a whisper in the schoolyard and the tales that would leave goosebumps on even the hardest sceptic. We shall be setting up recording stations across the county where people will be able to come and have a chat and leave their story with us.

We will be announcing dates and venues soon on our new website and social media so keep an eye out.

If people want to send their stories in, they can contact us via eerieessexpodcast@gmail.com or go on to the ‘Share a Story’ page on our website: www.eerieessex.com

To find our more about Eerie Essex and to listen to the latest podcasts visit: www.eerieessex.com

Eerie Essex have recorded a special on the Colchester Castle Wicked Spirits? Witchcraft + Magic exhibition – it’s available on all podcast platforms. Also, listen out for their Darker Side of Yuletide special which will be released mid-December.