Historians rarely venture into the realm of the supernatural for the very sound reason that such happenings cannot be verified in an academic sense and they don’t want to tarnish their reputations as sound scholars. I have always been fascinated by the lure of such beliefs and the hold they continue to have over the imagination of people in the 21st century.
Local historian Chris Hare considers ancient folklore, ghosts and hauntings, as well as the enduring (although very changeable) belief in witchcraft.
I will also be looking at the life and influence of Percy Bysshe Shelley, and his wife Mary, always remembered as the author of Frankenstein. Castle Goring, and before that, Michelgrove, were the ancestral homes of the Shelleys. Just to the north of Castle Goring is Clapham Woods, a focus for many an outlandish and sinister tale in the 1970s and 80s.
I will consider the associations of ‘The Beast,’Aleister Crowley and his acolyte, Victor Neuburg, in our locality.
