A project dedicated to the extraordinary stories of our local history...

The Headless Horseman of the Staffordshire Moorlands is one of the best-known pieces of folklore in the region, but where did it come from? Tracing the story of the horseman back through 650 years of local history by way of Victorian ghost sightings and Arthurian literature, we uncover the shocking true story of murder that lies at the heart of this spectral inspiration.

The image of the wizard has become synonymous with the Cheshire village of Alderley Edge largely thanks to a nineteenth-century legend. Yet the deeper history of the area suggests that the village's connection to such magical figures is far from fantasy and in fact may be the result of a very real, if extraordinary, historical legacy.

The story of the Bakewell witches is unique within the annals of English witchcraft and a tale thought by some to be so fantastical that it may not even be true. Yet research cannot only place the event firmly in the context of the times, but it can also help create a picture of the events that originally brought the story into being.