What’s Weird in the Wade?

Weird in the Wade is a podcast released on the first Monday of the month at all good podcasting sites, that tells stories about all that’s weird, wonderful and a little off kilter in the town of Biggleswade and the surrounding area.

Who makes Weird in the Wade?

I do, Natalie Doig, I research, write and present all of the episodes. Where ever possible I try to get accounts from people who witnessed the stories I’m telling or the next best thing, primary sources from the time. Some of the stories I’ll be telling date back 200 years or more and I rely on newspaper archive and historical records. Some like episode one: the haunted pound stretcher, are recent and I gathered witness statements from those involved.

Weird in the Wade’s theme is composed and performed by Tess Savigear and Tess and her family will be providing additional voices in future episodes.

I try and make my own sound effects where possible and have a lot of fun doing that!

All other music and sound effects are supplied by Epidemic Sound

Why make Weird in the Wade?

I decided to make Weird in the Wade after attending the Uncanny Con, in London in March 2023. Uncanny is a fantastic BBC podcast by the brilliant Danny Robins and this convention brought together the Uncanny Community for a day of ghost stories and unpicking the unexplained. I was sitting on the front row and right at the start of the event Danny asked us to shout out where we were from. After some more of the more exotic places had been shouted out and discussed, as a kind of after thought, I shouted out “I’m from Biggleswade!” It’s a funny name and it always raises an eyebrow or a smile. And Danny took the bate, he made a joke about world war one pilots and asked me where Biggleswade is and so I explained

“It’s in Bedfordshire just up the A1. Oh, and we have a haunted pound stretcher.”

That was it, Danny got me a mic and asked me to tell an audience of hundreds of people about the haunted pound stretcher. It’s such a funny setting for a ghost story. And that was it. After Uncanny Con the lovely community on twitter were keen to know more about the pound stretcher so I wrote up what I knew on my other blog and then realised that rather than writing it up on a blog, I could try and record it as a podcast. Our little town of Biggleswade and the surrounding area has a lot of weird and slightly strange stories.

I’ve been writing creatively for decades but didn’t really ever finish anything. If I made a podcast I’d have to finish what I was writing. I had some experience of basic sound engineering from making audio reports for visually impaired people when I worked at RNIB as a campaigner. I’m also, at heart someone who likes to perform. I love drama, I used to be a drama teacher, nearly 30 years ago now. So although it’s been a steep learning curve getting the podcast recorded and out there, it’s been a lot of fun and something completely different for me!

For the last 25 years I’ve been working in the disability rights field and I really want to do something different, something that had nothing to do with disability rights and access. So this seems like a perfect way to fill my time in between my day job working on transport accessibility in London! I hope others enjoy listening to the spooky and puzzling stories I have to tell.

What to expect in season One of Weird in the Wade?

I’ve got some real treats lined up this year!

Episode One: covers the inexplicable things that happened at a pound stretcher shop in Biggleswade over at least a 15 year period. Strange sights and sounds and connections to Biggleswade’s past are uncovered.

Episode Two: covers a flying saucer encounter and a separate flying saucer hoax that got all mixed up together in the mid 1950s in Biggleswade. We unpick the hoax from the unexplained. We meet a working class engineering hero and some very rum goings on in a shop in Shefford.

Episode Three: covers the Potton Poisoner a woman accused of poisoning two of her husbands back in the early 1840s. Her case was one of the biggest news stories in Victorian Britain at the time. Her story involves a chase across the country by one of Biggleswade’s first rural police inspectors, and a riot almost breaking out when the poisoner was brought into Biggleswade for an initial trial and inquest.

Further episodes will include mysterious Potton Woods the site of a world war II plane crash and strange phenomena, the Biggleswade body snatchers, a special episode on the haunted pubs of Biggleswade, and the big cat of Biggleswade and other strange animal sightings.

I’m not a paranormal investigator but I will research the historical context for the stories I feature.

So if you like your history with a pinch of the paranormal or you like your spooky stories with some historical context, this is the podcast for you. Listen to the trailer here.