Intro over Weird in the Wade Theme
Welcome to this bonus update episode of Weird in the Wade! A podcast about all that’s weird, wonderful and a little of kilter in the town of Biggleswade and surrounding area.
Today’s bonus episode is a little different. I’m going to be revisiting some of our previous stories and giving you updates on what I’ve uncovered since the episodes aired.
I’ve also got a sneak preview of next month’s two part story and an update on when it will be released. There’s an 180 year anniversary to tie in with you see.
I’ve also got a spooky story to tell one that happened to me, whilst on holiday in May over in Silsoe on the other side of Bedfordshire. Welcome to Weird in the Wade!
Welcome
Hi everyone, Nat Doig here, I hope you’re having a peaceful and weird in a good way day! I thought the time was right to update you on some of the stories covered previously. I have had such a phenomenal response to the podcast. I started it in May on a bit of a whim after attending uncanny con. I honestly thought I was being ambitious when I aimed for maybe 50 downloads in the first month. Well, you have been amazing all of you who’ve listened, I got over 1000 downloads in the first month and now not even three full months in there’s been over 3000 downloads of the podcast. Thank you!
I’d still be doing this if there were just a dozen of you listening so to have so many regular listeners from all over the world is just amazing. And I am blown away by your lovely comments, reviews and messages on social media. And we now have an email address you can share all your stories and get in touch with us at weirdinthewade@gmail.com Please do keep sharing your weird stories and just having a chat on the socials too, there’s a podcast account on threads now! It’s just so lovely to make new like-minded friends online
But I don’t want to gush too much and be a lovie. You’ll be wanting to know about updates to the stories and I’m hoping your keen to hear about my own strange and uncanny experience in the gardener’s house!
The Haunted Pound Stretcher Update
So, let’s go back to where it all started at the haunted pound stretcher. As you’ll remember in episode one, I told the tale of how a bargain shop in Biggleswade had been plagued by poltergeist activity. I did some digging and discovered that the shop’s previous incarnation as a furniture store had also experienced a haunting. The ghost was given a name Aggie that had passed down through the years. One story said she was a victim of the great fire of Biggleswade but I was able to pretty much discount that as being a likely cause of the unsettling happenings in the shop. And there’s a bonus episode that explores what happened during the fire and why I don’t think there were any victims who were actually killed on the day of it. I also discovered a new theory about how the fire was started.
The pound stretcher building is now a fantastic coffee shop that I’ve been back to on numerous occasions, drinking lattes in the space that was previously the upstairs office and storerooms where the presence of Aggie was often felt. The café has a lovely atmosphere, and more on that later. Staff at the coffee shop and gym did tell me that they still joked that Aggie was about if bags of coffee spilled or other mishaps happened. But no one had any unsettling stories to tell.
After the episode went out, I was contacted by more people saying that they had found the atmosphere in the pound stretcher a bit odd or uncomfortable. Others in neighbouring shops and pubs also got in touch to talk about the bricked-up tunnels which link many of the town centre premises. I will be exploring what we know about these tunnels in a future episode. Unfortunately, Biggleswade History society didn’t have any additional information about the tunnels to share. There as interested as we are to find out more about them! However, the history society have invited me to speak early next year at one of their meetings, which is very exciting!
I did get one new tip off, that the buildings at the back of the old pound stretcher that were used for storage by the shop and are now part of the gym, were once an undertaker’s mortuary. I had heard rumours about this before. I’ve searched the local newspapers but haven’t found any undertakers advertising at that address, but they could have used it solely as a mortuary whilst their public facing offices were elsewhere in town. I won’t give up on this tip off though and will continue to investigate it. I’m pretty sure there was a mortuary along church street or Brewery Lane as it used to be called, it’s just finding out where.
If you know anything about the old mortuary, pound stretchers, the furniture shop, Jones’ café or gym in relation to this haunting please do get in touch with me on twitter, Instagram, and now threads just search weirdinthewade as all one word on any of those social media platforms and you’ll find us. There’s links too in the show description.
And back to that lovely café. It really is a great place to relax, it’s always got a gentle buzz of conversation from people catching up after a workout to others holding quiet work meetings or tapping on laptops, or just friends having a natter. And when I posted a picture from there recently the wonderful Welsh storyteller, Owen Staton commented that it must be a much nicer place for a spirit to dwell. If you believe in such things and that the poltergeist activity is connected to the spirit of a young girl. Then surely, she must be much happier watching other young people work out at the gym and listening in on the local town gossip. Maybe that’s why she’s not making her presence felt so strongly. It’s a nice thought.
Flying saucers Update
My second update is connected with both the Toplers Hill UFO which was covered in episode 2 flying saucers over Biggleswade and the UFO seen over Potton Wood in episode 3 What’s haunting Potton Wood? And the curious connection between the 1st December and these cases. So, we basically have UFO sightings around Biggleswade reported on 1st December 1953 over Potton Wood, a cigar shaped craft that was a fierce blue colour. Later in 1956 and 1957 we have a flying saucer spotted on the 1st December at Toplers Hill. In 57 it’s described as being amber in colour.
I was curious if there was any particular reason why 1st of December is cropping up for UFO sightings. I don’t have an answer to that exactly. From a very quick look at UFO reports available on the government website it’s clear more UFO sightings are reported in the winter months. It makes sense longer darker nights, means people are still out and about when it’s dark. But I did find slightly more sightings between 30th November and 3rd December than a random sample for 1st – 5th April. It’s not at all scientific. I wondered if Christmas decorations or the approach of Christmas could have anything to do with it. There’s a very famous Ilkley Moor UFO and alien encounter that happened on 1st of December much later than the 1950s. But I can’t find anything significant with the date yet…
But what I have found are other reports of UFOs being seen on 1st December in 1953 and 30th Novemebr 57 in other parts of the country. So it seems flying saucer sightings were coming in on the same night not just in Biggleswade!
In 1953 we have reports from as far away as Dundee, Seven Oaks in Kent, Lincolnshire and South End in Essex of a fiery flying saucer being seen. Initially it sounds like a shooting star it’s described as having a squashed roundish body and a long fiery tale, except witnesses swear its not a meteor or shooting star. Some say it’s as low as a church steeple others say it’s flying much higher. They all say it’s moving in a straight line and horizontally, and not falling to the earth. Our sighting at Potton Wood says it has sparks coming off it but not that its fiery and that it’s blue in colour. But it seems interesting that UFOs were being seen from one end of the country to the other on that very night. And this is unusual. I did searches for the days around these sightings and there’s nothing. So I think it’s fair to say there was something in the sky that night in 1953 so maybe it wasn’t connected to Potton Wood?
For our 1957 sighting you’ll remember as well as the flying saucer seen on the 1st December a miniature sun was seen in the sky the day before on the 30th November. It was this presence of a miniature sun that would let John Whitworth know that a flying saucer craft would make an appearance the next night. You’ll probably remember the funny customer that came into his shop to tell him this! Well John wasn’t the only person to see something round and fiery in the night sky on 30th November 1957. In the Isle of Man, Brighton and further along the south coast, a fiery ball was reported. Again it wasn’t described as a shooting star or meteor and both the met office and royal air force denied there being any meteors or other natural meteorological phenomena causing the sightings. Could it be John’s miniature sun being seen so far away from Biggleswade? And if so, what was it? Was it a comet or a shooting star of some kind? (Even if the scientists of the day said it couldn’t be.) How did John’s funny customer know this thing was going to be in the sky that night. It poses more questions than it answers. I will keep digging or should I say looking skyward for answers. Again, if you’ve got any UFO sightings to report around Bedfordshire please let me know. Or if you have a theory about what these fire ball flying saucers were do get in touch.
Potton Wood Update
And to our final update, although our episode on Potton wood has only been released for a short while I’ve had a lot of response. One chap got in touch to tell me that his mother remembered seeing the plane come down back in 1945 and what a terrible sight that must have been for her. The same man told me about a strange experience his uncle had whilst working at the apple production facility.
If you remember, COPO the coxes orange pippin orchards and then the co-op managed the apple orchards including a large warehouse for processing them. The warehouse still exists as an abandoned agricultural relic next to Potton Wood. My contact told me that his uncle had worked in that huge warehouse and that there was talk of the land and big house near by being once the haunt of Henry VIII and three of his wives. There was also talk of the De Grey or Grey family being there. Now there’s definitely an Edward Grey living at the manor at Cockayne Hatley in 1515 according to the Bedfordshire online records, he’s described as an overlord, living there whilst it’s owned by the Cockayne family. So maybe it’s this Grey family that is remembered as being connected to the ghost story.
Anyway, his uncle was working in the apple warehouse when he saw a woman in a long grey dress walking across the open warehouse in front of him. Not knowing who she was and the fact she was in strange clothing is I’m guessing what made him keep a close eye on her and see where she went. She disappeared around a corner and when the worker went after her to see what she was up to, he realised that she had not turned a corner at all as there was no corner there. She’d walked straight through a wall. She was another grey lady, who possibly also had the name grey. That’s the second we’ve come across in Bedfordshire.
If you know anything about grey ladies at Cockayne Hatley or the history of the old house there and how it’s connected to Henry VIII and three of his wives please do get in touch.
And now before I tell you a little bit about next month’s two-part episode I have a little tale of my own.
My Spooky story
Some of you who follow the podcast on social media will know that back in May I went on a short holiday with my parents to stay in an old house connected with Wrest Park, at Silsoe. It was an amazing place to stay, and I can’t recommend enough a visit to Wrest Park its self and a holiday in this lovely house in its grounds. The house we stayed in was the old Gardeners house. It was a quare Georgian structure with high ceilings, lots of light and on the top floor there were oval windows, like hobbit windows, looking out over the fields. I chose a room which had two beds in it, one of which was right next to one of these oval windows which is the one I chose for me. The view from the window was of an avenue of chestnut trees in full blossom. The room was narrow and long with the other bed in the opposite corner to mine. The door was to the left and behind me. It’s important to know that lay out of the room for later.
The house over all was large, light and had a lovely quiet atmosphere. In the living room light dappled through the silver birch trees outside which leant it a really tranquil feel. There was a walled garden with yellow roses at the front door. There was also a really big tree in the middle of the garden. Full of noisy jackdaws.
Not long after arriving I was coming down the stairs into the hallway and the front door was open. As I looked out into the garden I thought I saw a man standing on the path, in green overalls and a hat. It wasn’t my Dad, but in an instant the light shifted and he was gone. I frowned and told myself it was a strange combination of the rose bush leaves, a wheelie bin and the light which had tricked me into seeing a person. I told my Mum and she laughed and said maybe it was old Perce the gardener. She said it so matter of factly that I believed there really was a gardener who was expected to visit! I asked “why is there gardener calling by?” and she laughed and said no she meant the ghost of old Perce.
After that we joked about Old Perce the gardener being about the place. In the big house at Wrest Park we found a whole display about the Victorian and Edwardian gardeners and their staff. None were called Perce thankfully and none quite looked like who I thought I’d seen, except maybe one of the unnamed gardeners assistants looked a little like him…
Now I never trust my eyes, because I have a visual impairment, I know not to believe what I see unlike just about every person I know with average or good eye sight. I’m unusual that I gained sight after being born with cataracts, yes, the thing that older people get, some babies are born with them and even children can develop the white film over their eyes. Back in the early 70s operating on babies with cataracts to remove the cataract was a new pioneering development. Unlike today where if a baby is born with cataracts they’ll have an operation to remove the cataracts within a few days of birth, my operations happened at 6, 9 and 18 months. It meant that my brain spent a long time in child development terms with out sight and so it’s sometimes harder for my brain to work out what it’s actually seeing. Children now who were born with cataracts have a better level of all round eyesight because they have their operations so much sooner. Their brains can develop with some sight. There’s lots of other developments like artificial lens implants which make a huge difference in the level of sight people have who are born with cataracts. Unfortunately, they weren’t an option for me as a baby, they just weren’t technically possible and sadly aren’t still for me because of other complications. So I basically don’t have a lens in either of my eyes. I wear contact lenses and glasses to help me see but my sight is still very much impaired.
Anyway I tell you all this because it is relevant to what happened not just seeing Old Perce but what happens later. I can’t always rely on interpreting what I’ve seen. Now my level of eyesight to anyone who has 2020 vision will sound terrible I’m technically blind in one eye and the other isn’t much better. You know an eye chart that you have to read at the opticians? I can only read the top letter and the next row below it consistently and even then that eye that’s technically blind can only read the top letter on an eye chart. Add to the low acuity add the fact that my peripheral vision is not as wide as others and I also have pretty terrible depth perception. I see the world like a Monet painting, or any impressionist painting. It is full of wonderful colour; in fact I can see some very weak ultra violet because I don’t have a lens in my eyes it’s not filtered out. I can’t focus, because I don’t have a lens and I miss the swift moving and small things in life because of my nystagmus and everything else. It’s complicated but honestly the things that disabled me in life are not that I can’t see very well but that our world is designed in a way that makes that a problem. Mostly the thing that regularly frustrates me is that I can’t drive and everything outside of major cities is designed for car drivers. There are so many places I’d love to visit for this podcast but can’t because public transport in my part of Bedfordshire is rubbish. But that’s a whole different podcast. So, imagine me like this living in a shimmery, blurry colourful world where I miss out on the detail of things but also have a pretty good grasp of what is around me if I don’t need to see the fine detail. My brain does an amazing job at working out what’s going on with such little information but it can get things spectacularly wrong sometimes, in fact anyone’s brain can do that even if you have 2020 vision so do bear that in mind if you ever see something weird.
Back to my story and it’s the first night we’re staying at the gardeners house. It was still just light when I went to bed. Twilight, a low orange glow on the horizon, birds were settling in for the roost. I was looking out of my oval hobbit window and enjoying the view. But I reluctantly closed the curtains for sleep and lay down. My head full of the usual sleepy whirl of the day that had just passed. A few minutes later when my eyes had got accustomed to the dark, I started to look about the room. I wasn’t sure why I was looking, I suddenly didn’t feel so sleepy, something was bothering me, a kind of scraping at the back of my mind and then my gaze snagged on what it was that had unsettled me. There was an eerie orange glow coming from under the bed.
My heart leapt. What the hell could it be? I leant out of bed slightly and the light was definitely coming from under the bed. For some reason I thought of Close Encounters and the light shining under the kitchen door in that film. That had scared me as a kid when I’d first watched it. I’m surprised now by my decisiveness. I put on my glasses and leant as far down as I could so I could look under the other bed. And trembling I saw it and the relief that rushed over me was also breath taking. There under the other bed at the far end of the room was an extension lead for plugs the sort that has an orange light on it to tell you it has power! I felt very silly for being so scared. But without my glasses on the quality of the light was so diffuse and strange I just couldn’t place it!
But that wasn’t the end of the spooky goings on. The next bit I haven’t told anyone up until now.
It was some nights later. Even after working out the orange glow wasn’t anything spooky, I still avoided looking down that end of the bedroom. It was a dark corner it’s only natural I guess to avoid looking into dark shadowy corners. And what I saw next wasn’t in that corner at all. I woke one night and still half asleep I rolled over only to see a white sparkly light, like moonlight but very intense shining at the top of the closed door to the bedroom. I thought in my sleepy state, oh it must be shining through the window at the top of the door. At that point I was certain that the bedroom door had a kind of fan light above it. I’ve stayed in old houses before that sometimes have them. I think even my Nan’s council flat used to. A strip of glass sometimes frosted at the top of door, above it to let light in. I’ve also been old schools with the same kind of doors. And that’s what I thought of as I marvelled sleepily at the sparkling white light. It’s one of those doors like in an old school with a glass panel above it. How pretty the light is. How soothing. And I nodded back off to sleep. In the morning I remembered the strange light and was puzzled by how it shone through that window above the door because I couldn’t work out where the light had come from. I was about to go and look when to my surprise I saw that the door did not have a glass strip above it. It was a solid door and wall. It was still firmly shut. Then as I thought back to what I had seen I realised that it had been quite a large area of light and it wasn’t above the door it was at about head height much lower down the door. I was flummoxed. It hadn’t been frightening in any way. In fact, the light had been utterly beautiful, peaceful like concentrated moonlight but more shimmery.
I don’t know what I saw or if I saw anything. I could have been half asleep. It could have been a type of sleep paralysis which I’ve experienced at least twice in my life, and they will be a story for another time. But it didn’t feel like sleep paralysis. But whatever it was, it was positive and the house had a wonderful, graceful energy to it so I wouldn’t want anyone to think it was a scary place to stay, because it really wasn’t. I think the most logical explanation is that it was a kind of dream, maybe I was more asleep than I realised and I’d just drifted off and dreamt the whole thing but it was one of those dreams that felt extremely real.
Have you ever had a strange experience seeing lights like this? I’d love to know.
News about the Podcast and our next episode
And last but not least some information about the next story about the Potton Poisoner.
On Saturday August 5th this year it will be 180 years to the day that a woman named Sarah Dazeley was hanged publicly for the murder of her husband. She was suspected of killing a previous husband and her infant child. She was the last woman to be publicly hanged in Bedfordshire. There’s still to this day so much debate about her. Some see Sarah as a victim of a miscarriage of justice, that being a woman in Victorian times her choices were so limited and she experienced such hardship and violence in her life she shouldn’t be judged for her actions in the way she was judged at the time. Many feel the misogyny of her times forced her to do terrible things. Others have labelled her the UKs first female serial killer, one recent academic paper calls her a she-devil and serial deviant. A woman who should be reassessed along with all Victorian women, through a different lens that doesn’t cast them as victims. This academic thinks Sarah was bad to the bone and why can’t a woman be?
As always, I think the truth is far more complicated. I’ve tried to uncover as much of her story from contemporary reports as I can. I’ve tried to look at her story with a modern eye but also with the lens of her time. I think there are aspects of her life that to this day are misreported, mistakes made early on the narrative that just get sloppily repeated. I think its totally possible for someone to do bad things but also live in a world that treats you badly and that you must consider both to understand what was going on for her, her victims and the justice system at the time.
And don’t worry this isn’t a story of just history and true crime, I came across the story of the Potton Poisoner because of a ghost story attached to it.
But it is a huge topic, as I mentioned academic papers are still being written about her. So to fit it into one episode is going to be tough. So, I will be making two episodes.
I wasn’t sure how to release the episodes. I ran a poll to find out what people thought I should do, three quarters preferred two episodes to just one long one. So, it will be in two parts. Now just over half of respondents wanted the two episodes out in August just over a quarter wanted episode one in August and part two in September.
And this is when I have a confession to make. I’ve not been well for the last four or five weeks. My physical and mental health have taken a battering and it has been very difficult for me to balance work and the podcast and my health. I think I am on the mend now, but it means I am behind with the podcast. I always like to have an episode in hand it takes the pressure off me and currently I don’t. So I may have to mix things up a bit for the next few months. You see I’d also like to release a Halloween special just on or close to Halloween as well as sticking to the schedule.
So, I have decided to … shift episodes along a bit! Instead of going out on the first Monday of the month they’ll be the last Monday of the month instead! And Ta-dah! It means: Potton Poisoner part one goes out on 31st July 6 days before the anniversary of Sarah Dazeley’s execution, part two will be out on Monday 28th August, then we’ll have an episode on 25th September and then 30th October just in time for Hallowe’en! So the last Monday of the month will now be the day to look forward to!
Here’s a sneak preview for episode 4 Part one of the Potton Poisoner
As the carriage makes it way up London Road towards the centre of Biggleswade they hear it. A roar of people. Blunden sees a slight twitch on the young woman’s brow, a slight frown. Then her skin smooths again her eyes clear.
“What is that?” a lady in a fur hat demands.
Blunden listens
“A crowd Ma’am.” Blunden does not want to alarm anyone by saying it is a mob.
The young woman in his custody, Sarah Dazeley speaks up.
“A crowd? What for? it’s not market day, there’s no fare planned? What is the crowd for?”
“It’s for you.” Blunden meets Sarah’s gaze and is shocked to see something like hope on her face, not the fear he expected.
Then he knocks on the carriage to alert the driver. The horses are already becoming spooked and the voices of the town’s folk and those from the wider county who have slunk into town, is getting louder. Blunden hears the shouts of those positioned to watch for them.
“They’re here! They’re here! The carriage from London is here!”
Blunden knows that now the cry has gone out, more people will stumble out from the taverns and the inns, and the drinking dens from the market square onto the High Street, moving like one large beast rather than individuals, along Stratton Street towards them. Filling the road with their shouts, their stink, and their overwrought emotions.
The carriage trundles to a stop.
“You can’t stop here!” the woman in the fur hat flaps her hands in panic.
Blunden ignores her, he is out of the carriage and conversing with the coachman. He has left Sarah by herself in the carriage though he is standing on the plate just outside the door blocking her escape.
She wouldn’t try to escape. She shakes her head as she sees the fur hat woman and her younger companion lurch even further away from her now that the policeman is outside.
Blunden is back in the coach, and it is lurching forward towards the noise, towards the bodies and the shouts.
It is not long until they can all hear the cries and make out the words.
“Murderer!”
“Witch!”
“Sinner!”
“Shameful!”
“Criminal!”
“Devil!”
“Murderer!”
“Poisoner!”
“Yer can’t hide from the law!”
“Nor from God’s eyes; he sees all!”
The carriage slows and lurches through the people as they clamour and clatter!
The carriage does not stop but Blunden is out of the door again and clambering up next to the driver.
[whistle blows]
“Let us pass!” [whistle] “Let us pass” [whistle] “In the name of the law let us pass!”
This is how Sarah Dazeley the Potton Poisoner returns to Biggleswade on a cold March evening in 1843. She has been chased across the country by Super Intendent Blunden and has already been up in front of the Lord Mayor of London that morning. Now a prisoner she will face two inquests and a murder trial. And will be found guilty of one poisoning by arsenic. Her trial will rely on cutting edge forensic science but will also fail to challenge the inconsistencies in the evidence presented. She becomes the last woman in Bedfordshire to be hanged in public.
Her life began very differently, the daughter of a respectable businessman, her prospects were as good as they could be for a Victorian middle-class woman. But now she is accused of the murder of her husband and suspected of the murders of her previous husband and infant child. She denies it all and always will.
Today she is remembered as possibly Britain’s first female serial killer, an arsenic poisoner, and a vengeful ghost to terrify children. Little is known of her victims, their families, and friends. Very little is really known about her. But we’ll pick through the facts, the newspaper reports, the exaggerations and learn from what has been left out, to piece together the story of the Potton Poisoner and its legacy that is still felt today. Next time on weird in the wade.
Close and credits
Thank you for listening. Weird in the wade is researched written and presented by me, Nat Doig.
You can get in touch with us at weirdinthewade@gmail.com or on social media links are in the show notes. A transcript for today’s episode can be found on the blog at weirdinthewade.blog.
If you have enjoyed this and other episodes please follow, rate and review the podcast because it really does help other people find the show.
If you are able to and would like to give something back to the show, we have a ko-fi page where you can buy the podcast a coffee. All contributions are gratefully received and go back into the podcast any funds are used for new equipment or filed trips for recording future episodes.
Our theme music and Sarah’s theme for the Potton Poisoner are by Tess Savigear
Additional voices in the crowd scenes are by Savigear and McOwen
All other music and sound effects by Epidemic Sound
Weird In The Wade 