The Cold Lad | Series 4 Episode 4: County Durham
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Show notes
On this week's episode we're headed back to County Durham, and Eleanor is telling her chilling take on The Cauld Lad of Hylton Castle!
We start off chatting about The Blessing of the Boats, Old May Day, and a quite unlikely miracle, after which we head north, to County Durham!
In addition to discussing the strange afterlife of County Durham's most famous resident, St Cuthbert, the strange powers of the Prince Bishops, and some very large cows, we talk about the local delicacy Leek Pudding in County Dishes, and duly consider our waistlines...
After some folkloric chat about topics like Durham's really mean fairies, its lumbering giants, and its mythical, rampaging boar, plus some excerpts from this week's Local Legends interview with author of Durham Folk Tales Adam Bushnell, it's onto the main event: Eleanor's rendition of "The Cold Lad." And fair warning - it's a spooky one...
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Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.
Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’
We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.
Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.
Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…
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