HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: The official website for BBC History Magazine
date: 2025-11-21T16:34:29.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Why do ‘wicked’ witches wear pointed hats? The real history explained
items: Tales of the toilet: a historical A–Z
items: Let’s think before we flush, with Dr Christopher Harding
items: Spectral beasts and hounds of hell: a spooky history of Britain's ghost dogs
items: Are these Britain's MOST HAUNTED places?
items: Is this England’s MOST GRUESOME castle?
items: Why is Friday 13th unlucky?
items: Give away your worries, like an ancient Mesopotamian
items: Don’t fear the fairies – but do allow a little enchantment into your life
items: Rich men, reckless affairs and ruined reputations: the scandalous lives of London's 18th-century courtesans

Why do ‘wicked’ witches wear pointed hats? The real history explained
type: item
date: 2025-11-21T15:20:39.000Z
creator: Jonny Wilkes
subject: General History
subject: Period
subject: TV interest
subject: Witches
description: There have been many examples of pointed hats in history, but it remains unclear how any of them became a must-wear for the witches
encoded: We’re off to see… the Wicked Witch of the West, as she returns to the silver screen in Wicked: For Good, the second part of the fantasy epic based on the popular stage musical. But where would Elphaba be without her trademark look, including the iconic black, pointed and wide-brimmed hat? Along with a cat, broomstick and black robes, the pointed hat is a required feature of any depiction of the typical ‘evil witch’, and has been for centuries. How it became the headgear of choice, however, remains the subject of numerous theories – as there is no single hat to point the way to the archetypal witch. The myth of the alewives Before getting to the major theories, there is one that can be debunked. The internet is well-populated with the claim that the image of the witch began with alewives, medieval women who brewed ale in their homes and sold it locally. Dominating the brewing industry for a time, these women could achieve a degree of financial independence. In an era where any woman who baulked social norms was suspicious, this autonomy would have been enough to single them out, putting them at risk of being accused of witchcraft. In addition, the fact that they stood over bubbling cauldrons while brewing and wearing pointed hats to be easily spotted at markets, it is clear why some have argued that alewives were the inspiration for the image of the witch. Except, there is just zero historical evidence to back this up. The highly symbolic history of the pointed witch hat Instead, theories have taken in pointy hats from throughout history, some with highly symbolic meaning. The Phrygian cap of antiquity, for instance, came to represent liberty and freedom in the American and French Revolutions of the 18th century, while the ancient Romans presented freed slaves with a special pointed felt cap, called a pileus. In medieval Europe, the hennin came into fashion: an extremely tall cone with flowing material hanging out of the top. Yet while it certainly has a resemblance …

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Tales of the toilet: a historical A–Z
type: item
date: 2025-11-19T16:03:17.000Z
creator: Julian Humphrys
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: When was the first toilet invented? What did people use before the modern flush? What are the origins of the term 'crapper'? To mark World Toilet Day, Julian Humphrys explores the history of Britain's loos
encoded: A... is for Ajax Although Elizabethan writer and courtier John Harrington wasn’t the first person to design a flushing toilet – Londoner Thomas Brightfield had done so in 1449 – he was the first to provide a written specification for one. In 1596, he penned his Metamorphosis of Ajax (a pun on ‘jakes’, a slang word for a privy) in which he described a remarkably modern-sounding device that he’d installed in his house. This incorporated a pan with a seat and a cistern filled with water. When a handle was turned, the water washed the contents of the pan into a cesspool. Although Harrington installed one for Queen Elizabeth I in Richmond Palace, cost, problems of water supply, and lack of sewers meant that the idea wouldn’t catch on for centuries. B... is for Bazalgette By the 1850s, London’s growing population was producing unmanageable amounts of sewage. Cesspools leaked and overflowed, contaminating water supplies, and matters weren’t helped by the outpourings of the increasingly popular water closet. London’s Commission of Sewers had ordered that cesspools and house drains should be connected to sewers, but these fed directly into an increasingly noisome River Thames. Following the ‘Great Stink’ of 1858, when the smell from the river was so bad that MPs even considered abandoning Westminster, the Metropolitan Board of Works was tasked with overhauling London’s sewerage system. Civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette (1819–91) was put in charge of operations. His 16-year project included embanking parts of the Thames, constructing 1,100 miles of street sewers, 82 miles of main interceptor sewers and building four monumental pumping stations, all designed to take the sewage eastwards to be discharged into the river away from heavily-populated areas. Watch | 10 minutes of toilets through time View Green Video on the source website C... is for Crapper In 1866, Yorkshire-born industrialist and plumber Thomas Crapper opened the world’s first bathroom showroom in Chelsea. For the…

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Let’s think before we flush, with Dr Christopher Harding
type: item
date: 2025-11-19T09:00:21.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Historical people
description: We can take lessons from Edo Japan about how we deal with our waste, Dr Christopher Harding tells Dr David Musgrove
encoded: There is a campsite at the foot of the South Downs which has tremendous toilets. In a corner of the field, you’ll find a gaggle of handsome timber cubicles, boasting rustic carpentry and impeccable cleanliness. Each cubicle has a raised box inside, with a hole in the middle framed by a comfortable wooden seat. Obviously that’s where you do your business. Then you throw in a handful or two of sawdust from a bucket to the side, and that’s the job done – no flushing involved (obviously you wash your hands, but there are taps outside for that). It’s a relaxingly rural experience that would encourage anyone to dwell on the merits of water-free composting toilets, for that is what they are. You can even educate yourself on what happens to the waste you and your fellow campers are producing because there is an informative handout explaining how it’s turned into a rich compost rather than being washed away to a sewage treatment works. It’s the sort of thing that the residents of Edo period Japan would have been at ease with. I spoke to Dr Christopher Harding, a scholar of Japanese history at the University of Edinburgh, and his Life Lesson from History is that we could learn a thing or two from the way that the Japanese historically dealt with their waste. Peace, prosperity and the problem of poo The Edo period runs from the early 1600s to the middle of the 19th century, an era of peace overseen by the Tokugawa shogunate based in Edo, now Tokyo. With peace came prosperity, and Edo grew to be the largest city in the world at the start of the 18th century. That urban explosion also meant an explosion of excrement, which had to be attended to. You might imagine that the Edo solution was to build sewers and flush it away, particularly as the Japanese at the time were big innovators in municipal water management. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/11/GettyImages-640505355-2a09790.jpg" width="2654" height="2114" alt="A photograph showing a t…

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Spectral beasts and hounds of hell: a spooky history of Britain's ghost dogs
type: item
date: 2025-11-16T09:00:41.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Historical people
description: From infernal black dogs attacking churches to ravening, red-eyed brutes on remote roads, Britain has long been haunted by fearsome canine phantoms. Karen R Jones explores what these stories can tell us about societies past
encoded: On the morning of 4 August 1577, the good Christian folk of Bungay assembled in St Mary’s Church for their regular Sunday service. But more sinister forces were also gathering in the Suffolk town. Dark clouds massed above, then “there fell from heaven an exceeding great and terrible tempest… not simply of raine but also of lightening and thunder”. This storm was only the prelude to a “straunge and terrible Wunder” described by Abraham Fleming in a pamphlet published soon after the event. For the church was plunged into darkness and a “black dog, or the divel in such a likenesse” burst in. It wrung the necks of two worshippers then “passing by an other man of the congregation… gave him such a gripe on the back, that therewith all he was presently drawen togither and shrunk up, as it were a peece of lether scorched in a hot fire”. The story of the Black Dog of Bungay is extraordinary, but far from unique in the region – East Anglia is the primary hunting ground of the spectral beast named Black Shuck – and, indeed, across the country. Britain is, famously, a nation of animal lovers, with 36 per cent of households having at least one dog. The UK canine consumer market is worth around £10bn a year, while millions of us tune in to watch dog-centric television programmes. These animals have become our trusted aides and loyal companions since domesticated dogs arrived on this island with the first human migrants during the Stone Age. It’s not surprising, then, that Britain’s population of paranormal pups is more diverse and widespread than anywhere else in the world, according to Mark Norman, a folklorist specialising in black dog apparitions. Such creatures reputedly stalk villages and lonely roads from Aberdeen to Penzance, and the British landscape echoes with their chilling howls. Hellhound is round the corner Dogs and humans have lived and travelled together in Britain since the Mesolithic age. Archaeological surveys place dogs at the UK’s oldest excavated house – at …

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Are these Britain's MOST HAUNTED places?
type: item
date: 2025-10-31T10:55:51.000Z
creator: Lauren Good
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Halloween
description: HistoryExtra's Lauren Good explores the history behind five of the most haunted places in Britain – from the location that inspired Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' to a Welsh museum with many stories to tell
encoded: From Whitby Abbey to Inveraray Castle, here's a rundown of five locations in Britain you probably wouldn't want to venture to unaccompanied at night! Lauren Good explores the spooky legends that haunt these spots, and the real history that inspires them. View Green Video on the source website

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Is this England’s MOST GRUESOME castle?
type: item
date: 2025-10-30T09:39:08.000Z
creator: Ellie Cawthorne
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Ellie Cawthorne visits Farleigh Hungerford castle in southwest England to hear more about the stories that lurk in the site’s long history
encoded: Cared for by English Heritage, Farleigh Hungerford castle in southwest England is the perfect place for a picnic and a stroll. But behind the ruins lie many fascinating, dark tales. HistoryExtra’s Ellie Cawthorne visits the castle – home to the Hungerford family for over 300 years – to hear more from site manager Frances Russell about the stories that lurk in the site’s long history. She also gets closer to Britain's best collection of human-shaped lead coffins, artefacts which drew many Victorian visitors with a taste for the macabre. With stories ranging from foul deeds to bloodthirsty goblins, Ellie asks: is this a contender for the English castle with the most gruesome history? View Green Video on the source website

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Why is Friday 13th unlucky?
type: item
date: 2025-06-13T09:09:00.000Z
subject: General ancient history
subject: Medieval
subject: Period
subject: Trends-Anniversary
description: Might Jesus and his 12 apostles have something to do with it? Discover the medieval history behind triskaidekaphobia – the fear of the number 13 – and why it is considered an unlucky number
encoded: Forget the Ides of March and Halloween – for some, a Friday that also happens to be the 13th of the month is scariest and unluckiest day of the year. The fear of Friday 13th is very real. It's even been given a scientific name, paraskevidekatriaphobia, from the Greek words Paraskeví, meaning Friday, and dekatreís, meaning 13. But what is it about this day and date combo that has given millions the heebie jeebies. Here's what we know of we know about Friday 13th's hazy history. When did people start believing Friday 13th was unlucky? It's believed that this superstition began in the Middle Ages. Some think it's related to the Last Supper, when 13 people were present at the meal before Jesus's crucifixion on Good Friday. Others think it's related to the Knights Templar, who were arrested for heresy on Friday 13 October 1307. But fear of 13 predates Christianity. The number 13 has been considered unlucky for millenia, and by many different cultures around the world. Why is the 13th unlucky? The ancient Romans believed that the number 13 was a bad omen, foretelling ill-fortune and death. The Vikings also hated 13, because in Norse mythology a banquet was held for 12 of the Norse gods during which the trickster god, Loki, appeared uninvited, like the wicked fairy in Sleeping Beauty, and as a result the beloved god Balder died. The Mayans thought that the 13th 'baktun' (a period equivalent to almost 400 years) would spell the end of the world – however, this came and went in 2012. For centuries, hosts avoided having 13 people seated around a dining table, convinced that the first person to leave would die within the year. Indeed, 16th-century witch-hunters often tried to claim there had been 13 people at a gathering – proof that the accused were witches in league with the devil. Why is Friday the 13th unlucky? Why Friday the 13th is considered especially unlucky isn't entirely clear. The first written record we have of the number 13 and Friday being unlucky in conjunction…

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Give away your worries, like an ancient Mesopotamian
type: item
date: 2025-06-07T08:30:06.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: What can we learn about managing worrying from the people of ancient Assyria and Babylonia? Dr Selena Wisnom offers some Near Eastern wisdom to Dave Musgrove
encoded: Do you worry about things? Do you wake up in the middle of the night, sweating about what might happen to you, to your family, to the world in general? I do. If you do too, rest assured you’re not alone. It’s a natural human trait, and it’s something people have been doing for millennia. In evolutionary terms, I imagine it’s something to do with forcing our minds to think about the things we ought to be doing next to keep ourselves alive, and keep us out of dangerous situations. It’s counterproductive, of course, to worry yourself into a state of paralysis – that’s when worrying goes wrong. Are there any lessons we can take from history that can help us worry productively? I went to the Assyria Galleries in the British Museum late one Friday afternoon to reflect on this. They are well worth a visit, whether you’re a worrier or not. Turn left at the main entrance and you’re straight into them. I wanted to go there because Dr Selena Wisnom, an expert on the history and heritage of ancient Mesopotamia and author of the excellent new book The Library of Ancient Wisdom (Penguin, 2025), had told me these people were worriers of renown: “They worry so much that they invent an entire branch of scholarship devoted to it. This is worrying on a kind of national cosmic scale.” This organised worrying was called ‘lamentation’. It wasn’t just a private matter – it was ritualised, institutionalised and shared across the whole society. We know they worried and lamented because they wrote about it. I wanted to get up close and personal with some ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform script. There is a lot of cuneiform script on display in the British Museum. I can’t read it – and there aren’t many people who can – but I figured it would be instructive just to look at it, and think a bit about the people who carved it. Hands and minds of the Mesopotamians Cuneiform is the writing system that they used in Mesopotamia. It was invented in the mid-fourth millennium BC and used for millennia aft…

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Don’t fear the fairies – but do allow a little enchantment into your life
type: item
date: 2025-05-23T15:39:28.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Witches
description: In an age in which we are no longer mortally afraid of the supernatural, there's space to enjoy freely magic and ritual, Professor Ronald Hutton tells David Musgrove
encoded: Most of us, these days, do not believe in fairies. But maybe we should allow a little more enchantment into our lives – that is the Life Lesson from History that Professor Ronald Hutton would have us consider. In late December every year, on the winter solstice, I like to make a mini-pilgrimage to Avebury at dawn. Avebury is, of course, one of Britain’s most impressive prehistoric megalithic monuments – a huge Neolithic stone circle, surrounded by a massive bank and ditch, with two smaller stone circles inside. It’s so big, in fact, that inside the stone circle is an entire village and a pub (which are obviously substantially later in date than the megaliths). I’m not alone in heading to this huge henge for the solstice – many are drawn to it, and there is something of a carnival vibe. I get up at about 4am and generally make some of my friends get up as well (they thank me not for this). We drive for an hour in the dark and then go for a jog for a few miles from the stone circle, past the enormous and abundantly enigmatic Silbury Hill, up to the West Kennet Long Barrow, and then back along the avenue of standing stones that leads into the henge and circle. I try to plan it to arrive back in Avebury as dawn breaks, but I never get the timing right, and it’s invariably overcast anyway, so I’ve never witnessed an impressive spiritual sunrise moment. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/05/HEPKG2avebury-846ee37.jpg" width="5100" height="3400" alt="A large rock takes up half the image. In the background a long line of people gather together under the purple sky" title="Avebury in Wiltshire is home to Britain’s largest stone circle, which is so big that inside are an entire village and a pub (built much later) (Image by Alamy)" /> I thought about Avebury after I’d chatted to Professor Hutton, one of the leading experts on the history of belief, ritual and the supernatural. I invited him to talk about his life lessons from history and …

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Rich men, reckless affairs and ruined reputations: the scandalous lives of London's 18th-century courtesans
type: item
date: 2025-04-25T08:00:59.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
description: In the 18th century, some sex workers elevated their status to that of a courtesan, servicing an upper-class clientele and becoming celebrities of their day. Historian Julie Peakman examines the lives of four of these women
encoded: Sexy, flirtatious, witty and beautiful, the best-known female courtesans in the 18th century made a name for themselves by having numerous affairs with wealthy or titled men. Unlike their sisters selling sex on the streets or in common brothels, these women often lived in luxurious apartments with maids and liveried servants. They were the pin-ups of their day and set many fashionable tends around London. Many courtesans became famous as a result of a new cult of celebrity in the 18th century. Changes in technology allowed for mass printing and the circulation of news about these social butterflies, leading the public to clamour for information on courtesans’ love affairs and their scandalous behaviour. Famous painters such as George Romney and Sir Joshua Reynolds even made portraits of celebrated courtesans, which became available in cheap prints. But who, among all the courtesans of 18th century London, was the most famous? Read more | The real Harlots: Hallie Rubenhold on Covent Garden's courtesans Kitty Fisher: London’s golden girl Her shocking escapades drew the attention of elite men around Europe – including Cassanova himself <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/04/GettyImages-77944601-9bcdfa2.jpg" width="855" height="1024" alt="A portrait of Kitty Fisher by Sir Joshua Reynolds, painted between 1723 and 1792 is pictured at Sothebys auction house, in London, 16 November 2007. The painting is expected to fetch between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000 pounds (2,793,496.24 and 4,190,362.13 Euros). AFP PHOTO / CARL DE SOUZA (Photo credit should read CARL DE SOUZA/AFP via Getty Images)" title="A portrait of Kitty Fisher by Sir Joshua" /> Sought after by some of the wealthiest men in Europe, the courtesan Kitty Fisher was at the top of her game. Such was her fame that poems were written about her (such as Kitty’s Stream and A Sketch of the Present Times); satirical prints were made of her (like The Merry Accident, which depicted her fall …

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