Grim Almanacs

A Grim Almanac of Herefordshire is a day-by-day catalogue of 365 ghastly tales from around the county. Full of dreadful deeds, strange disappearances and a multitude of mysteries, this almanac explores the darker side of Herefordshire's past. Here are stories of tragedy, torment and the truly unfortunate with diverse tales of murderers, bodysnatchers, duelists, poachers, rioters and rebels. Joining them are accounts of tragic suicides, accidents and bizarre deaths, including William Prosser, who died in Clodock in 1893 as the result of a practical joke; the farmer bitten to death by his horse in 1887; and the young man from Colwall who allegedly sat on a spike. Also here is the case of a Yorkshire tramp, whose body was found in Weobley in 1894, and the murders and suicide of Charles Hankins and his two young children in Ledbury in 1896. Some killers were lucky to get away with charges of manslaughter, such as Thomas Carlyle, who shot a coachman near Leominster in 1871, and George Hatton, who rid himself of a nagging wife near Ross in 1893. All these, plus tales of fires, catastrophes, explosions and disasters, are here. Generously illustrated, this chronicle is an entertaining and readable record of Herefordshire's grim past. Read on ... if you dare!

A Grim Almanac of Old Berkshire is a day-by-day catalogue of ghastly tales dating from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries. Full of torment and torture, heinous homicides and cataclysms of nature, these pages contain multiple murders, horrendous hauntings and audacious thefts. Have you heard the story of the pub landlord who attempted to end it all by leaping down his own well? All he achieved was a broken ankle. Also featured here are the Watchfield farmer who tried to turn his wife into cooking fat, the family who charged people to view their relative's decapitated body, and the violent poltergeist activity that took place at the old forge at Finchampstead and made national news headlines in 1926. This compilation of grim deeds contains a veritable plethora of poisonings, assaults, drownings, kidnappings, suicides and disasters. If you have ever wondered about what nasty goings-on occurred in the Berkshire of yesteryear, then look no further – it's all here. But do you have the stomach for it?

Jostling for position in this cornucopia of the criminal and the curious are diverse tales of baby farmers, garrotters, murderers, poisoners, prostitutes, pimps, rioters and rebels. Other tales tell of those who walked the poverty-stricken streets of 'the abyss', trying to earn a few honest coppers by the most unusual and desperate occupations, from tater man to tosher. This colourful cast of characters is accompanied by accounts of prisons and punishments, as well as a liberal smattering of funerals, executions, disasters and bizarre events. If it's horrible, if it's ghastly, if it's strange, its here - and if you have the stomach for it, then read on.

The Georgian era was perhaps one of the most shocking, gory, vice-ridden and downright surprising in the capital's history. From an anaconda attack at the Tower of London to a ghost in Regent's Park, a murder at the House of Commons, a body-snatching case which horrified all of London, a murderer who advertised for a new wife in The Times and a decapitated head in the churchyard of St Margaret's in Westminster, it will terrify, disgust and delight residents and visitors alike. With 100 incredible illustrations from the rarest and most sensational true-crime publications of the age, no London bookshelf is complete without it!

This day-by-day account of gruesome tales from York's past reveals the seedy underbelly of what was historically the most important city in the North. Inside these pages you will find true stories of murder and intrigue, battles and conspiracies, witches and religious martyrs, gruesome executions and horrible accidents. Read about Margaret Clitherow, tortured to death for her beliefs, Richard Scrope, the archbishop executed for treason, and of course the notorious highwayman Richard 'Dick' Turpin and his moonlight ride. If you have ever wondered what nasty goings-on occurred in the York of yesteryear, then read on ... if you dare!

In 1826 'resurrection men' stole thirty bodies from the graveyard of St Mary's Church in Nottingham to sell to unscrupulous medical establishments in London. It emerged they had been shipping their cargo to the capital in wicker baskets booked aboard stagecoaches, but they were never caught. In 1908 Mansfield tattooist Arthur Scott attacked a customer who refused to pay his bill. Scott tracked his quarry down after two days and attempted to shoot him. He failed, but it didn't take the police long to find Scott-the only tattooist in Mansfield. On 7 June 1865 Thomas Whittaker left the bar of a Newark pub to visit the toilet in the backyard. As he returned he slipped from the top of a flight of wooden stairs and fell head first into a water butt. He drowned. When Retford eccentric John Clifton died in 1816 he left a deadly legacy. He had a life-long fascination for fireworks and made them for his friends. While sorting through John's things his sister found a tin of black powder, which she thought was worthless, and threw it on the fire. The resulting explosion killed her and demolished the house. A Grim Almanac of Nottinghamshire is a collection of stories from the county's past, some bizarre, some fascinating, some macabre—all absorbing. Revealed here are the dark corners of Nottinghamshire, where witches, body snatchers, highwaymen and murderers have stalked. Within the Almanac's pages we plumb the depths of past despair and peer over the rim of that bottomless chasm where demons lurk. Author Kevin Turton has pored over the historic records of the county to bring together these extraordinary accounts of past events.

A Grim Almanac of the Black Country is a day-by-day catalogue of 366 ghastly tales from around the area. Full of dreadful deeds, strange disappearances and a multitude of mysteries, this almanac explores the darker side of the Black Country's past. Here are stories of tragedy, torment and the truly unfortunate with diverse tales of mining disasters, freak weather, bizarre deaths and tragic accidents, including the gunpowder explosion at a factory in Tipton which claimed nineteen lives in 1922. Also featured is the corpse in West Bromwich that was twice wrongly identified in 1929, the collapse of a concert hall roof in Walsall in 1921, and the two labourers buried in molten glass near Stourbridge in 1893. All these, plus tales of fires, catastrophes, mysteries and executions, are here. Generously illustrated, this chronicle is an entertaining and readable record of the Black Country's grim past. Read on ... if you dare!

A Grim Almanac of Staffordshire is a day-by-day catalogue of 366 ghastly tales from around the county. Full of dreadful deeds, strange disappearances and a multitude of murders, this almanac explores the darker side of the Staffordshire's past. Here are stories of tragedy, torment and the truly unfortunate with diverse tales of freak weather, bizarre deaths and terrible accidents, including the young lad 'jellified' after falling into factory machinery, and the deaths of 155 men in the Minnie Pit disaster of 1918. Alongside tales of fires, catastrophes, suicides, thefts and executions - it's all here. Generously illustrated, this chronicle is an entertaining and readable record of Staffordshire's grim past. Read on ... if you dare!

A Grim Almanac of Oxfordshire is a day-by-day catalogue of 366 ghastly tales from the county's past. There are murders and manslaughters, including the killing by Mrs. Barber of her entire family in 1909 while temporarily insane, and the brutal murder of four-year-old Edward Busby in 1871, killed by his mother to prevent his father ill-treating him. There are bizarre deaths, including those of four-year-old Charles Taylor, who was accidentally kicked clean through a top storey window in 1844 by a child playing on a swing, George Sheppard, who was struck by a cricket ball during a match in 1905, and of the vicar of Bucknell, who starved himself to death in 1935.There is an assortment of calamities which include strange and unusual crimes, devastating fires, rail crashes, explosions, disasters, mysteries, freak weather and a plethora of uncanny accidents. Generously illustrated, this chronicle is an entertaining and readable record of Oxfordshire's grim past. Delve into the dreadful deeds of Oxford's past, if you dare…

Discover 365 gruesome tales from Birmingham's past. With appalling accidents, frightful crimes and extraordinary deaths, there's something to surprise even the most hardened reader. Featured here is the man who deliberately swallowed his wooden walking stick, a nineteenth-century horsemeat scandal, a drunken dispute that led to a man being stabbed in the eye with a table fork, and the lightning storm which hit a fog-signalling factory, setting off 43,000 explosions. True accounts of fires, catastrophes, murders, executions and a variety of nasty goings-on in the Birmingham of yesteryear await you within.

A Grim Almanac of Leicestershire is a day-by-day catalogue of 366 macabre moments from the county's past. Featured here are such diverse tales as mining disasters, freak weather conditions, industrial catastrophes, train crashes and tragic accidents, including the Oadby woman who was killed by a wasp sting in 1925 and Dorothy Cain, who performed her first ever parachute jump in 1926 - without her parachute. Among the murders detailed in this volume are the assisted suicide of the vicar of Hungerton in 1925, and the unsolved 'Green Bicycle Murder' of 1919 at Little Stretton. Generously illustrated with 100 pictures, this chronicle is an entertaining and readable record of Leicestershire's grim past. Read on... if you dare!

A Grim Almanac of Shropshire is a day-by-day catalogue of 366 macabre moments from the county's past. Featured here are such diverse tales as mining disasters, suicides, miscarriages of justice, axe murders, executions and tragic accidents, including the Meadow Pit Mining Tragedy of 1810, when four men suffocated from sulphur fumes after the pit caught fire, and the mysterious disappearance of a Lancaster bomber - and its crew - over Shropshire more than sixty years ago. Generously illustrated, this chronicle is an entertaining and readable record of Shropshire's grim past. Read on... if you dare!

A Grim Almanac of Manchester collects together 365 of the darkest tales from Manchester's history – terrifying true tales of riot, assault, murder and crime, of slums, disease, death and disaster. Compiled by Manchester historian and genealogist Michala Hume, this book is filled with amazing historical horrors ranging from the bizarre – such as the night a poisoned cake caused a sickness to sweep through Ancoats – to the horrific, like the tragic night that twenty-three people were crushed to death attempting to escape a fire in the overcrowded Victoria Music Hall. Some of these incidents were resolved, but many remain mysteries to this day. Generously illustrated, this chronicle is an entertaining and absorbing record of Manchester's grim past. Read on … if you dare!

Neil R. Storey's macabre calendar chronicles the darker side of life in Essex. Murderers and footpads, pimps and prostitutes, riots, rebels, bizarre funerals, disaster and peculiar medicine all feature. The book is illustrated with engravings, newspaper reports, photographs and original documents. It is horrible, if it is ghastly, if it is strange, then it is here! If you have the stomach for it, then read on.

A Grim Almanac of Glasgow is a day-by-day catalogue of 366 ghastly tales from around the city. Full of dreadful deeds, strange disappearances and a multitude of mysteries, this almanac explores the darker side of Glasgow's past. Here are stories of tragedy, torment and the truly unfortunate with diverse tales of brutal murders, tragic suicides, and macabre events, including the experiments of Dr Andrew Ure, who, in 1818, applied electricity to the dead body of an executed murderer, animating the corpse and convincing spectators that the murderer had come back to life! All these, plus tales of fires, explosions and bizarre accidents, are here. Generously illustrated, this chronicle is an entertaining and readable record of Glasgow's grim past. Read on... if you dare!

A Grim Almanac of South Yorkshire is a collection of stories from the county's past, some bizarre, some fascinating, some macabre, but all equally absorbing. Revealed here are the dark corners of the county, where witches, body snatchers, highwaymen and murderers, in whatever guise, have stalked. Accompanying this cast of gruesome characters are old superstitions, omens, strange beliefs and long-forgotten remedies for all manner of ailments. Within the Almanac's pages we visit the dark side, plumb the depths of past despair and peer over the rim of that bottomless chasm where demons lurk, with only a candle's light to see by . . . metaphorically speaking of course. You are invited to take that journey, if you are brave enough, and meet some of the people that populated the past . . . while author Kevin Turton holds the candle at arm's length.