Animals

Land girls on an Essex turkey farm round up the turkeys for the last time. (Photo by Reg Speller/Fox Photos/Getty Images)

A brief history of turkeys, plus why we eat a turkey dinner at Christmas

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin vs God: did the ‘Origin of Species’ cause a clash between church and science?

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David Olusoga "Half a million cats and dogs were put to death in 1939 – for no good reason" . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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A watermill, with fish nets and eel traps visible beneath the waters of the mill leat Luttrell Psalter. England, c 1325-1335. (Photo by Alamy)

Medieval eels and Englishness . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A spider on its web, woodcut, 1547. (Image courtesy of Wellcome Collection)

A sign of the devil or a miracle cure? How people felt about spiders in the Middle Ages

A scene from the Smithfield Decretals depicting a rabbit beheading a man. Rabbits seem to have a strange place in medieval imagery – and are depicted as having strangely violent tendencies.

Blog Medieval(ish) matters #5: chivalry, medieval killer rabbits and prisoners of war in the 15th century

Medieval prisoners

What was it like to be a Prisoner of War during the Hundred Years’ War?

An illumination depicts medieval women embroidering

Medieval misconceptions: 12 myths about life in the Middle Ages – busted

Frances Griffiths poses with the fairies

Fairies, rabbit births and an ‘ancient’ tiara: what are the greatest historical hoaxes?

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The 18th-century rabbit breeding hoax (Photo by Getty Images)

The woman who gave birth to rabbits . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Simon the cat

10 top cats in history

A photo which was believed to be of the Loch Ness Monster

The quest for the Loch Ness Monster

Bottles of snake oil

Q&A Did salesmen really sell snake oil?

The ‘Surgeon’s Photo’, taken in 1934, which claimed to depict the Loch Ness Monster. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

5 facts about the Loch Ness Monster

Illustration by Glen McBeth.

Q&A When did the leopards on the royal arms of England become the lions depicted today?