Illustration of strange creatures

Weird and wonderful history

Bulldog burners and dungboys: classifying occupations in British censuses (1841-1911). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

QuizWeird and wonderful history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Medieval ghost stories. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Q&AWhat was clog fighting?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

7 weird and wonderful Georgian beauty treatments. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

(Illustration: Clair Rossiter for BBC History Magazine)

Beans, ale & 'windy meats': surprising 17th-century aphrodisiacs. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Danny Robins' paranormal cold casesAlanbrooke Hall, Belfast. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Supernatural stories: 9 unusual British folktales. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A scene from the German film 'Ways to Strength and Beauty', 1925. (Ullstein Bild via Getty Images)

Second World War

Germany’s naked truth: the 19th-century nudism movements co-opted by the Nazis

Suffragettes photographed in a dispute with the police

Jujitsu suffragettes: how women fought for the vote with an ancient martial art. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A depiction of folk figure Dick Whittington

Dick Whittington, the Loch Ness Monster and a talking mongoose: 8 mythical figures of British history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A homemade ouija board, a treasure hunt and fake madness: the great escape of World War I. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Dinosaur dung became a valuable commodity in 19th century Cambridgeshire. (Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Dinosaur dung billionaires: the Victorian 'gold rush' for fossilised faeces. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The fabled ‘Vegetable Lamb of Tartary’ was a plant said to grow sheep as its fruit.

Q&AWhat was the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary?

A woodcut showing the interior of a kitchen in Elizabethan England. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Hold your noses: the smells, sounds and sights of Elizabethan England. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Unexpected Edwardians. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration of a man without a head, but with his face on his chest. This is one of many creatures Sir John Mandeville claimed to have met on his travels

A knight's (tall) tale: why medieval traveller Sir John Mandeville was more popular than Marco Polo. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Bal des Ardents (the 'Ball of the Burning Men'), from 'The Chronicler of European Chivalry' by GG Coulton (London, 1930). The 1393 tragedy claimed the lives of four people. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Q&AWhat was the ‘Ball of the Burning Men’?

The burgundy cover of a British passport

Q&AWhen were passports as we know them today first introduced?

An ancient Greek vase depicting sexual intercourse

A brief history of sex and sexuality in Ancient Greece

Extraordinary hoaxes of the 18th century. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Q&ADid the Scottish mass-murdering cannibal Sawney Bean actually exist?

A medieval illustration showing a doctor bleeding a patient

QuizCan you spot the real historical remedies?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Bewitched cars & mail-order charms: witchcraft in modern France. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An architectural grotesque of a woman displaying her vulva

How naughty was the past? The hidden depths of the medieval church

Soldiers of the Third Reich surround a huge bonfire during a winter solstice festival in December 1936. The Nazis attempted to use elements of pagan beliefs to promote a Germanic ‘national religiosity’. (Photo by Getty Images)

Witches, werewolves and vampires: the Nazi's quest for the supernatural

A group of men observe a body lying on a table.

Early-modern cannibal doctors: why mummified corpse was considered medicine. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Q&A: What was the punishment of being ‘burnt in the hand’?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Why were the Georgians fixated with fatness?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Crown Prince Olav on his ice yacht (Getty Images)

From Hollywood to war heroes: 10 Olympians who were more famous outside sport