Illustration of strange creatures

Weird and wonderful history

Bizarre books and macabre manuscripts. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Sobriety, royal presents and Victorian-era musings on failure: an unexpected history of New Year. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Workers repair Fleet sewer in 1854. London’s creaking sewer network sparked anxieties over what lay beneath the sprawling capital. (Photo by Guildhall Library & Art Gallery/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Living in fear: the dangers of Victorian London. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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

The history of Christmas: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A miller and a donkey

9 things you could do with a medieval ass. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Ten things to do with a medieval donkey. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Edward Jenner

Q&AWhen did medical practitioners start to be called ‘doctor’?

This 15th-century painting from a manuscript shows men fishing in a river. In medieval England, eels were both meals and de facto currency. (Photo by Bridgeman)

Fishing for gold: how eels powered the medieval economy

'Merry Christmas' Victorian illustration of Santa Claus holding toys and blowing on a trumpet, chromolithograph, 1915. (Illustration by GraphicaArtis/Getty Images)

Father Christmas and Santa Claus: a brief history of two Christmas champions

Zwarte Piet: the history behind the Christmas controversy

The ‘lost’ city of Atlantis. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British mystery writer Agatha Christie, c1926.

The mysterious disappearance of Agatha Christie

Henry VI of England. (Photo by iStock/Getty Images)

Henry VI may have had a "sex coach" - plus 4 more curious facts about his life

Boys playing conkers in 1926. Horse chestnuts played an unlikely role in the war effort just a few years earlier. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Did conkers help win the First World War?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Roman toilet

Tales of the toilet: a historical A–Z. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Statue of King Alfred the Great in leafy Trinity Church Square, Southwark. It is thought to be the oldest statue in London.

Q&AWhat’s the oldest statue in London?

Buckingham Palace intruder Michael Fagan

Buckingham Palace intruder Michael Fagan: what happened and why did he break in?

President Nixon making final TV address

The 5 most notorious presidents in US history

Glamis Castle is said to be the most-haunted castle in Scotland. (Photo by mpalis via Getty Images)

A royal ghost tour: 5 haunted sites around Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration of a group of supposed witches

A very brief history of witches by Suzannah Lipscomb

An empty knight's armor sitting on a chest.

Q&AHow did knights in armour go to the toilet?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, observed by Queen Catherine (of Aragon), who is stood in the doorway. Anne has been playing the lute for the king, watched by a gathering of courtiers. Cardinal Wolsey, right of centre, looks on. Painting by Marcus Stone, 1870. Private collection. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Grooms of the stoolWho were the men who changed Henry VIII’s underpants?

Naming of St John the Baptist, c12th century. From a wall painting in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Medieval baby names: what were people called in the Middle Ages?

Halloween postcard

10 things you didn’t know about the history (and mystery) of Halloween

The battle of Dover, 24 August 1217, (image c1880). (Photo by Print Collector/Getty Images)

Eustace the Monk: one of medieval Europe's unholiest holy men. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Author Kate Summerscale (Photo by Fran Monks)

A 1930s ghost hunt. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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 sign of the devil or a miracle cure? How people felt about spiders in the Middle Ages. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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