Hello everyone. We hope you enjoyed this spooky departure from the usual format! Here are some questions you may have, as ever, from historian Annie Gray... Q: What's a coney? A: Coney is an old term for an adult rabbit. Originally rabbit was used for younger animals, and coneys for older. They were domesticated and bred for eating by the Normans, at which time the meat was quite prestigious - but, rabbits being rabbits - they escaped, bred wildly, and by the 1880s were an established pest, to be kept under control by trapping and shooting. The meat was a valuable addition to the diet of the rural working class, and younger rabbits were also sometimes served further up the social scale. We know from the records of both Audley End and other country houses that the servants ate a lot of rabbit - it was free, easy to come by and very very plentiful. The skins went off to be turned into clothing, and it was common for cooks and kitchen maids to have the right to sell the skins to supplement their wages. Q: Vegetable marrow again! Help me out here? A: We talked about bone marrow when we made Lady Betty's Delight. Vegetable marrow is completely different - it's what most of the English-speaking world would call an overgrown zucchini. In the UK we use the term courgette for zucchini, having adopted the vegetable from the French, rather than the Italians. However, the French (wisely) don't eat huge courgettes (which they'd, logically, call courge - though this is also a generic name for squash), so we lacked a name for the big ones. In Britain in the Victorian era there was an obsession with giant vegetables, often to the point of inedibility, and garden shows with competitions for absurdly large vegetables were really popular. Quite why we opted for the name marrow for them is unclear - though there's a theory that in texture the flesh of a huge courgette is a bit like bone marrow (it really isn't). Marrow was a bit of a blight on British cuisine - often eaten stuffed or disguised in other things as it is very watery and if the skin is left on, quite bitter. Cookery authors repeatedly exhorted British cooks to eat them small - as courgettes - but it wasn't until the resurgence of Italian food in the 1970s (or, more properly, Italian-American food) that they really started - very slowly - to take off. Q: I loved this story - tell me more about Mr Barker. A: Sylvanus Barker was one of several members of the Barker family to work at Audley End, in this case as a gamekeeper. You can see him in action again here [the october video last year]. He's played by Matt Wood, a professional storyteller. If you are based in the UK, he'll be in action at a live halloween event at English Heritage's Whitby Abbey, for our 'if these stones could talk' event - www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/whats-on/whitby-abbey-illuminated-24-oct-2-nov-24/ Q: What's the basic history of Halloween in the UK? A: Halloween is a mixture of lots of things: there's the Celtic samhain, and the early Christian all saints' and all souls' days, plus a lot of superstition and a heady dose of later revivalism. It was one of many minor festivals in Britain, mainly celebrated in Ireland and in western areas with more celtic influence. By the 1880s it was seen as a bit folksy and old-fashioned. However, the Irish and Scottish had taken it to America, and over there it was becoming a much bigger thing. Today's festival in the UK is largely an American one, imported in the last 50 or so years.
So sad to see Marrow hate - They are falling out of fashion and hard to find now because nobody knows how to cook them! Yes they are very different to courgettes, but watery? Providing you cook it right, not at all, especially if you get a good dark-skinned one. Thoroughly peel the thick skin off and discard the seeds and stringy membrane (much like we do with pumpkin) cut 1cm thick slices and sauté in butter (cook out any excess water given off). You'll be rewarded with savoury toothsome flesh that is more interesting than courgette, in my opinion. The Southern Italians call them cucuzze in a dish called Cucuzzil and do eat them sliced, fried off then baked in tomato sauce with cheese.
Here's a question I don't see on the list: Did the Victorians use pumpkin in quick breads or cakes at all? It seems to be fairly common in the States, probably going back to the 1910's or 20's if I'm remembering correctly.
Unfortunately, because rabbit, or coney, is so lean you can actually starve to death by eating them exclusively! Something my husband taught me when we were young and just married. Of course, it never stopped us from eating it if it was all we had, lol. I suspects cooks learned to "lard" the meat early on, deer or squirrel, too, for the same reason. Larding is done by adding bits of fat (beef usually) to the meat by poking it in a hole made in the meat. Having eaten both done that way it is highly recommended.
In the Section "What is Coney" the second episode of last season's BBC drama All Creatures Great and Small, there's a character called Joe Coney, Who kept offering people dead rabbits as payment for the care of his ferret named Wilf. I remember he freaked out Miss Harbotle when he pulled out two dead "coney" rabbits to pay his deposit! "Please kindly get that thing away from me! "🤣
Absolutely. I can just picture her looking over her glasses with the withering stare she'd give a kitchen maid caught pinching the petit fours for his lordship's table.
You have the best actors portraying the servants. I'd like to see more interaction between them. Maybe Mrs. Crocombe couldl prepare a servants tea and everybody could just gather around.
As an Irish person, I loved the hint to Halloweens Irish Origins! And god love any ghost that appears to Mrs. Crocombe, they will be put to work, if you can haunt a room you can clean it too!
I was so invested in the story!!! 😨 Mr Barker voice is perfection, I could listen an entire audiobook of ghost stories narrated by him 🙌🏻 And I loved how Mrs Crocombe reactions while listening to the tale. Thank you, English Heritage 🙏🏻❤
Kathy is a marvel. She truly is a very skilled actress. Can't tell you how many happy hours I've spent enjoying Mrs.cro omb. I would love to see her in other productions. Skilled actresses are rare these days however she fits the bill.
Oh, I could listen to these two talk forever! What wonderful artistry and a fabulous story! Thank you to everybody involved for continuing to create such wonderful videos and for taking care of so many historic sites! What a joy, what a thril!
I love those videos. They fit so much better than the trick or treatin these days. I could listen to Mr. Barker and Mrs. Crocombe for hours on end. Thank you to all involved who made this video possible.
This is fantastic, English Heritage! Wasn’t expecting to learn so much about Halloween in the Victorian Era - certainly different than what’s done now.
Thank you for mentioning some of the Scottish Halloween traditions! As a Scottish person, I always feel quite protective of Halloween, because a lot of people don't know that some of the Halloween traditions originated here (also I'm going to try to carve a turnip instead of a pumpkin for Halloween for the first time this year :))
Lovely story! My sister had an awkward torch that was also a battery charger and on the back you could pull off a cap and there was a power plug (F-plug, Germany). It was the end of October, my sister was 16 and I was 13. We had a big storm, my parents were at a friend's house and called to say they were staying there because of the storm. We watched scary films all evening, had pizza and snacks and went to bed quite late. The storm roared around the roof and it rained heavily. I just was fallen asleep when my sister screamed like crazy and oh boy I was terrified! She ran into my room and just shouted ‘The torch was on!’ the whole time and I was totally confused. She was charging the torch in a socket and it was switched off, she was making herself comfortable in bed and suddenly the torch switched on in her tiny room. She could hardly be calmed down while I was dying of laughter inside. The torch was ancient, it was a malfunction. She actually got the folding bed from our guest room and slept in my room. I still tease her about it today, that was almost 25 years ago.
I live in the Appalachian mtns. Most of those things we do here. Most of my family came from Scotland, probably sent here cause they murdered somebody. The highlands are a part of the Appalachian range. I'm sure the Scottish was breed out of us a long time ago, lol. I guess they brought it here, and we still do them today. Yule/christmas as well.
This was WONDERFUL- I really enjoyed this little departure from your usual recipe videos (which I just love as well). I'll second the hope for a Christmas ghost story as well- the little discussions of various regional names for things and traditions was really fun here, I'm sure the same exists for Christmastime spooky stories too.
Wow! I was so invested in the story! Mr. Barker did an excellent job narrating as well as playing different characters in the story. I was expecting him to give Mrs. Crocombe a jump scare at the end though😂 Very well done!
Thank you Mr Barker for the story. While Mrs Crocombe is a wonderful cook and it's always good to see her. I do like hearing from the other workers on the estate.
@EnglishHeritage Well played Mr. Barker and Mrs. Crocombe, well played!!! I thoroughly enjoy watching Kathy Hipperson as Mrs. Crocombe, she is totally brilliant!!! We need to see more of Mrs. Crocombe!!!! @EnglishHeritage Mrs. Crocombe needs her own channel!
Excellent! Whenever Mr. Barker is on theres a story of mayhem of some kind. Love the story. The fact that it was very relatable for the servant audience is a nice touch.
I saved my viewing of Mr Barker’s ghost story for Halloween night. SPOOKY!👻 Wonderful acting by both Mr Barker and Mrs Crocombe. And the warm firelight created the perfect mood. Thank you for the story!
i love the early victorian era, when storytelling, gossiping & book or news reading were at their finest they don't have radio, tv, computer or smartphone and the best way to make their day interesting & productive is by "talking" or "reading"
Most entertaining! I like spooky and eerie stories for Halloween. Never quite approved or cared for horror. That’s a whole other “kettle of fish” that I don’t think we have any business delving into. This was perfect, thank you so much!
All I wanted was for Mr. Barker to give Mrs. Crocombe one jump scare! She may have slit have His throat, but if would have been a chance that I might have taken. A different episode, but so fitting for the Season.
Loved it! I love a good ghost story! Would have loved it better if the unskippable ads didn’t come thick and fast - one even came just before the ending of the story and absolutely killed the atmosphere buildup.
I'm a sucker for spook stories. I've seen one as a wee kid, that's why. In my young mind ( I was 5), I knew that what I was looking at was not normal so I scampered away as fast as my stubby legs could take me.
Hello everyone. We hope you enjoyed this spooky departure from the usual format! Here are some questions you may have, as ever, from historian Annie Gray...
Q: What's a coney?
A: Coney is an old term for an adult rabbit. Originally rabbit was used for younger animals, and coneys for older. They were domesticated and bred for eating by the Normans, at which time the meat was quite prestigious - but, rabbits being rabbits - they escaped, bred wildly, and by the 1880s were an established pest, to be kept under control by trapping and shooting. The meat was a valuable addition to the diet of the rural working class, and younger rabbits were also sometimes served further up the social scale. We know from the records of both Audley End and other country houses that the servants ate a lot of rabbit - it was free, easy to come by and very very plentiful. The skins went off to be turned into clothing, and it was common for cooks and kitchen maids to have the right to sell the skins to supplement their wages.
Q: Vegetable marrow again! Help me out here?
A: We talked about bone marrow when we made Lady Betty's Delight. Vegetable marrow is completely different - it's what most of the English-speaking world would call an overgrown zucchini. In the UK we use the term courgette for zucchini, having adopted the vegetable from the French, rather than the Italians. However, the French (wisely) don't eat huge courgettes (which they'd, logically, call courge - though this is also a generic name for squash), so we lacked a name for the big ones. In Britain in the Victorian era there was an obsession with giant vegetables, often to the point of inedibility, and garden shows with competitions for absurdly large vegetables were really popular. Quite why we opted for the name marrow for them is unclear - though there's a theory that in texture the flesh of a huge courgette is a bit like bone marrow (it really isn't). Marrow was a bit of a blight on British cuisine - often eaten stuffed or disguised in other things as it is very watery and if the skin is left on, quite bitter. Cookery authors repeatedly exhorted British cooks to eat them small - as courgettes - but it wasn't until the resurgence of Italian food in the 1970s (or, more properly, Italian-American food) that they really started - very slowly - to take off.
Q: I loved this story - tell me more about Mr Barker.
A: Sylvanus Barker was one of several members of the Barker family to work at Audley End, in this case as a gamekeeper. You can see him in action again here [the october video last year]. He's played by Matt Wood, a professional storyteller. If you are based in the UK, he'll be in action at a live halloween event at English Heritage's Whitby Abbey, for our 'if these stones could talk' event - www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/whats-on/whitby-abbey-illuminated-24-oct-2-nov-24/
Q: What's the basic history of Halloween in the UK?
A: Halloween is a mixture of lots of things: there's the Celtic samhain, and the early Christian all saints' and all souls' days, plus a lot of superstition and a heady dose of later revivalism. It was one of many minor festivals in Britain, mainly celebrated in Ireland and in western areas with more celtic influence. By the 1880s it was seen as a bit folksy and old-fashioned. However, the Irish and Scottish had taken it to America, and over there it was becoming a much bigger thing. Today's festival in the UK is largely an American one, imported in the last 50 or so years.
So sad to see Marrow hate - They are falling out of fashion and hard to find now because nobody knows how to cook them! Yes they are very different to courgettes, but watery? Providing you cook it right, not at all, especially if you get a good dark-skinned one. Thoroughly peel the thick skin off and discard the seeds and stringy membrane (much like we do with pumpkin) cut 1cm thick slices and sauté in butter (cook out any excess water given off). You'll be rewarded with savoury toothsome flesh that is more interesting than courgette, in my opinion. The Southern Italians call them cucuzze in a dish called Cucuzzil and do eat them sliced, fried off then baked in tomato sauce with cheese.
Here's a question I don't see on the list: Did the Victorians use pumpkin in quick breads or cakes at all? It seems to be fairly common in the States, probably going back to the 1910's or 20's if I'm remembering correctly.
Wild rabbit.
Unfortunately, because rabbit, or coney, is so lean you can actually starve to death by eating them exclusively! Something my husband taught me when we were young and just married. Of course, it never stopped us from eating it if it was all we had, lol. I suspects cooks learned to "lard" the meat early on, deer or squirrel, too, for the same reason. Larding is done by adding bits of fat (beef usually) to the meat by poking it in a hole made in the meat. Having eaten both done that way it is highly recommended.
In the Section "What is Coney" the second episode of last season's BBC drama All Creatures Great and Small, there's a character called Joe Coney, Who kept offering people dead rabbits as payment for the care of his ferret named Wilf. I remember he freaked out Miss Harbotle when he pulled out two dead "coney" rabbits to pay his deposit! "Please kindly get that thing away from me! "🤣
Mrs Crocombe would just stare at the ghost and they would run away while thanking her
Hahaha! I love it! 🎃👻
Absolutely. I can just picture her looking over her glasses with the withering stare she'd give a kitchen maid caught pinching the petit fours for his lordship's table.
Her shade would terrify any spectre.
And curtsying 😂
I think she would make the ghost do the dishes to compensate loosing her time
Mr Barker: *Tries to tell a scary story*
Mrs Crocombe: *desperately tries to talk about pumpkins*
A ghost story by Mr Parker and also featuring Mrs Crocombe? We're so spoiled 😊
It's Mr Barker not Mr Parker, milady. :)
If we're getting a ghost story for Halloween, we better get one from Mr. Barker at Christmas!
I'd love that😊
Yesss please!
Yes! Yes! A Christmas ghost tale!
Just a reading from A Christmas Carol would suffice!!
Doesn't have to be a ghost story. Something nice about a Christmas miracle, maybe.
You have the best actors portraying the servants. I'd like to see more interaction between them. Maybe Mrs. Crocombe couldl prepare a servants tea and everybody could just gather around.
Yes, and spill the tea...🤭
Mrs. Crocombe isn't afraid of ghosts, ghosts are afraid of Mrs. Crocombe.
As an Irish person, I loved the hint to Halloweens Irish Origins! And god love any ghost that appears to Mrs. Crocombe, they will be put to work, if you can haunt a room you can clean it too!
😂😂😂
I was so invested in the story!!! 😨 Mr Barker voice is perfection, I could listen an entire audiobook of ghost stories narrated by him 🙌🏻 And I loved how Mrs Crocombe reactions while listening to the tale. Thank you, English Heritage 🙏🏻❤
Kathy is a marvel. She truly is a very skilled actress. Can't tell you how many happy hours I've spent enjoying Mrs.cro omb. I would love to see her in other productions. Skilled actresses are rare these days however she fits the bill.
She’s in a few other English Heritage videos here on TH-cam. She’s a very good story teller!
Oh, I could listen to these two talk forever! What wonderful artistry and a fabulous story! Thank you to everybody involved for continuing to create such wonderful videos and for taking care of so many historic sites! What a joy, what a thril!
I love those videos. They fit so much better than the trick or treatin these days. I could listen to Mr. Barker and Mrs. Crocombe for hours on end. Thank you to all involved who made this video possible.
I could tell that Mrs Crocombe was very scared but trying to hold it together. What a great, atmospheric tale!
This is fantastic, English Heritage! Wasn’t expecting to learn so much about Halloween in the Victorian Era - certainly different than what’s done now.
I adore Mrs Crocombe but I also love to see more of the servants!
Same!!!
The Victorians sure knew how to tell a spooky ghost story 🎃🤎
More of this please with the different servants!
What a treat, for the English Heritage fans. Thank you.
1:30 Mr Barker's 5 seconds into his speech and Mrs C is already over it
Thank you for mentioning some of the Scottish Halloween traditions! As a Scottish person, I always feel quite protective of Halloween, because a lot of people don't know that some of the Halloween traditions originated here (also I'm going to try to carve a turnip instead of a pumpkin for Halloween for the first time this year :))
Mr. Barker is a good story teller!
Lovely story!
My sister had an awkward torch that was also a battery charger and on the back you could pull off a cap and there was a power plug (F-plug, Germany). It was the end of October, my sister was 16 and I was 13. We had a big storm, my parents were at a friend's house and called to say they were staying there because of the storm. We watched scary films all evening, had pizza and snacks and went to bed quite late. The storm roared around the roof and it rained heavily. I just was fallen asleep when my sister screamed like crazy and oh boy I was terrified! She ran into my room and just shouted ‘The torch was on!’ the whole time and I was totally confused. She was charging the torch in a socket and it was switched off, she was making herself comfortable in bed and suddenly the torch switched on in her tiny room. She could hardly be calmed down while I was dying of laughter inside. The torch was ancient, it was a malfunction. She actually got the folding bed from our guest room and slept in my room. I still tease her about it today, that was almost 25 years ago.
I live in the Appalachian mtns. Most of those things we do here. Most of my family came from Scotland, probably sent here cause they murdered somebody. The highlands are a part of the Appalachian range. I'm sure the Scottish was breed out of us a long time ago, lol. I guess they brought it here, and we still do them today. Yule/christmas as well.
What a Halloween treat you've given us! A perfect spooky story with Mr. Barker and Mrs. Crocombe. 👻
This was WONDERFUL- I really enjoyed this little departure from your usual recipe videos (which I just love as well). I'll second the hope for a Christmas ghost story as well- the little discussions of various regional names for things and traditions was really fun here, I'm sure the same exists for Christmastime spooky stories too.
Mr. Barker had me mesmerized!
Wow! I was so invested in the story! Mr. Barker did an excellent job narrating as well as playing different characters in the story. I was expecting him to give Mrs. Crocombe a jump scare at the end though😂
Very well done!
The way Mrs. Crocombe says “Learned Scholar” makes me ashamed of my anthropology degree.
Can't say I saw this coming, but festive videos are always welcome!
A lovely little chilling story👻🎃Thank you mr barker mrs crocombe and thank you english heritage 🖤
Thank you Mr Barker for the story. While Mrs Crocombe is a wonderful cook and it's always good to see her. I do like hearing from the other workers on the estate.
@EnglishHeritage Well played Mr. Barker and Mrs. Crocombe, well played!!! I thoroughly enjoy watching Kathy Hipperson as Mrs. Crocombe, she is totally brilliant!!! We need to see more of Mrs. Crocombe!!!! @EnglishHeritage Mrs. Crocombe needs her own channel!
I was smart enough to listen to this in broad daylight!!! (I have an EXTREMELY vivid imagination. Nightmares come over me if I hear these at night. 😄)
Excellent! Whenever Mr. Barker is on theres a story of mayhem of some kind. Love the story. The fact that it was very relatable for the servant audience is a nice touch.
I saved my viewing of Mr Barker’s ghost story for Halloween night. SPOOKY!👻 Wonderful acting by both Mr Barker and Mrs Crocombe. And the warm firelight created the perfect mood. Thank you for the story!
That is the best ghost story I have heard in a very long time.
Just my sort of story - delightfully spooky and suspenseful! Mr Barker and Mrs C did it justice!
i love the early victorian era, when storytelling, gossiping & book or news reading were at their finest
they don't have radio, tv, computer or smartphone and the best way to make their day interesting & productive is by "talking" or "reading"
Mr Barker's ghost story gave me cold chills! ♥♥
Oh this was brilliantly scary! Mr Barker’s voice is perfect for telling ghostly stories ❤
Lovely ghost story. I feel as if I could listen to him all the time.
This was great! I really enjoy the videos when they "visit" with each other.
Mr. Barker is a great storyteller! What a wonderfully festive, spooky surprise ahead of Halloween 👻
Happy All Hallows Eve from Virginia! Thank you English Heritage!
Most entertaining! I like spooky and eerie stories for Halloween. Never quite approved or cared for horror. That’s a whole other “kettle of fish” that I don’t think we have any business delving into. This was perfect, thank you so much!
WONDERFUL! I 💙💜❤💜💙 Mr. Barker's ghost story!
I was so excited for this video that I waited a few solid days to watch it in the conditions it deserves
Fabulous tale. 👻
All I wanted was for Mr. Barker to give Mrs. Crocombe one jump scare! She may have slit have His throat, but if would have been a chance that I might have taken. A different episode, but so fitting for the Season.
Sigh!! I wanted to wait until Halloween but couldn’t. What a treasure!
Excellent story telling Mr.Barker. Well done!
This was a wonderful (and scary) tale, thank you for such wonderful enchantment!
The acting is on point! The aura created by the storytelling is entrancing. Looking forward to more tales in the coming colder days
A wonderful story, wonderfully told. Thank you.
Delightful! Mrs Crocombe and Mr Barker did a great job 👻🎃
This was so wonderful, I loved every second of it!
What a delightful surprise this is! Wonderful, more please!
I just finished decorating for Halloween. Perfect time for a ghost story!
Fantastic storytellers, the both! I need a stuff fortifying drink after that!
It’s nearly 1am here in Australia
It made this spooky tale
Even scarier hehe
Thank you Mr Barker and Mrs Crocombe
I may keep the light on 😊
What a very special, very brilliant treat this is!
I felt as I was around that fire just listening carefully to Mr. Barker. He had all my attention all the time.
What a brilliant story for this time of year, nice and spooky! Thank you to Mrs Crocombe and Mr Barker. 👻
Mrs Crocombe serves again ✨
Wonderfully chilling - thank you
Wonderful spooky story! I love that they touch on the history of Halloween 🎃✨
This was really good. Definitely rewatching this on Halloween.
Love this! BUT we definitely need more Mr. Lincoln the butler's videos!
What goes on in Audley End House stays in Audley End House. Mr. Crocombe doesn’t need to know! 😮😂
Very well done, thank you!
Oooooh - I adored the story, Thank You!!!
I could listen to these two for ever we are so spoiled
Oh lovely, shivery ghost story. Well done!
That was spooky! Good job to both of you, Mr. Barker and Mrs. Crocombe
What an excellent episode!! 🎃❤
I love it❤❤
Are there any real ghosts at A End?
Horror babble and bite sozed audio usually specialize in victorian stories. I love them.❤
Blimey, that was excellent! Thank you.
Love this, and love Mrs. Crocombe. :)
I needed so much a ghost story today!!! Wonderful! 👻 👻 👻
Beautifully done!!
This .... Was ..... Fabulous 👻
Excellent ghost story, wonderful performance as well.
Thank you 🙂
I'd love to see this story acted out, as a short Halloween video. Victorian scary stories are extremely terrifying.
Loved it! I love a good ghost story!
Would have loved it better if the unskippable ads didn’t come thick and fast - one even came just before the ending of the story and absolutely killed the atmosphere buildup.
Thank you for the throughly enjoyable story. Happy Halloween 🎃, everyone.
More lore! Love it!
What a great ghost story. Well done.
Mrs. Crocombe and Mr. Barker, thank you for a wonderful ghost story!!
Finally have a chance to tune in! Got popcorn and a drink, and am ready to get goose pimples and watch Mrs Crocombe outshade the ghost.
Great story, so well told. It gave me a shiver😂 ❤
😮scary, great story!
Delightful!
Oooh, Mrs. Crocombe and the spooky season! Wasn't expecting that!😂
Great story telling!
That really was scary! I didn’t think it would be.🐝❤️🤗
Bookmarking for tonight when it's dark and spooky out!
Thanks for so meaningful and valuable video as always ❤❤❤
Oh how fun! Thank you for this! 👻🎃🦇
I'm a sucker for spook stories. I've seen one as a wee kid, that's why. In my young mind ( I was 5), I knew that what I was looking at was not normal so I scampered away as fast as my stubby legs could take me.
I just LOVED this!!!!