Easter extravaganza

As the warm days of summer give way to the fresher feel of autumn, many of us will recall with nostalgia the harvest festivals of our youth. Such festivities – often including lavish displays of crops

Whether vestiges of paganism survived Europe’s Christianisation is a subject of enduring fascination. Scholarly debate navigates between the ‘maximalist’ position (much survived) and the ‘minimalist’

In short, yes: the Victorians did indeed think eating mummified remains pilfered from ancient Egyptian tombs was a good idea, although they did not come up with the idea themselves. The morbid practic

Our round-up of the funny, fascinating and unusual stories this fortnight

This summer, I became fascinated with one of Britain’s forgotten folklore beasties, the bogie rabbit. Now, I’d run across a few of these jokers over the years, but never taken them that seriously. I m

When you’re ready to dig into your Essex roots, there are many museums and local-history collections that may contain traces of your ancestors’ lives. The Museum of Chelmsford (chelmsford.gov.uk/museu