Owen Gower
@owentg.bsky.social
Doing comms for a charity tackling health inequalities at a hyperlocal level. Recovering museum professional. Historian of vaccination, smallpox, and Edward Jenner. Life between Bristol and Gloucester. Personal account, own views. He/him.
owengower.co.uk
owengower.co.uk
Reposted by Owen Gower
If early modern disease is more your thing, I’m also running this course too.
'A plague o' both your houses': Life and Death in 17th-Century England
Applications open lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/courses/a-pl...
'A plague o' both your houses': Life and Death in 17th-Century England
Applications open lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/courses/a-pl...
'A plague o' both your houses': Life and Death in 17th-Century England
Explore the role plague and disease played in seventeenth-century England. From the lived experience of diarists, plague searchers, victims and medics to its expression in works of literature by Shake...
lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk
November 3, 2025 at 5:34 PM
If early modern disease is more your thing, I’m also running this course too.
'A plague o' both your houses': Life and Death in 17th-Century England
Applications open lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/courses/a-pl...
'A plague o' both your houses': Life and Death in 17th-Century England
Applications open lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/courses/a-pl...
Really enjoyed it Jo, thanks. Sorry to miss you too, kind of got swept up in the crowd heading towards the door!
November 1, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Really enjoyed it Jo, thanks. Sorry to miss you too, kind of got swept up in the crowd heading towards the door!
Finally The Mariners Arms, which closed in 2016 and is now a supermarket. Now I’m not 100% sure about this one, but I seem to remember that when it was a pub people would report their pint glasses moving about the tables of their own accord. Something to bear in mind when you’re doing your shopping.
October 31, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Finally The Mariners Arms, which closed in 2016 and is now a supermarket. Now I’m not 100% sure about this one, but I seem to remember that when it was a pub people would report their pint glasses moving about the tables of their own accord. Something to bear in mind when you’re doing your shopping.
A friend tells a story about an unusual encounter at the Berkeley Arms. He was in an upstairs room when one of the sash windows flew open. He went to close it but it was difficult, like it hadn’t been touched in a while. Then he noticed on the wall a photo of a woman leaning out of the same window.
October 31, 2025 at 4:59 PM
A friend tells a story about an unusual encounter at the Berkeley Arms. He was in an upstairs room when one of the sash windows flew open. He went to close it but it was difficult, like it hadn’t been touched in a while. Then he noticed on the wall a photo of a woman leaning out of the same window.
The White Hart dates back to the 1600s and ceased trading in 1969. It’s now home to a number of independent businesses and a spooky figure: a man in top hat and tails.
October 31, 2025 at 4:44 PM
The White Hart dates back to the 1600s and ceased trading in 1969. It’s now home to a number of independent businesses and a spooky figure: a man in top hat and tails.
Then on to The Chantry. When it opened as a museum the first floor was used as guest accommodation. One visitor was kept awake all night by a ghostly dog scratching at his door. A later visitor recalled feeling a dog brush past him on the stairs but when he looked there was nothing there.
October 31, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Then on to The Chantry. When it opened as a museum the first floor was used as guest accommodation. One visitor was kept awake all night by a ghostly dog scratching at his door. A later visitor recalled feeling a dog brush past him on the stairs but when he looked there was nothing there.
… This path, taken by people from neighbouring communities when they came to Berkeley to bury their dead, leads to an area known by older locals as “the weirdly”. It’s here on a stormy night you can hear the cries of the witch. Hooded figures in robes have also been glimpsed by the church tower.
October 31, 2025 at 3:00 PM
… This path, taken by people from neighbouring communities when they came to Berkeley to bury their dead, leads to an area known by older locals as “the weirdly”. It’s here on a stormy night you can hear the cries of the witch. Hooded figures in robes have also been glimpsed by the church tower.
In the churchyard is the tomb of Dicky Pearce, the last court jester (who also died at Berkeley Castle). You’re sure to hear him laugh again if you run around his grave three times. There’s also a tomb with marks left by the Devil when one night he came to claim the Witch of Berkeley for his own…
October 31, 2025 at 3:00 PM
In the churchyard is the tomb of Dicky Pearce, the last court jester (who also died at Berkeley Castle). You’re sure to hear him laugh again if you run around his grave three times. There’s also a tomb with marks left by the Devil when one night he came to claim the Witch of Berkeley for his own…