Category Archives: Romany Reagan

Animal Lore, Feminism, Folklore, Halloween, Nature, Podcast, Romany Reagan, witches

Halloween Special Podcast | Witches’ Familiars

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🎧 Spooky podcast now live! 🎧 I was invited on the @nationaltrust ‘Back When’ history podcast &’Wild Tales’ @wildtalesnt podcast to discuss witches’ familiars and share some of the darker stories of loving pets in the past… 🐈‍⬛🧙🏻‍♀️💜

🕯️🧹 Halloween Special | Witches Familiars 🧹🕯️

Is your cat the devil in disguise? Probably not, although they may act like something possessed sometimes! But once upon a time, friendliness towards cats, rabbits or dogs could lead to accusations of witchcraft, as these animals, known as familiars, were suspected of working for the devil. Learn the history of familiars through the story of Elizabeth Clarke, a poor disabled woman from Essex accused of being seen with these supernatural beings.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/discover/virtual-visit/podcasts/back-when-history-podcast

Feminism, ghosts, London, Romany Reagan, spiritualism, Talk

Live talk at the Bank of England Museum in London, Tuesday 11th November 2025, 12:30pm: ‘A (Séance) Room of One’s Own: The socially subversive origins of British Spiritualism’

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*** This talk is • FREE! • But booking is essential. Reserve your ticket here ***

What comes to mind when you envision a séance? Do you see the atmospheric drama of a Victorian drawing room, hands clasped in the flickering candlelight? Or perhaps giggling teenagers nervously trying out a Ouija board? What probably doesn’t come to mind are UCL professors conducting scientific experiments, or activists fighting for the rights of women and the working class. 

Continue reading Live talk at the Bank of England Museum in London, Tuesday 11th November 2025, 12:30pm: ‘A (Séance) Room of One’s Own: The socially subversive origins of British Spiritualism’ →
Folklore, ghosts, Moonlore, Nature Lore, Romany Reagan, Talk, witches

Live talk at the Folk & Fable Festival in Battle, East Sussex, Saturday 23rd August 2025, 3pm: ‘Witches, Demons, Faeries & Ghosts: Our dreamscapes of legend & lore’

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Come join me and many other speakers, artists and performers for this wonderful festival in Battle, East Sussex celebrating all things Folk & Fable! There will be food stalls, local delightful boozes, story tents, local crafts — and lots of fun and fabulous people coming together to share a great long August bank holiday weekend flirting with the weird side.

Yours truly will be giving a talk at 3pm on the Saturday of the festival, no need to prebook, just come on down and enjoy the descent into madness…

Continue reading Live talk at the Folk & Fable Festival in Battle, East Sussex, Saturday 23rd August 2025, 3pm: ‘Witches, Demons, Faeries & Ghosts: Our dreamscapes of legend & lore’ →
Botany, Feminism, Folk Healers, Folklore, London, Medicine, Museum of the Home, Nature, Romany Reagan, Talk, Women's Weeds ACE Funded Research Project

Live talk at the Museum of the Home in London, Thursday 12th June 2025, 6:30pm: ‘Ancient Herbal Remedies & Fertility Management — The Secrets of Mediaeval & Early Modern Midwives’

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*** Buy tickets here!!! ***

Join Dr Romany Reagan and Kerry Lemon for an exclusive after-hours event at the Museum of the Home, followed by a group walk to Ruup & Form for an intimate viewing of SIMPLING led by the artist. We’ll begin in the herb gardens at the Museum of the Home, where there will be a wine reception and access to explore the Gardens Through Time after hours. Then Romany will give a talk exploring the roots of women-led fertility management through the lens of herbal history. We’ll uncover the often-overlooked practices of mediaeval and early modern healers — women who passed down their knowledge orally, from mother to daughter, from midwife to apprentice. Their methods of community care were rarely recorded in written form, so uncovering these methods of reproductive control are their most secret knowledge of all.

Continue reading Live talk at the Museum of the Home in London, Thursday 12th June 2025, 6:30pm: ‘Ancient Herbal Remedies & Fertility Management — The Secrets of Mediaeval & Early Modern Midwives’ →
Feminism, London, Museums, Romany Reagan, Talk

Live talk at Sutton House in London, Friday March 8th 7pm 2024 for International Women’s Day: ‘A Quiet Roar — Untold stories of the Women of Sutton House’

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*** Buy tickets here!!! ***

Ticket price includes lecture entry, pop-up exhibition, and wine reception.

This International Women’s Day, join us for an evening lecture with resident research fellow Dr Romany Reagan where she’ll share her discoveries of how the women of Sutton House fit into the nation’s history! Times: 6.30pm entry, Talk 7-8pm

History is most often recorded as a long list of men and their deeds, with only passing mention of their wives. However, within the history of Sutton House, we have the opportunity to uncover a different story. The house has been a residence for over 500 years; tallying up the records, we find that women held a controlling interest in the property for more than half of its history. This means that the main narrative of Sutton House is actually not the story of men and their wives — it’s the story of women and their goals.

Continue reading Live talk at Sutton House in London, Friday March 8th 7pm 2024 for International Women’s Day: ‘A Quiet Roar — Untold stories of the Women of Sutton House’ →
Feminism, Folk Healers, London, Museum of the Home, Nature, Romany Reagan, Talk, Women's Weeds ACE Funded Research Project

Live talk at the Museum of the Home in London Sat 30th Sept: Herbal Remedies, Folk Medicine & Kitchen Physick: The Secrets of Mediaeval Women Healers 

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***Buy tickets here!***

Do you have mint tea in your cupboard? Grow rosemary in your garden? Or perhaps eat ginger when you have an upset stomach?

Then your home is a living museum, continuing the traditions that women have practised for hundreds of years for health and healing. This wisdom comes from the time when food was medicine, the kitchen was the apothecary, and healing was women’s domain.

Marking the close of the audio installation Women’s Weeds by Dr. Romany Reagan, you are invited to join us for a talk exploring the role of women in healing during the late mediaeval and early modern eras (15th to 17th centuries).

Herbal Remedies, Folk Medicine & Kitchen Physick: The Secrets of Mediaeval Women Healers will uncover how women shared healing practices in a sisterhood of secret knowledge that was handed down through generations.

This event marks the closure of Women’s Weeds. You can listen now to the audio installation in our gardens, or on Bloomberg Connects.

Botany, Feminism, Folk Healers, Medicine, Museum of the Home, Romany Reagan, Video, Women's Weeds ACE Funded Research Project

What does the English Civil War have to do with feminist medicine?

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In this video, I explain how the chaos of the English Civil War led to relaxed print censorship, increased literacy, and a boom time for female-focused medical books — the origin of the printed family herbal book. 

Audio Walk, Bloomsbury, Ghost Story, Halloween, London, Romany Reagan

Haunted Bloomsbury Audio Walk: Spiritualism & Ghost Stories in WC1

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Happy 1st of September! You know what this means?? Officially only one month until 🎃🦇💜 !OCTOBER! 💜🦇🎃 London Month of the Dead have a fabulous calendar of spooky delights for you!

Check out my #spiritualism audio walk through 👻#HauntedBloomsbury👻 — it even comes with a glossy guidebook! 🔮

Click here for more info:

Haunted Bloomsbury Audio Walk: Spiritualism & Ghost Stories in WC1

HAUNTED BLOOMSBURY – Spiritualism and Ghost Stories in WC1
An Audio Guided Tour and Map Book with Dr Romany Reagan

ABOUT
Take a journey through darker Bloomsbury as your tour guide Dr Romany Reagan leads you through the occult pathways and hidden histories of this birthplace of British Spiritualism.

The Victorians were fascinated by a wide range of phenomena that might loosely be termed the ‘occult’. In their search for meaning in their mortality during an increasingly secularised age, interest in Spirituality and connections ‘beyond the veil’ touched almost every aspect of Victorian life, from scientific study to literature. Tracing Spiritualism’s lines of origin, we’re driven through these occult pathways into the heart of Bloomsbury. Join your tour guide, Dr Romany Reagan, for an evening stalk of gothic intrigues and Victorian ghosts.

WHAT YOU GET
– An A5 full colour map and guide book
– Each book comes with a download or streaming code so that you can take your tour at any time alone or with a friend

Romany Reagan, Video, Woman's Weeds ACE Funded Research Project

‘Women’s Weeds’ Research Journal — VIDEO: Introduction to what it’s all about (+ bonus gorgeously Creepy Fort)

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Here is a little video I’ve made explaining a bit of what my project is about. I’m now almost two months into my research journey! I will be presenting my preliminary findings at the Bridges 2022 conference, ‘Bridges Between Disciplines: Gender in STEM and Social Sciences’, at the Universitat Politécnica de València – Campus of Gandía. I’m excited to share what I have learned so far!

The blog post I reference in the video is ‘The Language of Flowers: Breaking into the Boys Club of Botany & the Flowery Dress as a Feminist Act’

Folklore, ghosts, London, Museum of the Home, Romany Reagan, witches

Live Talk in London, Sat 1st October 2022 — Witches, Faeries & Ghosts: Our Dreamscapes of Legend & Lore

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Saturday October 1st, 6pm at the Museum of the Home, 136 Kingsland Road, London E2 8EA

Tickets £7 and includes wine!

TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE

Where do we go when we dream?

Throughout history, using legend and lore, we have sought to understand this night-time adventure. Witches have been condemned as the conjurers of nightmare sleep paralysis and faeries blamed for time loss or sleep-walking; we convince ourselves that ghostly spirits visit us at night with messages of hope or portents of danger.

The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli, 1781 

In this illustrated lecture, Dr Romany Reagan will explore the creatures and meanings that fill our dreamscapes, from mediaeval British horrors to 19th-century curiosities and theories—and how these nocturnal happenings can play out in our waking lives.

Dr. Romany Reagan is an Arts Council England-funded research fellow with Museum of the Home, studying the hidden histories of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, from mediaeval cunning women and herbal witchcraft to 19th-century feminist botany. Her research has explored the layers of heritage within Abney Park cemetery and an occult literary heritage of London’s Stoke Newington area, as well as ‘earth mystery’, psychogeography and folklore, legends and lore from the British Isles.

This event is part of the Museum of the Home’s Festival of Sleep, running from June through September 2022.