Bladys of the Stewponey

Sabine Baring-Gould (1834 - 1924)

The setting, geography and history of this story by Rev'd Sabine Baring-Gould, author of Onward Christian Soldiers and a number of other well-known hymns, are all accurate, or at least as accurate as local lore will allow. Kinver has long been a midlands beauty spot, and the UK National Trust own and open one of the rock-dwellings mentioned. The 'Stewponey' too was an inn until a year or two into the twenty-first century: http://www.blackcountrybugle.co.uk/News/Reminder-of-the-heyday-of-the-old-Stewponey-2.htm - the present reader having stopped there for a drink and a meal many times.

The story, whether you call it a romance, a historical novel or a horror story - comprising as it does a young woman being offered as a prize in a bowling match, a wife-burning, highwaymen and buried treasure - is of course wholly fiction. (Introduction by AJM)

Genre(s): General Fiction, Horror & Supernatural Fiction

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 Chapter 01 - Oyez! Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:16:29
Play 02 Chapter 02 - In the Cellar Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:16:18
Play 03 Chapter 03 - Crispin Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:13:45
Play 04 Chapter 04 - The Bowling Green Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:17:04
Play 05 Chapter 05 - The Jack Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:13:05
Play 06 Chapter 06 - A Mad Wedding Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:15:00
Play 07 Chapter 07 - Stand! Deliver! Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:15:32
Play 08 Chapter 08 - The Rock Tavern Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:17:59
Play 09 Chapter 09 - Nan Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:15:04
Play 10 Chapter 10 - Castle Foregate Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:15:49
Play 11 Chapter 11 - A White Devil Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:14:39
Play 12 Chapter 12 - Petty Treason Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:13:37
Play 13 Chapter 13 - The Last in England Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:17:33
Play 14 Chapter 14 - A Challenge Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:15:11
Play 15 Chapter 15 - Vashti Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:18:39
Play 16 Chapter 16 - Drie Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:12:52
Play 17 Chapter 17 - Kynaston's Cave Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:14:11
Play 18 Chapter 18 - A Crooked Finger Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:13:05
Play 19 Chapter 19 - A Second Flight Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:12:50
Play 20 Chapter 20 - The Tally Stick Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:15:39
Play 21 Chapter 21 - A Protector Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:14:45
Play 22 Chapter 22 - Holy Austin Rock Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:13:57
Play 23 Chapter 23 - Meg-A-Fox Hole Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:19:17
Play 24 Chapter 24 - At The Rock Foot Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:16:21
Play 25 Chapter 25 - Nan, Farewell! Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:11:03
Play 26 Chapter 26 - The Crooked Finger Again Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:18:29
Play 27 Appendix - Burning for Petty Treason Andy Minter (1934-2017)
00:07:35