Sally the Dunstable Witch
19th-century hoax to shame the rector into repairing his church.
Hoax, Witch
Hoax
Poisoner and thief whose most audacious hoax was The Prophet Hen of Leeds.
Hoax
The Sleeping Girl of Turville
Girl claimed by her mother to have fallen into a deep sleep from which she could not be roused for nine years.
English woman from Godalming, Surrey, who in 1726 became the subject of considerable controversy when she tricked doctors into believing that she had given birth to rabbits.
Ghost, Hoax
Hammersmith Ghost
Early 19th-century hoax that reinforced the standard white-sheeted ghost look, and set a legal precedent for self-defence.
Hoax, Satirist
Predictions of Isaac Bickerstaff
Pseudonym used by the satirist Jonathan Swift in a hoax predicting the “infallible” death of John Partridge, a well-known 18th-century astrologer and almanac maker, on 29 March 1708.
Hoax
The Bottle Conjuror
18th-century hoax featuring an acrobat inserting his body into an empty wine bottle.
Purported haunting that attracted mass public attention in 1762.
Hoax
Holy Maid of Leominster
Known only as Elizabeth, she was installed in the rood loft above the chancel of the priory of Leominster, in Hereford, by its prior in the late 15th or early 16th century.
