21 episodes

Journeys through the dark, mysterious and weird towns and villages in the British Isles. Each episode, a new place with new stories.

Praise for The Town That Didn't Stare:

"Arch and funny, ­but... deeply serious in trying to understand the peculiar history of the town" – Financial Times
"Facinating... mysterious, it really hooks you in" – BBC
"Brilliantly arch" – Sunday Times
"Hilton is an engaging narrator, tip-toeing the lines between nostalgia, comedy and truth-telling" – The Big Issue

Other Edens Podot

    • Society & Culture
    • 4.8 • 13 Ratings

Journeys through the dark, mysterious and weird towns and villages in the British Isles. Each episode, a new place with new stories.

Praise for The Town That Didn't Stare:

"Arch and funny, ­but... deeply serious in trying to understand the peculiar history of the town" – Financial Times
"Facinating... mysterious, it really hooks you in" – BBC
"Brilliantly arch" – Sunday Times
"Hilton is an engaging narrator, tip-toeing the lines between nostalgia, comedy and truth-telling" – The Big Issue

    The Ballad of Reading Services

    The Ballad of Reading Services

    Christmas Day, 2021. I stop at Reading motorway services and find graffiti on the wall of a toilet cubicle: two locals, Gavin and Chelsea, are hacking brains using their iPhones. This Christmas special episode of Other Edens is the story of Reading motorway services, toilet graffiti, and the strange native poetry that binds them together.

    Written and presented by Nick Hilton.
    Sound design by Ewan Cameron.
    Theme music by George Jennings. 
    This episode features a song by Laura Christy. Find more about Laura's music: https://twitter.com/laura_christy_

    • 17 min
    A History of the English Village

    A History of the English Village

    What makes the quintessential English village? A church? A pub? A post office? A cricket pitch?

    Everyone knows the English village, whether it's from real life or via The Vicar of Dibley or Midsomer Murders. But what is the real history – from archaeological ruins to the present day – of this settlement? On today's Other Edens, we speak to Dr Ben Robinson (aka The Flying Archaeologist) about his book England’s Villages: An Extraordinary Journey Through to get the full story of how the great English settlement developed.

    Presented by Nick Hilton.
    With Dr Ben Robinson.
    Theme music by George Jennings.
    Please email nick@podotpods.com for sales and advertising.

    • 31 min
    The Maunsell Sea Forts: Iron islands in the Thames

    The Maunsell Sea Forts: Iron islands in the Thames

    In 1942, an engineer named Guy Maunsell constructed a series of audacious defensive towers out where the Thames estuary meets the North Sea. These structures – known now as the Maunsell Sea Forts – remain to this day, rusting and abandoned. But they also had a strange, eerie afterlife, from pirate radio to the micronation of Sealand.

    On today's episode of Other Edens, we look at the history of the Maunsell Sea Forts, and speak to some of the people inspired but their mysterious presence off the Kentish coast.

    Written and presented by Nick Hilton.
    Sound design by Ewan Cameron.
    Theme music by George Jennings.
    Find out more at podotpods.com and contact us for sales and advertising details.

    • 27 min
    Lewes: a town of smoke and flame

    Lewes: a town of smoke and flame

    Remember, remember the fifth of November. Gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.

    Well, in the East Sussex town of Lewes, that 1605 assassination attempt on the Protestant head of state has not been forgot. Each year, the Lewesians swam out on the streets of their little town, clad in the garb of the different bonfire societies, firing cannons, shooting fireworks, bearing flaming crosses and torches, and burning huge effigies. This is an ancient ritual, played out on the streets of a quaint British town which, for one night a year, becomes the centre of the universe.

    Written and presented by Nick Hilton.
    Sound design by Ewan Cameron.
    Theme music by George Jennings.

    For sales and advertising please visit podotpods.com

    • 23 min
    Pluckley: England's most haunted village

    Pluckley: England's most haunted village

    Nestled away in Kent is the small village of Pluckley. It looks charming and chocolate boxy: a pub, a butcher, a post office and a churchyard. But scratch that veneer and you find a place that has become famous over the past century as England's most haunted place. Ghosts and apparitions, strange sights and noises. Murder, mysteries and the macabre, all haunt this Kentish village.

    What is it that makes Pluckley so singularly spooky? And what will we find in the Screaming Woods, said to be the most terrifying woodland in Britain?

    Written and presented by Nick Hilton.
    Sound design by Ewan Cameron.
    Theme music by George Jennings.
    Go to podotpods.com for sales and advertising.

    • 21 min
    Coming on Halloween... Other Edens

    Coming on Halloween... Other Edens

    All things must change. As surely as winter bursts into spring life, spring into bountiful summer, summer into the falling leaves of autumn and autumn back into the denuded branches of winter, so too does my podcast change. Since I started making documentaries about England’s towns and villages, we’ve had three cycles through these seasons, three spins around the sun, and three Prime Ministers. Everything changes.


    I’ve spent the past year travelling around the country, collecting stories from its towns and villages. History, folklore, mysticism. This England is full of extraordinary people, doing extraordinary things, extraordinarily.


    In the coming days, a change will come over this feed. It will be come Other Edens – a series of documentaries about strange corners of this nation, and why they matter. Don’t be alarmed – if you’ve listened to my podcasts previously, you can expect more of the same. Just more of it. Forever and ever until you get bored of me (or I get bored of you) Other Edens will tell these stories.


    Stay subscribed. Encourage others to subscribe. Tweet or Instagram your enthusiasm using @thetownpod (I was too late to get @otheredens, sorry). On Halloween, the stories start.

    Written and presented by Nick Hilton.
    Visit podotpods.com for more information.

    • 3 min

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
13 Ratings

13 Ratings

Worth-E ,

Draws You In

Just came across this gem and it's pretty captivating. Clever with unexpected twists of humour. Definitely recommend. Also, I know more about coconuts now.

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