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The 3rd August 2020 – 3rd August 2021 was Stephen and Yhana‘s first year on YouTube – To celebrate they are sharing one video a day across all of their favourite social media platforms – Facebook Page, Twitter and Website, as well as a daily shout out on their youtube community page. – So please check often incase you missed any of their videos during that first year.
They have also published their very first youtube almanac – Which was released 3rd august 2021.
The book will be available to buy via Amazon shortly – Although you can get a free signed copy by signing up and supporting their journey on Patreon
All Patreon‘s will get a regular mention on YouTube and on their channel publications – As your support is very much appreciated and will help to purchase filming equipment and trips to historical sites, so they can keep their films coming.
Alice Aylett, Witch of Braintree | A True Story | Witchcraft Trials
13 Terrifying True Stories For Halloween | Story Nine | Alice Aylett, The Witch of Braintree
A large crowd had ascended upon the gallows to watch an accused woman meet her end.
She was despised by many especially in her home town of Braintree. They were glad to get rid of her.
Her dealings with the devil had resulted in the deaths of many people, and she enchanted anyone who got in her way. Children included.
Was she really a witch, Alice Aylett, Enchantress, necromancer conjurer of Braintree.
The rope fastened around her neck, and the crowd fell silent.
Welcome to the 9th of our 13 terrifying stories for Halloween, today we are going to take a deep dive into the life of Alice Aylett, accused of witchcraft and sorcery. This is a true story, and makes up just one of the dark and twisted tales that exist in my family history.
Alice Aylett was born sometime around the year 1562, four years into the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It was dark times, with wars of religion – catholics against protestants, heretics were burnt at the stake in vast numbers just a few years before during the reign of Elizabeths Catholic half-sister Queen Mary.
Now a protestant sat on the throne, but suspicion, superstition was rife throughout England.
Very little is known about the early life of Alice, although she was likely very poor and lived by very simple means.
She married a local Braintree shoemaker sometime around the year 1578, her husband was Thomas Aylet, known locally as the shoemaker of Braintree. Thomas was formerly of Bocking but would have started his business in Braintree high street around the same-time as his marriage to Alice.
Married life did not fare well, and within a year of marriage suspicion began to grow with who she was and what she was.
Animals and livestock started to grow ill and die, and then Alice aged just 17 years at the time lost her anger with Simon Parman, in a moment of carelessness she whispered a curse under her breath.
She was overheard by him, at first it was brushed aside. That was until his livestock died and his daughter grew ill.
Susan Parman, his daughter was about the age of six years, it was the 6 March 1579, and for four years the little girl suffered a strange illness that could not be cured, she languished until 26 April 1583. She was ten years old.
Simon was sure Alice the shoemakers wife was responsible, so he publicly accused her of enchantment and witchcraft.
His accusations were his downfall, he too grew gravely ill and languished until 1 August 1586.
The local folk of Braintree were sure they had a witch in their midst, and as a result business suffered greatly for Thomas and his wife and the next two years were full of hardship, poverty and hunger.
Did Alice turn to the Devil for more help, did she sign an agreement and curse the souls of more people.
Margery Egles, daughter of Thomas Egles, at Braintree on 10 August – she gravely languished until 1 November 1588
Rachel Skynner, daughter of William Skynner, grew ill on 1 August, she gravely languished until 10 November 1588
Henry Joye 5 November, he gravely languished until 1 December 1588
How many more people would have to die, before Alice, the Witch of Braintree was finished with them.
So the locals banded together and marched to Chelmsford and demanded her arrest.
Alice Aylet was arrested, dragged from her home and taken to the local goal in Chelmsford whilst she awaited trial.
She was tortured, placed on a ducking stool, stripped and searched for familiars and the evidence against her grew.
Alice Aylett, the witch of Braintree met her end and maker, with a rope fastened around her tiny neck she stepped up onto a stool which was kicked away from beneath her.
However long it took for Alice to die has been lost with history, but Braintree was free and had finally rid themselves of an evil enchantress who it was said took the lives of animals, men, women and children.
- Published: 27 October 2020
- Location: Braintree, Essex
- Duration: 7:47
- Photography – Stephen Robert Kuta / Yhana Kuta
- Written by – Stephen Robert Kuta
Music –
A Cold Wind by Savvun
Music Licensed by Epidemic Sound
Stephen and Yhana – History and Adventure Hunters Almanac
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On the 30th of January, 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). In the following weeks, the virus quickly spread worldwide, forcing the governments of affected countries to implement lockdown measures to decrease transmission rates and prevent the overload of hospital emergency rooms.
The United Kingdom implemented lockdown on the 16th of March, 2020 and from this date and up until the 3rd August, 2021 the UK had suffered three national lockdowns which all included Restrictive measures on border controls, closing of schools, markets, restaurants, nonessential shops, bars, entertainment and leisure facilities, as well as a ban on all public and private events and gatherings. In between these lockdowns we saw tier systems and heavy restrictions on how we all lived our lives.
We all decided on different approaches on how we spent that free time as many people were on Furlough as their businesses were shut, only key-workers carried out their working duties. Although I continued working as a key-worker, I still had a lot more free time as Yhana was not at school.
Both Yhana and I spent those first few months experimenting with tiktok and photography, we explored our home village of Great Leighs and took some incredible photographs as spring and eventually summer took hold.
Tiktok was a short-lived adventure for us, although we enjoyed it all the same — tiktok like so many Social Media platforms had exploded during the pandemic but none more so then YouTube.
In 2020 alone YouTube had more than 9 billion views globally
66% of people used YouTube to develop a new hobby in 2020, and a whopping 94% of people in India used YouTube to learn to do things themselves, Whilst Globally, 82% used YouTube to the same. What were they learning to do, exactly?
• Views of beauty tutorials increased nearly 50% in 2020.
• There was a 90% increase in bike maintenance and repair videos.
• Daily views of videos with “raising chickens” in the title increased 160%.
• Videos related to learning guitar saw 160 million views from mid-March to mid-April.
• Videos about container gardening saw 6 million views in the same period.
• There was a 215% increase in daily uploads of videos related to self-care.
• There was a 458% increase in daily views of videos about making sourdough bread and a 200% increase in daily views of recipe videos for bubble tea.
• Videos of how-to videos for home haircuts also spiked in April.
Even though these giant increases in YouTube views began as early as March 2020, it took Yhana and I up until August of that year to begin our own channel, and Yhana’s encouragement certainly helped on that matter.
So it began, 3 August 2020 – We went out and filmed our very first video. To be honest I wasn’t sure what our plan would be for our channel, I had a rough idea of what kind of content I would like Yhana and I to make and as a historian I looked at the channel as a way to record at least one year of our life, not just any year either, but our life during the Covid-19 Pandemic. So for me, it was a great way to record a piece of social history.
This book in front of you developed from that period of our lives also, and is a showcase / diary / almanac of all the videos we created, many of the photographs we took, the treasure hunts we went on and some of the incredible finds we discovered just a short walk from where we lived. In truth, those finds would never have been discovered if it wasn’t for lockdown.
So for prosperity, social history, a window into our lives during the Covid-19 pandemic and a transparent visual look at what its like to create a YouTube channel in that first year including channelytics, descriptions of videos, thumbnail artwork, viewer comments and more.
We have written this full guide, our first joint book –
Stephen and Yhana – History and Adventure Hunters Almanac.
The book is available to buy through Amazon and via all good bookshops.
LINK BELOW –
RECEIVE A FREE SIGNED COPY BY SIGNING UP AND SUPPORTING OUR JOURNEY ON PATREON.
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