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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.
The Dark Conjuror of Batcombe | Dorset Folklore
13 Terrifying True Stories For Halloween | Story Seven | The Dark Conjuror of Batcombe
In darkest Dorset below the northern scarp slope of the Dorset Downs lies a straggling village called Batcombe, a curious village with one very curious tale.
This story dates from the late sixteenth century, a period of time when Religious unrest and Superstition was a part of everyday village life.
This is the story of a man that sold his soul to the Devil one cold winters night.
John stood before him.
Old Nick, the Devil had answered him.
The creature, climbed out from the Earth and stood upwards, he was tall, dark, and his eyes, his eyes were large and black and they glared menacingly at John Mintern.
Welcome to the seventh of our 13 terrifying stories for Halloween, today we are going to take a deep dive into the legend of John Mintern, the Dark conjuror of Batcombe, This is a true story, and makes up just one of the dark and twisted tales that exist in my family history.
Yhana and I would like to thank everyone for watching, every time someone views our videos you give us both encouragement to do what we love, let us know how we are doing, drop us a comment and for more upcoming episodes please subscribe to the channel. From Yhana and I, we hope you Enjoy the story.
This is the story about the Dark Conjurer of Batcombe, or as he was known by the villagers of long ago’ ‘Conjuring Minterne’, due to his dealing with the Devil and the use of black magic.
A conjurer or ‘cunning man’ was a wise man with the art of healing, the knowledge of foresight, or a necromancer whose powers came from the black arts.
In real life his name was John Minterne ‘Esquire of Batcombe’ he was born to a well-respected Dorset family who’s connections included the Royal Courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. He studied at Oxford like most of his family and was a wealthy man in his own right.
John Minterne (1514 – 1592) husband of Margaret Wolley and brother in law to Sir John Wolley, Queen Elizabeth I’s Latin Secretary, and a member of her Privy Council. (ii)
‘Conjuring Minterne’, has surely left his mark on history and his legend has survived the ages, his small square modest sepulcher survives to this very day and is an eerie reminder to all that passes by.
The Legend of Conjuring Minterne
It is said that one day, Conjuring Minterne a well accomplished horse rider set out on his horse, from the village towards Batcombe Hill. As he was riding, he suddenly remembered that he forgot to put his book of Magic and Alchemy away, his magical grimoire had been left wide open on his study desk for all to see, Conjuring Minterne, afraid that someone might take to dabbling with his spell book, called upon the aid of the Devil who appeared forthwith
John stood before him.
Old Nick, the Devil had answered him.
The creature, climbed out from the Earth and stood upwards, he was tall, dark, and his eyes, his eyes were large and black and they glared menacingly at John Mintern.
He had answered his call, and for what he asked he signed a deal with John.
In payment John gave up his soul.
and the Devil granted him both speed and strength. Minterne turned with great speed back to the village, and with one kick of encouragement he made his horse take a gigantic leap from Batcombe Hill
The Conjurer glided through the sky on his horse, away from the hill, over the trees, across the village and then suddenly as he descended one of the horse’s fiery hooves clipped one of the four church pinnacles causing it to break away and tumble to the ground. The Conjuror landed safely in a nearby field close to the church known as the ‘Pitching Plot’. Where it is said the imprint of his horse’s hooves may still be seen and the ground remains forever barren of grass.
The pinnacle his horse’s hoof dislodged from the church tower lay where it had fallen for many years after the event. It was believed that bad luck would befall the village if it were ever replaced. In 1906 it was restored and to this day, the restored pinnacle can be seen crooked, and anyone who knows this tale always looks up. Whether bad luck fell upon the village we shall never know.
The Conjuror continued to amaze the villages for several years after this event. When Conjuring Minterne died he left strict instructions that his body should be buried ‘neither in the church nor out of it’.
So as instructed he was placed beneath a modest square sepulcher built into the wall of the family chapel ‘Minterne Chapel’ with his feet and probably most of his legs tucked firmly beneath the chapels masonry walls and the remainder of his body in the church yard.
Sadly, the chapel was demolished during church restoration in 1864, and since then Conjuring Minterne has lain entirely outside the church – his ivy-clad tomb makes a curious spectacle near the porch.
His name however, lives on as a byword for wickedness and devilry. The Dorset poet and writer Thomas Hardy, made reference to Conjuring Minterne, though spelt ‘Conjuring Mynterne’ at the beginning of chapter twenty one of his novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles.
- Published: 25 October 2020
- Location: Batcombe, Dorset
- Duration: 9:51
- Photography – Stephen Robert Kuta / Yhana Kuta
- Written by – Stephen Robert Kuta
Music –
Devil’s Waltz by Farrel Wooten
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 –
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