Odd Country

Oddments

A highly irregular record

5 entries
Lost Signals

Broadcast media at its oldest, boldest and straight-up strangest.

A dark, hooded figure standing alone at the edge of open water, rendered in coarse halftone grain.
Swimming LessonThe horror film the British government made for children · Aug 2026
A fishing trawler emerging from fog at sea, its deck lights glowing through heavy grain.
Dogger, FisherA safety bulletin for trawlermen that a country listens to in bed · Oct 2025
Concentric radio-wave rings radiating over a silhouetted skyline of tower blocks and transmission masts.
One Thousand NumbersThe numbers station that broadcast for 35 years and never spoke · May 2025
A close view of vintage electronic studio equipment — oscillators, meters and patch panels dense with dials.
Don't Call It MusicThe BBC Radiophonic Workshop, 1958–1998 · Jan 2025
A grainy, high-contrast television still of a man's face dissolving into interference, half-swallowed by static.
Vrillon CallingSix minutes of southern England, 26 November 1977 · Oct 2024
7 entries
Strange Ground

Places and spaces that have left a mark.

Two derelict pagoda-roofed test laboratories on a shingle spit, half-collapsed structures scattered in front of them.
Curated DecayOrford Ness, and the Trust's decision not to preserve it · May 2026
A converted wartime sea fort standing on two concrete towers in open water, platform crowded with masts and railings.
No JurisdictionSealand, and a country founded on a boundary that later moved · May 2026
A half-tone view of a seafront town's harbourside buildings and headland, rendered in coarse newsprint dots.
Painted on CardboardA retired mariner in St Ives, and the painters who found him · Nov 2025
An extreme close-up of a single hand-forged iron chain link, halftone-printed.
Eleven ShillingsThe women who made chain by hand, and Britain's first minimum wage · Jun 2025
A large grass-covered mound rising from flat farmland, photographed in heavy grain.
Nothing InsideSilbury Hill has been dug into three times, and found empty · May 2025
A close tangle of Anglo-Saxon war gear — a helmet's eye guards, chainmail, sword and pommel, stippled in fine detail.
All of It War-GearFive kilos of Anglo-Saxon gold, stripped from weapons and buried · Feb 2025
A vast concrete acoustic mirror curving up from a marsh, dwarfing the reeds and scrub around it.
Miles of WarningThe concrete ears at Denge, and a technology overtaken mid-build · Oct 2024
7 entries
Folk Ways

Culture, customs and rituals, old and new.

An overhead view of a well-dressing panel, a radiating floral pattern pressed into clay in fine mosaic-like detail.
Petals Pressed into ClayDerbyshire decorates its wells with flowers, and nobody knows why · Jul 2026
An extreme close-up of a swan's head and eye against its folded wing feathers.
All UpFive days in July, counting the King's swans · Mar 2026
A close halftone portrait of a rat's head in profile, whiskers and fur rendered in coarse print dots.
It Is Not About the PlagueNursery rhymes' hidden meanings are mostly 20th-century inventions · Feb 2026
An aerial view of the Cerne Abbas Giant hill figure cut into a chalk hillside, two onlookers standing at its head.
Nobody Mentioned HimThe Cerne Abbas Giant was dated in 2021 — it made things worse · Dec 2025
Roman bath-house ruins, weathered stone columns standing among excavated walls and rubble.
Eighteen SuspectsRoman Britain's surviving letters are mostly about stolen clothes · Sep 2025
A split image of a fishing crew battling heavy waves, ropes and rigging cutting across a spray-lashed deck.
Things You Can't Say at SeaOccupational taboo, and why it clusters around dangerous trades · Aug 2025
A tight scrum of people crowded together in a spray of flour or water, faces obscured by the flying grain.
Two Streams, a Mile ApartHallaton against Medbourne, Easter Monday, with hare pie first · Apr 2025
6 entries
Field Notes

The landscape and the little things that live in it.

A solitary black poplar tree in leaf, standing alone in a misty field.
Almost All MaleEngland's rarest native timber tree, and the reason it cannot breed · Mar 2026
Three ring-necked parakeets perched in a row on a railing, feathers rendered in fine halftone.
Nobody Let Them OutLondon's parakeets, and four stories that are not true · Jan 2026
A close halftone view of a hedgehog's raised spines, its face and body shadowed among grass.
Death and the HedgehogFour centuries of killing hedgehogs, and what the empty verges mean · Nov 2025
A misty wooded island reflected in still, dark water, with reed beds in the foreground.
Not Nature's DoingEngland's finest wetland turned out to be man-made · Apr 2025
An extreme close-up of a cicada in profile, wings folded, resting on patterned fabric.
Unheard Since 2000Britain's only native cicada, found mostly by listening · Nov 2024
A peregrine falcon in flight, silhouetted against a high-rise building's facade.
Cliffs with Offices InThe peregrine came back, and moved into town · Oct 2024
9 entries
Under Glass

Art and objects worth remembering.

A close view of cricket pads and stumps, rendered in coarse halftone grain.
The Yellow BookWisden records every match — its best section is the obituaries · Sep 2026
A close view of the Keep Calm and Carry On poster, showing the crown and the top three lines of text.
The Poster Nobody SawKeep Calm and Carry On, 1939 and 2000 · Aug 2026
An extreme close-up of a drawn eye, rendered in dense crosshatched linework.
MyrninerestDrawings made in an East Ham front room, signed by somebody else · Jul 2026
An abstract, scratched collage of torn type and a radiating burst of white lines against black.
Blast EnglandEngland's only avant-garde movement lasted about a year · Jun 2026
An Anglepoise lamp in silhouette, its jointed arm angled over a lit desk.
A Lamp That Stays PutA car suspension engineer solved a problem nobody framed right · Jan 2026
A grid of small illustrated cigarette cards, each showing a different bird.
Fifty in a SetThe tobacco industry's accidental encyclopaedia of England · Jan 2026
Smoke rising over the Palace of Westminster's silhouette, viewed across the water.
Incendiary AccountingWooden tally sticks, and how burning them destroyed Westminster · Dec 2025
A lone figure standing on a railway platform, silhouetted against the tracks and trees beyond.
Birth of a PenguinAllen Lane found nothing to read at a station, and fixed it · Jan 2025
A magnifying glass held up to reflect a stately home and its grounds, mirrored in water below.
Turn From the ViewAn 18th-century device for viewing landscape without looking at it · Nov 2024