Creative community archaeology project investigating seasonal & supernatural traditions in 1700s - mid-1800s Derbyshire, integrating art, storytelling & crafts - & soon inviting regional residents & visitors to join the search for folk magic evidence! Industrial Folkways is a vehicle for continuing public history research formerly carried out through ‘Living in the Past Community Archaeology proje
ct’ (recently formally dissolved, after being on hold for several years, due to ill-health, Covid, and cessation of revenue streams). In order to make fieldwork, public participation, and dissemination, more manageable (given the now more limited capacity of project investigations, and funding constraints), studies now focus on a narrower field of interest, location, and time-frame. Project investigations concentrate on traces of folk customs and beliefs inscribed on and within domestic, community, and industrial environments, and historic landscapes; exploring (using a range of historical sources) how people in the past would have experienced and perceived supernatural seasonal, and life-cycle, customs and beliefs within their homes, and community, commercial, and industrial buildings, spaces and landscapes. The project – centring on Derby: the town which lays claim to the first factory in the world, and in the county claimed as the cradle of modern industry – also continue to investigate industrial communities. It explores changes during the Industrial Revolution – for the purposes of the project, the late 1700s – 1850s (but looking at material from any time between the late Middle Ages, to the 1950s), to consider the effects of intensified urbanisation and manufacturing upon folk beliefs and ritual practices. Given the current lack of adequate funding (notably, with travel, insurance cover, training, and resource costs currently beyond the present capacity to generate income) forms of community participation in fieldwork that were previously adopted by LIP are not possible for the present (hence redefinition as a Public History, rather than Community Archaeology, project). Until sufficient funds can be raised (keep an eye out for crafts, events, and other activities that might be developed for this purpose!), attempts will be made to enable public participation in other ways. Members of the public will be invited to digitally submit (using emails and digital photos, for instance) information on findings from their own homes, workplaces, community spaces, and neighbourhoods, to contribute towards the growing body of data (guidance will be provided for those unfamiliar with what to look for, and where). This site may also be used to share relevant folklore, and details of regional folk rites. The project leader – archaeologist and historian, Dr Kirsten (‘Kit’) Leach – will also seek partnerships with local organisations, and perhaps businesses, in order to develop public educational events to disseminate findings; and digital resources may be made that enable local residents and visitors to experience related historic environments and material; and to share discoveries of their own. In the meantime, the project website, and this page (and in time other social media), will present work in progress, and relevant local history discoveries (as well as information on events and resources). As this work must now fit around other commitments and constraints; so it may be a while before this website, and other outlets, are up and running properly; and there’s likely to be some time between posts. But readers can follow the website, and through Facebook, to keep up with developments, as well as to find out about regional beliefs and customs.
