If you have any fondness for the old things, the rare things, the strange ways in which we came to this place, the wisdoms and foolishnesses we have partly forgotten, you may already know of Doc Rowe.
For six decades he has been documenting the folklore of these islands, gathering up arcana in scatterings of film, video, photographs and sound recordings, traipsing from one end of the isles to the other, tirelessly capturing culture that has, miraculously, persisted to the 20th century and beyond from much older places deep in the wild wood, hidden in dark, narrow, cobbled streets, on windswept beaches and high on the blasted damp of the bleakest moors.
There is a move affoot to digitise this huge archive, to make it more secure for those that follow us to be able to see, to wonder and to marvel at and to learn from. If you have a few bob you can spare, perhaps you can dip into your pocket and help things along. It’s not a huge amount of money that’s needed, but more than is currently available without a collective sub. Can you help to make it happen? The link to chip in is below:
Done!
Will do before the month’s end. What a great idea.
My type of thing.
Had seen this earlier and will contribute next month.
I suspect an obligation lies upon me. It was pay day last Friday.
Great stuff.
Has anyone else noticed an increase in interest in this type of thing in recent years? Folklore, tradition, etc? What’s going on? I feel like it’s possibly a by product of the Covid lock down, everyone disconnecting from the modern world a bit more and regaining a focus on the seasons and the passing of time and community traditions, etc.
Typical isn’t it I’m having to downsize and gave all my folklore/mythology/folktale books to charity and found out after that a folklore centre was opening in Todmorden ( I could have donated them there) where I shall be on Saturday for a friend’s talk on witchcraft.
Latest news – and its good news! – from the folks running this crowd-funding campaign:
“Fifth Column FIlms
2nd November 2023
Approaching 90%
As we hit the end of our second week, we’re delighted to say that we are VERY CLOSE to hitting our major target. This would mean that ALL Doc’s film and video footage of folk traditions can now be digitised and preserved. News has been getting around, so keep a look out for articles in the Observer and Yorkshire Post about the campaign in the coming days. We’re also thinking long and hard in consultation with Doc on which part of his huge archive we should focus on for the remainder of the campaign, more on that soon. Please do keep spreading the word, as the sooner we reach the 25k target, the more time we’ll have left to move on to other parts of the archive. We’re also running out of rewards, and are putting together a new list of offers for backers that we’ll also hopefully be able to release soon. Thanks once again to everyone that’s donated or shared or simply enjoyed watching some of the clips of Doc’s incredible footage that we’ve shared. Please feel free to get in touch if you have any comments or suggestions.
Tim and Rob”
If you can, please publicise this work before the campaign runs out of time – inching over the line would a great way to finish what has already been a successful drive to make the digitisation of the archive a reality.
Here’s the link again:
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/docrowe
I wouldn’t be too keen on carrying one of those flaming tar barrels around, above my head. It looks pretty scary, to be honest. I’d be terrified of pouring boiling tar all over my head or something. Thank goodness I don’t live in Ottery St. Mary…