£12.00

“Passed down from generation to generation, many of Derbyshire’s most popular folk tales are gathered together here for the first time. Ranging from stories specific to the region, such as ‘The Derby Ram’, to others which are local versions of well known classics, like ‘Beauty and the Beast’, all of the tales in this collection are rooted in Derbyshire’s past. Written to recreate the oral traditions that made these anecdotes popular, this book provides entertainment for all.
Richly illustrated with original drawings, accounts of love, loss, heroes and villains are all brought to life through vivid descriptions that have survived for several centuries. These tales have been adapted to make them accessible, enjoyable and, at times, very relevant to contemporary readers.
Pete Castle has lived in Derbyshire for over twenty years, and is a professional storyteller with over thirty years of experience. For the last ten years he has been editor of Facts & Fiction, the UK’s only storytelling magazine.”

Category: ISBN: 978-0-7524-5388-0.

Description

“Passed down from generation to generation, many of Derbyshire’s most popular folk tales are gathered together here for the first time. Ranging from stories specific to the region, such as ‘The Derby Ram’, to others which are local versions of well known classics, like ‘Beauty and the Beast’, all of the tales in this collection are rooted in Derbyshire’s past. Written to recreate the oral traditions that made these anecdotes popular, this book provides entertainment for all.
Richly illustrated with original drawings, accounts of love, loss, heroes and villains are all brought to life through vivid descriptions that have survived for several centuries. These tales have been adapted to make them accessible, enjoyable and, at times, very relevant to contemporary readers.
Pete Castle has lived in Derbyshire for over twenty years, and is a professional storyteller with over thirty years of experience. For the last ten years he has been editor of Facts & Fiction, the UK’s only storytelling magazine.”

Contents

Introduction and The Derby Ram

SECTION 1 Tales of Love & Lovers
1 Like Meat Loves Salt
2 The Golden Ball
3 Mr Fox or Overheard Up A Tree
4 Dorothy Vernon & John Manners A Derbyshire Romeo & Juliet
5 Murder in Winnats Pass
6 Lovers Leaps & other smaller steps
7 Spinners and Weavers
8 The Blink-Eyed Cobbler

SECTION 2 Fairy Tales
1 Kitty Green
2 The Lady Who Lived in a Glass House
3 The Small-Tooth Dog
4 The Green Lady of One-Tree Hill
5 Little Blue Eyes, Turkey and the Music Box
6 The Little Red Hairy Man

SECTION 3 Tales of the Supernatural
1 The Story of the Devil’s Arse
2 A Derbyshire Werewolf
3 The Bakewell Witches
4 Strange Goings-on Around Chesterfield
5 Crooker
6 The Ashbourne Minister

SECTION 4 Tales of Heroes
1 King Arthur and Sir Terrible
2 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
3 Robin Hood and Little John
4 Robin Hood’s Picking Rods
5 Eyam, the Plague Village
6 The Lady With the Lamp, the story of Florence Nightingale
7 The Runaway Train, the story of John Axon

SECTION 5 Tales of Rogues and Vagabonds
1 The Butcher Gets a Toasting
2 The Drunken Butcher of Tideswell
3 The Bakewell Elephant
4 The Man Who Stole the Parson’s Sheep
5 The Devil in the Church Porch
6 The Sheep Thief

Review

‘A valuable addition to the canon of English folk tales and legends’

(Taffy Thomas MBE, the 1st Storytelling Laureate).