Lincolnshire Folk Tales Project

A project exploring the origins, legacies, connections and futures of folk tales in Lincolnshire, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (2/2024-7/2025) and hosted at Nottingham Trent University.



Our books:
Rory Waterman, Devils in the Details: On Location with Folk Tales in England’s Forgotten County (Five Leaves, 2026), exploring folk tales across Lincolnshire, and the places associated with them.
Anna Milon and Rory Waterman (eds), Lincolnshire Folk Tales Reimagined (Five Leaves, 2025), featuring fourteen of Lincolnshire’s finest writers reimagining local folk tales.

news
  • Rory Waterman I’m not a ‘guest writer’, I’ll confess: I was the project lead on the Lincolnshire Folk Tales Project during its funded period, and now keep the website going on my own. But please excuse the indulgence. My new book, Devils in the Details: On Location with Folk Tales in…

Latest Articles
  • The Lincolnshire Poacher

    The Lincolnshire Poacher

    In Folklore of Lincolnshire (2013), Susanna O’Neill notes that the song is ‘akin to the National Anthem for Lincolnshire’. It has given its name to…

  • The Ungrateful Sons

    Mr Lacy leaves all his possessions to his three sons, on condition that they each take care of him, for one week at a time.…

  • Old Jeffrey

    One of England’s most famous poltergeists, and inspiration for many subsequent ghost stories. The poltergeist was reported to haunt Epworth Rectory, the childhood home of…

  • Tom Hickathrift

    Legendary giant-killer, large and with superhuman strength but not himself a giant. He is comparable to the eponymous hero of the Cornish fairy tale ‘Jack…

About the project

‘Lincolnshire Folk Tales: Origins, Legacies, Connections, Futures’ is a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (grant number AH/Y003225/1), and is led by Dr Rory Waterman and the Research Fellow Dr Anna Milon in the School of Arts and Humanities at Nottingham Trent University. The project explores the origins, legacies, intertextual and social connections and futures of Lincolnshire folk tales (LFTs), and is intended to facilitate wider engagement with this heritage from writers, the general public, and scholars.