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 Dragonby Dragon
The Dragonby ‘Dragon’ is a natural limestone formation, about ten metres long, with a discernible ‘head’ and ‘tail’. According to legend, it is the body…
-
The Pilford Bridge Spirit
It was believed the ghost of a witch lurked beneath this bridge (or its precursor) over the River Ancholme, and would come out to push…
-
Old Mother Nightshade
Old Mother Nightshade was a witch, feared by all apart from the young and foolish John Culpepper, who sought her counsel after being rejected by…
-
The Strangers’ Share
This tale has something in common with ‘Tiddy mun’, which is also discussed on this map. It concerns the strangers, or ‘tiddy people’ – baby-sized…
● 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.
Lincolnshire Folk Tales Project 