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Spring 2014 Number 29 NEWSLETTER ISSN 2043-0175 THE OLD SCHOOL HOUSE, MUCKROSS. ©TODDY DOYLE THE SOCIETY FOR FOLK LIFE STUDIES With so much of the site devoted to the interpreta- tion of rural domestic life, a second theme for the ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2014 conference will be the Irish kitchen and its food. Killarney, Republic of Ireland: Muckross also plays an important part within the work of the Killarney National Park. The third 11th to 14th September 2014 theme of the conference is Landscape Interpretation and the main excursion will explore a number of * 50 years of Muckross House sites within the national park. * The Irish kitchen * Landscape interpretation The conference sessions will be held in One of the key supporters of the Society has been the Lake Hotel, near Muckross House the staff and trustees of Muckross House and Tradi- (www.lakehotelkillarney.com). Built in 1820, the tional Farms in Killarney, Republic of Ireland. As core of the present hotel still exhibits the original the trust that both preserved this Victorian mansion elegant lounges with log fires. Later extended and and developed its open-air museum was established luxuriously appointed, the hotel has recently been in 1964, it seems very fitting that this year’s confer- refurbished, but has kept its old-world charm. ence returns to Killarney to reflect on the work of this famous heritage attraction over its first half If you wish to attend this year’s conference, please century. complete the enclosed application form and send it, 1 Newsletter of the Society for Folk Life Studies with a non-returnable deposit of £75, to the Confer- 2015 Conference ence Secretary (Steph Mastoris) at: National Water- at the front Museum, Maritime Quarter, Oystermouth Black Country Living Museum Road, Swansea, SA1 3RD, Wales. _________________________________________ The society’s conference next year will be hosted by the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, West Midlands, England. The conference will run from A free student place at the the evening of Thursday 10th September until lunch- 2014 conference time on Sunday 13th September 2015. Accommoda- tion close to the museum is currently being investigated and the overall fee for attendance has As usual the Society is offering a free place at its yet to be calculated. annual conference to a student in full-time educa- tion. All fees and the cost of bookable meals will be The Museum (http://www.bclm.co.uk/) first opened included, but the person attending will have to pay to the public 36 years ago and is now the UK’s third for his or her own travel. To be considered for this most-visited open-air museum, welcoming more opportunity, a person must not have attended the than 250,000 visitors through its gates each year. In annual conference before. A short review of the 2010 the Museum opened its £10 million develop- conference will be required from the successful ap- ment of the ‘Old Birmingham Road, a street set in plicant. the 1930s. Historically the Black Country played a vital role in the nation’s industrial history. This was Applications for this free place should be made to the world’s first industrial landscape and one of the the Conference Secretary, Steph Mastoris most intensely industrialised regions of the UK. The ([email protected]), by the end Museum preserves a section of the Black Country’s of May. industrial landscape, including two mine shafts, 2 Newsletter of the Society for Folk Life Studies limekilns and a canal arm. The Museum has relocat- A convivial lunch at the Crown next door was fol- ed buildings into a canalside village, which have lowed by a visit to the new gallery showing The been drawn from across the many small towns of the Richard and Edward Harrison Collection of folk art, region. Each house, shop and workshop has been guided by Edward Harrison, who had many tales to filled with collections, from sad irons to nails, that tell about amassing this completely amazing collec- would have been seen in situ from the 1800s to 1940s. tion rivalling (and surpassing) many museum collec- tions which have taken many more years to gather The Museum’s Designated Collections also include together. sixteen narrow boats, a collection of commercial The day ended with tea and cakes in sunshine before vehicles, motorcars and motorcycles made in the a drive home (in the congenial company of Linda Black Country; there is also a tramway and the Ballard) over the north Yorkshire moors. Perfect. longest operational trolley bus route in Britain. _________________________________________ Christine Stevens _________________________________________ Study Day 2013 Conference 2013 Visit to Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton- The conference was opened by President Eddie Cass le-hole, North Yorkshire who welcomed everyone to the Welsh spa town of Llandrindod Wells. A lovely sunny day on the 15th June saw a small but perfectly formed group of Folk Life Studies mem- Papers bers converge upon the Ryedale Folk Museum for a joint study day with the Regional Furniture Society Radnorshire – Wales’ forgotten county (RFS) and Metal Ware Society. It was a special pleasure when we found old friend John Gall there Dai Hawkins on arrival, looking extremely fit and well in retire- ment. If you have never visited this little jewel in Over the years I have driven through the former North Yorkshire, make plans to go as soon as you county of Radnorshire hundreds of times. I’m afraid can. (http://www.ryedalefolkmuseum.co.uk/ ) that it has tended to be somewhere through which I hurry on my way north or south, with an occasional We were all made very welcome by Polly Legg of pit-stop to eat at the ‘Metropole’ in Llandrindod or the RFS and also took the opportunity of lunch and ‘Evans’ Plaice’, Rhaeadr’s excellent chippy! How- tea breaks to make friends with other members. The ever, this fascinating lecture by Dai Hawkins, the morning session comprised more old friends in the opening lecture of our 2013 conference, made me form of Peter Brears and Bernard (Bill) Cotton, realise what I have been passing and what I have whom many will remember from a long-ago confer- been missing – an eye-opener indeed! ence on the Isle of Man. Peter’s presentation enti- tled ‘Culture of the North York Moors’ was as The area is today overwhelmingly English in fascinating and wide-ranging as one would expect, speech, which is perhaps not surprising bearing in full of information and well observed comments. mind its lengthy eastern boundary with Shropshire Bill Cotton had some interesting pieces for us to and Herefordshire. Nevertheless, parts of the former look at (including a quiz!) as well as speaking about county remain very remote to this day, areas in his research processes and the huge contribution to which one might think that the Welsh language his work provided by his wife, also present, who was might have survived. Dai’s address on the history of able to add to the proceedings. the county was based to a considerable degree on his 3 Newsletter of the Society for Folk Life Studies pioneering studies of the decline of Welsh in the An Introduction to the Metropole Hotel county, taking us back to the rich seams of informa- and its History tion that are revealed in medieval Welsh poetry from Justin Baird-Murray the area. Using clever power-point effects, we learnt of the late medieval poet from the area who sang an Justin’s family has owned the hotel for well over a ode to the benefits imparted by his glasses (for hundred years and his paper gave us a fascinating seeing, not drinking!) and we also learnt of the introduction to the story of its growth from the late importance of Hergest Court, right on Offa’s Dyke, nineteenth century to the present. as the home for many centuries of what are now Originally, the hotel was a much more modest estab- some of the most treasured Welsh-language manu- lishment, the Bridge Inn, opened in 1896. Its growth scripts in the National Library. Philologist as well as was inextricably linked with that of the town, start- historian, Dai also made some convincing points ing with the coming of the railway in 1865 which about the probable Welsh dialect of the area, produc- stimulated visits to the Rock Spa at a time when such ing evidence from poetry and place names to argue cures were considered essential to the health of those that it was y Wenhwyseg, the now little-spoken able to afford such treatment. The growth of the Welsh of south-east Wales, that could once be heard hotel in size and facilities coincided with the growth of Llandrindod and by 1909 the Metropole had 240 in the area. bedrooms, each with its own fireplace, but the occu- pants had to share the eighteen bathrooms. A decline Fascinating evidence regarding the decline of the was inevitable and brought about by a combination Welsh language in one of its last strongholds in the of factors; the loss of interest in spa cures, competi- county was provided by accounts of an early nine- tion from spas in mainland Europe; and, probably, teenth century disagreement over the language of the 1914-18 war. worship in the Congregationalist chapel in Rhaeadr. The older members wished to continue to worship in The hotel continued its efforts to meet the needs of Welsh, whereas the younger members considered inter-war tourists who came for the scenery rather than the spa. The family maintained their efforts to the language an anachronism which should be laid enhance the services of the hotel, improving rooms aside at the earliest opportunity.

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