A Good Send Off: Local, regional & national variations in how the British dispose of their dead. CDAS Conference. Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institute, 19th June 2010. Number 25 NEWSLETTER Spring 2010 [email protected] for further information. Rural History Conference, University of Sussex13 – 16 September 2010.Please refer to website www.ruralhistory2010.org for further information. _________________________________________ The National Electronic and Video Archive of the Crafts (NEVAC) has changed its name to ‘Recording the Crafts’. The new web address is www.uwe.ac.uk/recordingthecrafts _________________________________________ Take a look at your Society’s website www.folklifestudies.org.uk The contents of all issues ofFolk Life are listed as well as core information about the Society, including a membership form along with notices of Society meetings and conferences and the text of the Newsletter. The site is also available for members to post relevant information. Please send text as e-mail West Dean House, Chichester Museum, with its collection of nearly 50 historic attachments to the website officer buildings dating from the 13th to the 19th century, [email protected] The Annual Conference for 2010 and an extensive programme of live interpretation _________________________________________ and demonstrations of traditional skills. Sussex, England 16th - 19th September The conference will explore a number of themes Contributions/comments should be forwarded to relating to vernacular culture and rural society, _________________________________________ newsletter editor ([email protected]) including interpreting agriculture and rural skills for contemporary audiences, the representation of The Society’s annual conference in 2010 will be Printed & published by the Society for Folk Life recent agriculture in museum collections, and rural held in West Sussex in the south of England and Studies, spring 2010. All opinions expressed are change in general. take place between Thursday and Sunday the 16th - those of the contributors and do not represent the th policies or views of the Society. 19 September. If you would like to offer a paper at this conference, please contact Conference Secretary, Steph The conference will be based at West Dean House, Mastoris ([email protected]). near Chichester, home of the Edward James Foundation and its famous college (a study centre The cost of attending this conference will be £390 for conservation, arts, crafts, writing, gardening and for those sharing accommodation and £490 for music). Nearby is the Weald & Downland Open Air those requiring single accommodation. 20 1 Newsletter of the Society for Folk Life Studies Newsletter of the Society for Folk Life Studies A booking form is enclosed. Please note that a are in geographical spread, a testament to the hard proximity of fast-expanding Witney, and has a great local owner and long-time museum supporter. Time non-refundable deposit of £100 is required by the work of our local secretary, Matthew Richardson deal in its favour. Manor Farm is a remarkable will tell whether the new ways of working at 28th Mayand the remaining conference fee is and to our inimitable conference secretary, Steph survival of period farm buildings, including some Cogges will substantially change the core activity of th requested by13th August. Mastoris. fine 18 century barns, all in local Cotswold stone. interpreting the farm as a period piece, by taking – _________________________________________ and indeed being able to afford - a completely new The last time we as a Society looked at tourism and Parts of the farmhouse and site date back to the 12th approach. heritage, it was at the Lake District conference in century, and a wander around the farmyard and The 2011 Conference: the 1980s - the period when, according to many house has always been a trip down memory lane, Further information:www.oxfordshire.gov.uk commentators, the ‘Heritage’ was invented as an September 8th – 11th strongly evocative of the Victorian farm it is industry – indeed this point is made by the recently interpreted to be. David Viner departed and much missed Geraint Jenkins in his The Society’s annual conference in 2011 will be _________________________________________ bookGetting Yesterday Right – originally held in the North East of England and take place A new future now beckons, as the county council published in 1992, and only just republished this th th has been seeking other partners to develop the site between Thursday 8 and Sunday 11 September. year, much to his delight. and take on management responsibility. A new (Please note that at time of going to press all details The Ulster Folklife Society,Postscript Cogges Trust will take up the reins from April 2010 are still to be confirmed.) The concern then was that authenticity was being and faces a big challenge. The broad theme will be textiles. lost in the rash of heritage products being sold to the In the lastNewsletter—Number 24 February 2009, public – principally tourists – in order to attract After some years of uncertainty over Cogges’ page 17—I gave a synopsis of the Ulster Folklife Further details will be available by mid 2011. visitors and make money in order to survive. One future, and no little criticism that its ‘offer’ to Society (1952-2008) and its plans for the future. Please contact the Conference Secretary, Steph of the worries then was that, in the rush to collect visitors needed renewal, the new trustees start with These were that it would team up with the Friends Mastoris ([email protected]) if together displays, their context was ignored or lost, a formidable list of obligations, even though the of Cultra, a group formed in 1989 to support the you would like to contribute a paper at this and with that their meaning and their connection to council retains ownership of both historic buildings conference. Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. It has now the community from whence they came. It is fitting and the collections, with maintenance responsibility _________________________________________ been decided not to go ahead with this as the aims perhaps that we are looking again at this subject – in for both. of the two were not the same.All good things, as we a different way, and in a different time, and with the know,come to an end and the Society has run its benefit of all the work which has been done in the A ‘refreshed and revitalised’ Cogges is promised, race well. The dedication of its office bearers Conference 2009 intervening period. I also came across a copy of albeit starting life with only a £160,000 pa subsidy should be warmly congratulated and recorded. Introductory words – Isle of Man transactions for the Museums Professionals Group for each of its first two years from the council, the from their 1987 conference on ‘Tourism - Museum final strand of the authority’s diminishing under- As mentioned, the journalUlster Folklife will Welcome to those who have just joined us, and a Dream or Nightmare’ - containing, among others, writing support announced (to some consternation) continue under the editorship of Robbie Hannan, second welcome to those who were here last night comments from one Catherine Wilson, - it was a few years ago. to hear Andrew Foxon’s excellent preview to the interesting when rereading these papers to see how Curator of Musicology at the Ulster Folk and Isle of Man and to the conference. ideas expressed at that time have helped to change It remains to be seen how much of the farming and Transport Museum. attitudes in the museum world and how much more countryside theme will be retained, or even Marshal Cubbon did the honours when the first visitor – and indeed community centred we now are. expanded, within the context of the wider Fionnuala Carson Williams Society conference was held here on Man in 1969, archaeological and historical significance of _________________________________________ and it was my privilege to have been here for the last Communities have also changed and society itself is Cogges. Certainly, there has been a hiatus. Horses, conference held here in the Manx Museum when we a very different country. However, if the results of once a feature alongside the cows, chickens and were welcomed by long time member and former the conference in Skansen a few years ago are Gloucester Old Spot pigs around the Manor Farm Forthcoming conferences/Meetings Director Stephen Harrison, who, together with the anything to go by - when much hand wringing was yard, have been gone for a year or two now, since staff and trustees of Manx National Heritage, gave done about the future of open air museums – it the departure ofHilda the Clydesdale andMolliethe The sixth West Country Scythe Competition & us a very good time indeed – as testament to which, seems that not only the ‘heritage’ practitioners, but cob. South Somerset Green Fair will be held at Thorney here we are again. also the academics, and even the futurologist, came th to the same conclusion, that people do have a So too the annual threshing sessions in the Lakes, Muchelney Langport, Somerset on13 June The papers to which we now look forward are as hunger for the real and the authentic, and open air farmyard, mostly powered by a fine single cylinder 2010. See their website for further details. varied as ever, as wide ranging in viewpoint as they museums were one place where this could be Ruston, Proctor & Co Ltd engine of 1907 from a www.thescytheshop.co.uk/festival.html 2 19 Newsletter of the Society for Folk Life Studies Newsletter of the Society for Folk Life Studies During his varied life he was the High Sheriff of New trust formed to run experienced. Of course, discussion then went on to distinguish how certain features have been exposed, Dyfed and Ceredigion county councillor (2002-03), Cogges museum at Witney examine what did we mean by authentic – which is and often altered, in a bid for tourists.