The Folklore of Gloucestershire

Roy Palmer’s county study brings together Gloucestershire tales shaped by landscape, village life and local tradition. Its subjects include legends and superstitions, with reported encounters involving devils, fairies, witches and ghosts, alongside the customs that gave communities their shared identity.

The book also records sports, fairs, revels and rituals, showing how folklore was performed as well as told. Song and dance receive substantial attention, including the words of 25 Gloucestershire songs and tunes for nine. Together, these materials present the county’s folklore as a mixture of belief, entertainment, ceremony and oral history, rooted in particular places and the people who remembered, adapted and passed on its traditions.