The guardians who seek out, preserve, and document Cornwall's folktales
The life stories of the tale collectors are as interesting as the tales they found. The people who transcribed stories from the oral tradition range from Victorian folklorists tramping the moors with notebooks in their pockets to farmers drolling around the fire with miners, then committing their tales to paper; from the Tavistock vicar’s wife travelling the lanes in her carriage writing letters about piskeys to the bedridden Padstow maid collecting tales in a trunk under her bed and writing them into best sellers.
The story collecting baton is now passed to modern historians with recording equipment, capturing the few remaining remnants of folklore.
