Working at The Folk of Gloucester

This report comes from second year undergraduate student Kelly Burriss, who is currently volunteering at The Folk of Gloucester as part of HM5002 Engaging Humanities. It is an example of how our students can gain valuable work experience and develop a number of transferrable skills, while contributing to important heritage work in the area.

I am undertaking a volunteer placement at The Folk of Gloucester, a Tudor building in the heart of the city that previously functioned as a much-loved museum showcasing the domestic lives of Gloucester residents in days gone by. The Folk has recently been restored and is going through a ‘rebirth’ which aims to celebrate the history and heritage of Gloucester, whilst also operating as a community heritage centre.

The experience has provided a great deal of insight into museum management, curating, archiving, project management, event planning and additionally, the challenges of maintaining and preserving a historic building that functions as a public space.

My placement came at a pivotal time for The Folk. Wall paintings dating back to the sixteenth century were discovered during the restoration and a project had just commenced to research, preserve and celebrate this fascinating discovery (see more about this here). I had the pleasure of working alongside Dr Andrea Kirkham, wall paintings researcher and conservator, to discover what these paintings could reveal about the history of the building, the people who lived there and displays of status in the early modern period.

Furthermore, I have been able to take an active role in planning events at the Folk. The Folk’s aims to celebrate and commemorate folk customs and traditions align with my own personal interests and have enabled me to undertake research regarding the history of wassailing, Morris Men and the early modern ritual year. This has resulted in a blossoming interest on my part in importance of folk traditions in authenticating cultural values through illustrating their presence in the history of the community. Additionally, my research has provided insight into how certain traditions travel and are modified within localities, and I hope to be able to look at some Gloucestershire legends and myths in this context. Furthermore, the reinvention of historic traditions in contemporary settings has also sparked my interest.

As well as providing research opportunities and insight into the management of a historical building, my placement at The Folk has brought me into contact with some truly wonderful people who share passion and enthusiasm for the city and its history, and are keen to share it. Conversations about witch bottles, lamprey pies and the Civil War have become a much-loved part of my days at the Folk and there is so much still to be discovered about this building and its inhabitants. If only walls could talk….

In continuation of a medieval tradition, Gloucester are preparing a lamprey pie to give to King Charles III for his coronation and I had the honour of creating the decorative lettering (see below). Historically, the city of Gloucester presented the monarch with a lamprey pie at Christmas due to the rich supply found within the River Severn. The practice ended in 1836 as the price of lampreys had risen considerably but Gloucester continues to send a lamprey pie to the monarch on special occasions.