The Journal
How to Join
Newsletter
Conferences
Study Day
Exhibitions
Awards
Discussion Board
Links
New: The 2008 edition of the Newsletter has been uploaded. Folk Life Conference and Member Application details have been updated. Please follow this link for information on the Historic Farm Buildings Group Conference.
Please feel free to use the Discussion Board!
The interdisciplinary study of regional cultures and traditions is the key aim of the Society for Folk Life Studies.
The Society is the only organisation in Britain that brings together curators, historians, geographers, musicologists, linguists and many other people to explore the regional identity of the British Isles and beyond. Founded in 1961, the Society currently boasts an international membership of around five hundred people and institutions. Its main activities are organising conferences and study days as well as publishing a refereed annual journal, Folk Life. Members maintain an important informal network of expertise and resources in areas such as
- traditional crafts,
- costume and material culture,
- vernacular architecture,
- landscape studies,
- custom and tradition.
The journal
A wide range of historical and contemporary subjects is featured including agriculture, transport and maritime history, domestic crafts and traditional industries, vernacular architecture, home life and furnishings, costume, sports and pastimes, dialects, customs and folklore.
The principle contents of Back Issues are now available (10% reduction to members) including articles by:
- Frank Atkinson, 'Yorkshire Miners' Cottages' 3 (1965)
- Linda Ballard,'Folk Art and the Validity of Revival: a Contemporary Example' 32 (1993-4)
- R.W.Brunskill, 'Traditional Domestic Architecture of South-West Lancashire' 15 (1977)
- Anne Buck, 'The Countryman's Smock' 1 (1963)
- George Ewart Evans, 'Aspects of Oral Tradition' 7 (1969)
- Alexander Fenton, 'Alternating Stone and Turf - An Obsolete Building Practice' 6 (1968)
- Eldbjorg Fossgard, 'Farming Women and Technology' 30 (1991-2)
- Alan Gailey, 'A Family Spade-making business in County Tyrone' 10 (1972)
- J.Geraint Jenkins, 'Bowl Turners and Spoon Carvers' 1 (1963)
- George Monger, 'Car Boot Sales' 29 (1990-1)
- Trefor M. Owen, 'West Glamorgan Customs' 3 (1965)
- Iorwerth C. Peate, 'The Long-House Again' 2 (1964)
- R.A.Salaman,'Tools of the Shipwright 1650-1925 5 (1967)
- S.Minwel Tibbott, 'Going Electric: The Changing Face of the Rural Kitchen in Wales' 28 (1989-90).
How to Join
Membership
Form
- Membership is open to anyone with an interest in
regional culture and tradition and costs £17 per year (£18
for members outside the UK and Ireland). Please note that as of the 1st
of October 2006, membership price will rise to £20 per year
(£21 for members outside the UK and Ireland).
- Members receive annually a free copy of Folk Life, a
newsletter and invitations to conferences and other meetings.They are
also entitled to a 10% discount when purchasing backnumbers of Folk
Life.
- Please print out the application form on this website and send it with remittance (either cheque or details of banker's standing order) to the following address:
Beamish Open Air Museum
Beamish, Co. Durham, DH9 0RG.
Please address all Email enquiries regarding membership to:
seblittlewood@beamish.org.uk
Please address all Email enquiries regarding the website to: folklife@hotmail.co.uk
Newsletter
The Society issues an annual newsletter containing news items, notices of new publications of interest to members, conference reports and information about other forthcoming events, seminars for example, sponsored by the Society. Past newsletters are now available online.
Conference
The annual conference is a friendly four day event held at various locations in Great Britain and Ireland in September. It includes papers by Society members and eminent guest lecturers and study excursions to local sites of interest. The conference provides an unique opportunity for the exchange of ideas and information on an informal basis.
Details of past conferences are available to view, as is an application form for this year's conference.