If you feel as though algorithms, emails and newsfeeds are dominating your life, perhaps it’s time to take a step away from the screen, hark back to our ancestors and consider some slower traditions. Set up this year, The Nottingham Folklore Society is here to help you do just that. An informal evening of talks and conversation, their popular get togethers weave together calendar customs, storytelling, crafts and more. We spoke to founders Nikki Millar and Jake Epton to hear what they’ve got in store for the winter months…
How did the two of you meet and what made you both set up the Folklore Society?
Nikki: I run Midland Makers Markets and Jake organises the Ay Up Market at It’s In Nottingham, so when I moved to Notts I was curious about the markets. I’d spent some time in America and when I got back I really wanted to fall in love with England again, so I started going to a lot of Calendar Customs events. Jake was really helpful and we got chatting about things like Robin Hood and the caves, then realised we were both really into folklore.
Tell us a little about your meet ups. Who comes along and what’s involved?
Jake: We’ve been blown away by how many people have wanted to come along to the Society. We had the previous one at The Carousel and eighty tickets sold out.
Nikki: The first one was really special – quite electric and informal. There was such a range of ages, people coming alone or in groups, and everyone was sharing different traditions they’d heard of and events. We didn’t know what to expect or what to offer people, so we did some questionnaires asking what people would like from the society, and most of what came out was stories, anything music related, workshops, and day trips to celebrate the calendar customs. And just being around like-minded people.
Jake: It’s important to us that the Society is for everyone - so if you want to do a talk that is related to folklore, we have a form you can fill in online and then you can come and speak for five or ten minutes.
How do you define folklore, compared to history or myth? Is it a long-standing tradition, stories of the common people or something else?
Jake: It’s a hard thing to define, but I see it as something that’s created for the people by the people. It almost has a handmade quality to it. It’s welcoming and accessible and always evolving. People’s perception of folklore is probably around things like the Black Shuck or or gatherings for solstice at Stonehenge, but there’s so many everyday items that have folklore around them, like pub signs, or saluting a magpie. Things we do because someone in our family might have done it. It’s funny how things get passed on.
Nikki: Part of what I find interesting about folklore is that it helps us to understand ourselves. It’s often working-class oral histories that are changed to fit or reflect different times. For example during the Industrial Revolution, with the invention of the lightbulb, there were lots of interesting ghost stories and art being made around that – so it can expand your imagination towards what else you can believe in.
Why do you think folklore is important in 2026? And what do people get out of getting together to share these stories as a group?
Jake: Some folklore customs have been dying out, but there’s been a bit of a resurgence. There are so many negative connotations associated with being British, and it's sometimes hard to feel like you belong and feel proud of where you're from, but they’re one of the things that’s made me really proud to be British. They were part of everyday life and part of the agricultural calendar. It’s great to meet up and take part in these rituals that people have been doing for hundreds of years.
Nikki: A lot of people recognise themselves in the stories too – so there’s a bit of a tribal thing. There might be folklore related to someone’s village for example, and it can give a sense of self or place to find yourself in. The more things are heading in an artificial direction online, people are seeking out community in real life in a non-digital way.
A lot of these traditions date back to medieval times, but there’s a reason they’ve survived despite humans changing. They’re things we’ve always felt a need to do, whether it's being in touch with nature or the changing of the seasons
A lot of folklore tells us secrets about the land we live on and the environment. Can folklore help save us in the fight against things like over-industrialisation and climate change?
Jake: I’d agree with that. You can engage with or record folklore online, but you really need to be with people. During the Industrial Revolution when everyone was moving into the cities and leaving that kind of agricultural background behind where things revolved around the seasons – celebrations or rituals that were blessings for things like the trees or the plough.
Nikki: A lot of these traditions date back to medieval times, but there’s a reason they’ve survived despite humans changing. They’re things we’ve always felt a need to do, whether it's being in touch with nature or the changing of the seasons. This side of it really appeals to me – it feels like we’re honouring Mother Nature by things like harvest rituals or spring rituals or well-dressing.
Tell us something interesting you’ve come across since setting up the society… a person, story or tradition.
Nikki: We recently had an amazing local historian Bob Massey do a talk which was really special. One of the calendar customs is Gloucester ‘ale conning’, which tests if the ale is good enough to drink. They’ll get a bar stool and an ale conner, who is often someone like the mayor and wears leather breeches. They’ll pour a bit of ale on the bar stool, he sits down and they wait three minutes. If when he stands up there’s no residue, it’s a good ale, but if it sticks it doesn’t pass the test. Anyway, Bob told us that we actually used to do that in Nottingham too. So now I’m compelled to bring that back to Nottingham.
Jake: We’ve both said we’d like to use the Society to bring back some lost traditions in the city…
You’re teaming up with Braided Grain for a straw craft workshop at the end of November. Can you tell us more?
Nikki: Lu Towle is a third generation straw worker based here in Nottinghamshire. It's really interesting what she does and we're very excited to bring her along for a workshop with the society. This will be the first collaboration and workshop we are putting on.
Jake: In the workshop we will be making corn dollies. Traditionally, these were created from the last sheaf of the wheat harvest as part of a ritual to ensure the fertility of next year's crop. The workshop will also give Lu a chance to talk a bit more about her family heritage, how she learnt straw craft and a bit more about why corn dollies are a huge part of harvest celebrations.
The Nottingham Folklore Society meets monthly, generally on the first Thursday of each month. The next meeting will be on Thursday 12 November 2026 at the King Billy pub.
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