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Jeremy Harte

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Jeremy Harte is an English folklorist and museum curator. He worked for many years as curator of Bourne Hall Museum in Ewell, Surrey and is the author of over ten books on British folklore and history. Harte's scholarly interests have focused in particular on "sacred space and tales of encounters with the supernatural."[1]

Biography

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Early life and career

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Harte grew up near Abbotsbury in Dorset.[2] He studied at Cambridge University and then worked in the archaeological section of the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester.[2] In Dorset, Harte was involved in the Earth mysteries movement and edited the magazine Wessex Earth Mysteries.[3]

Building on an essay that won the Mansell-Pleydell Prose Essay for 1984, Harte produced Cuckoo Pounds and Singing Barrows: The Folklore of Ancient Sites in Dorset, which was published by the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society in 1986.[4] It was reviewed in the Folklore journal by Malcolm Jones, who thought it "packed with interest" but complained about the poor quality of the published book, which included a page missing and badly reproduced images.[4]

Bourne Hall Museum

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Harte worked at Bourne Hall Museum in Ewell (pictured) for over 25 years

In 1989, Harte began work at Bourne Hall Museum in Ewell, Surrey, and remained there for 35 years, retiring in 2025.[5] He also involved himself in other organisations, including the Folklore Society. By 2024, Harte was considered "a familiar name to aficionados of British folklore."[6] At a London ceremony in 2024, Harte was the Folklore Society representative who formally awarded the Society's Coote Lake Medal to the historian Ronald Hutton for the latter's contributions to folklore scholarship.[7]

Although not a Traveller himself, Harte has served as the secretary of the Romany and Traveller Family History Society and has been described as an advocate for Travelling communities.[8] For several years he was the book review editor of the scholarly journal Time and Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture.[citation needed]

Publications

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Harte's book on British fairy lore, Explore Fairy Traditions, won the Folklore Society's annual Katharine Briggs Award in 2005.[9] In their report, the award's judges stated that the book "reflects good modern research, is well referenced, and opens up many interesting lines of thought," in addition to being "written in a clear, lively style".[10] Reviewing the book in the journal Fabula, the folklorist Willhelm F. H. Nicolaisen thought that Harte's victory would have pleased the folklorist Katharine Briggs, after whom the award is named, because of her own interest in fairy lore.[11] Nicolaisen assessed Harte's book to be a "well-informed, well-researched, and nicely balanced account", although also noted it was "a very British, in places even very English, book" which did not examine material from elsewhere in Europe.[12] Historian Ethan Doyle White stated that Explore Folk Traditions "quickly became a classic" in the field.[13]

Harte's 2008 book English Holy Wells, again published by Heart of Albion, was reviewed by the historian Bruce Osborne in the journal Time and Mind. Osborne considered it "an essential reference guide for all serious enthusiasts of holy wells", believing that it would be useful to local historians researching the wells in their area.[14]

In 2023, Reaktion published Harte's Cloven Country: The Devil and the English Landscape. The historian Aaron John Henry Larsen reviewed it for the Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft journal, calling it "an essential compilation of these diabolical stories[...] written in a style that will delight both the seasoned scholar and amateur folklorist alike." [15] In the Folklore journal, it was reviewed by Doyle White, who noted that Cloven Country was "learned yet entertaining, suffused with a distinctive humour that very few other writers can successfully pull off".[16] In the Journal of British Studies, the folklorist Ceri Houlbrook similarly described it as having been written in Harte's "characteristically eloquent, erudite, and often humorous style".[17] The historian Francis Young produced a review for the Agricultural History Review.[18] Reviewing it for The Guardian, the writer P. D. Smith stated that Harte takes the "reader on a devilishly entertaining tour of England and its richly storied landscape."[19]

The same year, Reaktion also published Harte's Travellers Through Time: A Gypsy History. The historian David Cressy reviewed it for the Journal of British Studies, comparing it to earlier writings on Travellers by George Borrow and Charles Godfrey Leland, and suggesting that its approach was "romantic and eclectic rather than analytic or systematic".[20]

The University of Exeter Press brought out Harte's Fairy Encounters In Medieval England: Landscape, Folklore and the Supernatural in 2024. Reviewing it for the Folk Life journal, Young characterised it as being, "in a sense, a sequel" to Explore Fairy Traditions and went on to label it "the indispensable reference text on which any future studies of medieval English fairy lore must rest".[21] In Folklore, Doyle White described the book as being "erudite, engaging, and repeatedly funny", a work which "cements [Harte's] status as the great raconteur of British folklore studies".[22]

Personal life

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Harte is a Buddhist and has two children.[1]

Bibliography

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Title Year Publisher
Cuckoo Pounds and Singing Barrows: The Folklore of Ancient Sites in Dorset 1986 Dorset Natural History & Archaeological Society
Legends 1998 Dovecote Press
The Green Man 2001 Batsford
Explore Fairy Traditions 2003 Heart of Albion
English Holy Wells 2008 Heart of Albion
Epsom & Ewell Through Time 2012 Amberley
Epsom & Ewell At Work: People and Industries Through the Years 2017 Amberley
Cloven Country: The Devil and the English Landscape 2023 Reaktion
Travellers Through Time: A Gypsy History 2023 Reaktion
Fairy Encounters In Medieval England: Landscape, Folklore and the Supernatural 2024 University of Exeter Press
Treasures on Earth: Buried Wealth in Landscape and Legend 2026 Reaktion

References

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  1. 1 2 Heart of Albion.
  2. 1 2 Dovecote Press.
  3. ↑ Hutton 2013, p. 141.
  4. 1 2 Jones 1989, p. 126.
  5. ↑ Epsom and Ewell Times 2024.
  6. ↑ Doyle White 2024, p. 139.
  7. ↑ Harte 2025, p. 3.
  8. ↑ Cressy 2023, p. 1096.
  9. ↑ Hutton 2013, p. 141; Doyle White 2024, pp. 139–140.
  10. ↑ Folklore Society 2006, p. 104.
  11. ↑ Nicolaisen 2007, p. 159.
  12. ↑ Nicolaisen 2007, pp. 159–161.
  13. ↑ Doyle White 2025, p. 785.
  14. ↑ Osborne 2009, p. 380.
  15. ↑ Larsen 2024, pp. 118–119.
  16. ↑ Doyle White 2024, p. 140.
  17. ↑ Houlbrook 2024, p. 448.
  18. ↑ Young 2024.
  19. ↑ Smith 2022.
  20. ↑ Cressy 2023, pp. 1096–1097.
  21. ↑ Young 2025, pp. 168–169.
  22. ↑ Doyle White 2024, p. 785.

Bibliography

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  • Cressy, David (2023). "Review of Travellers Through Time: A Gypsy History by Jeremy Harte". Journal of British Studies. 62 (4): 1096–1097. doi:10.1017/jbr.2023.177.
  • Dovecote Press. "Jeremy Harte". Dovecote Press. Archived from the original on 11 December 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2026.
  • Doyle White, Ethan (2024). "Review of Cloven Country: The Devil and the English Landscape by Jeremy Harte". Folklore. 135 (1): 139–40. doi:10.1080/0015587X.2023.2205278.
  • Doyle White, Ethan (2025). "Review of Fairy Encounters in Medieval England: Landscape, Folklore and the Supernatural by Jeremy Harte". Folklore. 136 (4): 784–785. doi:10.1080/0015587X.2025.2504272.
  • Epsom and Ewell Times (28 November 2024). "Epsom & Ewell's local history museum to be born again?". Epsom and Ewell Times. Archived from the original on 4 December 2024. Retrieved 18 June 2026.
  • Folklore Society (2006). "Katharine Briggs Folklore Award 2005: Judges' Report". Folklore. 117 (1): 103–104. JSTOR 30035325.
  • Harte, Jeremy (February 2025). "Ronald Hutton Awarded the Coote Lake Medal". FLS News: The Newsletter of the Folklore Society. 105: 3.
  • Heart of Albion. "Jeremy Harte". Heart of Albion. Archived from the original on 12 February 2005. Retrieved 19 June 2026.
  • Houlbrook, Ceri (2024). "Review of Cloven Country: The Devil and the English Landscape by Jeremy Harte". Journal of British Studies. 63 (2): 448–449. doi:10.1017/jbr.2024.22.
  • Hutton, Ronald (2013). Pagan Britain. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-19771-6.
  • Jones, Malcolm (1989). "Review of Cuckoo Pounds and Singing Barrows by Jeremy Harte". Folklore. 100 (1): 126–27. JSTOR 1260017.
  • Larsen, Aaron John Henry (2024). "Review of Cloven Country: The Devil and the English Landscape by Jeremy Harte". Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft. 19 (1): 118–121. doi:10.1353/mrw.2024.a944373.
  • Nicolaisen, Wilhelm F. H. (2007). "Review of Explore Fairy Traditions by Jeremy Harte". Fabula. 48 (1–2): 159–161. doi:10.1515/FABL.2007.014.
  • Osborne, Bruce (2009). "Review of English Holy Wells by Jeremy Harte". Time and Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture. 2 (3): 379–380. doi:10.2752/175169609X12464529903335.
  • Smith, PD (23 December 2022). "Cloven Country by Jeremy Harte review – in search of England's devil". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 December 2022.
  • Young, Francis (2024). "Review of Cloven Country: The Devil and the English Landscape by Jeremy Harte". Agricultural History Review. 72 (2): 303–322.
  • Young, Francis (2025). "Review of Fairy Encounters in Medieval England: Landscape, Folklore and the Supernatural by Jeremy Harte". Folk Life. 63 (2): 168–169. doi:10.1080/04308778.2025.2546244.
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