Introduction

For over forty years Doc Rowe has been collecting material on folklore, song, dance and cultural traditions, amassing a considerable archive of material on past and contemporary vernacular art and popular culture in Britain and Ireland. With particular emphasis on seasonal calendar customs, the collection has won international recognition.

The Doc Rowe collection consists mainly of audio, video and photographic material, but also includes a large quantity of written and printed documents, including ephemera and newspaper cuttings. The collection's strength lies in its continuing "serial fieldwork" documentation, through regular contact with communities throughout the UK where individual events flourish. Thus the material is wide ranging, first hand, and constantly updated alongside historical sources.

This website is intended to show the range of materials held in the Doc Rowe Archive as of May 1st 2006. Work is ongoing (including digitisation some of the material); of necessity this can only be piecemeal , but the site will be steadily updated and expanded.

Although the material is held in good, atmospheric conditions in Sheffield, it is an archive. Therefore the access is limited at present. Nevertheless, this site should go some way to making items accessible; video and audio players will be available in the next few months. Also watch this space for open days at the Archive!

When the current database is functioning you will be able to search for material by subject, category, person, location, collection type and other searchable categories.