15 h 17 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a village ghost tale holds a thread that reaches far beyond the north of England?
In Traditions, Superstitions and Folk-lore, Charles Hardwick gathers the beliefs that shape everyday life in Lancashire and the north of England. Ghosts, witches, omens and charms fill these pages. As mills, railways and growing towns change the region, he records old country ways that are slipping from daily life.
Hardwick looks beyond local curiosities. He compares northern village tales with traditions from India, Persia and Scandinavia, arguing that many customs have eastern roots and mythical meanings. His Victorian theories may feel dated, but his central question invites curiosity: what might familiar stories reveal about the older beliefs people carry with them?
What you’ll discover
- Signs in ordinary life Explore how people read weather, animals and dreams for clues about what lies ahead.
- The north's haunted traditions Meet the ghost tales, witch beliefs and spirits that occupy Hardwick's account of northern life.
- Customs around life's turning points Discover beliefs surrounding birth, marriage and death, alongside customs tied to the turning year.
- Village tales with distant echoes Follow Hardwick's comparisons between northern traditions and stories told in India, Persia and Scandinavia.
- A changing Lancashire See the old country ways Hardwick records as towns grow and schooling spreads.
Who will love it
For readers who love local history, old charms and ghost tales, and family historians with northern roots. Anyone curious about the customs and beliefs of Lancashire and the north of England will find much to explore.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Victorian author records a fading world
- Everyday life was ringed with signs and charms
- Witches, ghosts and spirits haunt the north
- Hardwick traces northern customs to the East
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Traditions, Superstitions and Folk-lore
by Charles Hardwick · 1872
Ghosts, omens and village charms reveal how ordinary people in Lancashire live with the unseen.
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In short
Traditions, Superstitions and Folk-lore is a study of old customs and beliefs by Charles Hardwick, a Preston writer who published it in 1872. It gathers what ordinary people in Lancashire and the north of England believed about ghosts, witches, omens, charms and the turning year.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Victorian author records a fading world
Charles Hardwick lived in Victorian Lancashire, in the age of mills, railways and growing towns. Old country ways were thinning out as people moved to the cities and schooling spread. Hardwick belonged to a wave of nineteenth century writers who feared that oral tradition would vanish unrecorded.
He was a local man writing about local people. He knew the dialect, the market towns and the villages around Preston. That closeness lets him set down beliefs as neighbours still held them, not as distant curiosities seen from a study.
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What is Traditions, Superstitions and Folk-lore about?
It collects the customs, omens, charms, ghost tales and witch beliefs of Lancashire and northern England. It also argues that many of them are linked to older traditions found in distant parts of the world.
Who was Charles Hardwick?
Hardwick was a Victorian writer from Preston, Lancashire, who died in 1889. He wrote on friendly societies and local subjects, and his folk-lore study is the work for which readers remember him today.
When was Traditions, Superstitions and Folk-lore written?
It was published in 1872, during a period when many Victorian writers were collecting folk customs before industrial life and schooling erased them. It records real beliefs held by people in the north.
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