Dr David Clarke

Welcome | Inventories of Living Heritage in the UK Help build the Inventories of Living Heritage in the UK. From pantomime to dry-stone walling – share your community's traditions and social practices. Start your submission today.

UK government DCMS launch inventories of Intangible Cultural Heritage (#folklore) under the UNESCO convention on safeguarding of living heritage, submissions close March 2026
livingheritage.unesco.org.uk

Is Bonfire Night slowly being replaced by Halloween? Halloween’s increasing popularity could challenge Bonfire Night as England's autumn favourite.

Is Bonfire Night being replaced by #Halloween in English folk tradition? Results from @nfsengland.bsky.social revealed today #NFS: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Four million English folk have seen something in the sky they can't explain and almost one third believe governments are covering up the existence of #UFOs; results from the National Folklore Survey #NFS: open.substack.com/pub/drclarke...

Happy Halloween 👻🎃💀! Here are some of the results from our National Folklore Survey about how people living in England celebrate, as visualised for us by artist Jonny Ford'!

A third of people in England believe in ghosts, survey finds National Folklore Survey, the first in over 60 years, found people aged 25-34 most likely to believe in the paranormal

Me and my team @nfsengland.bsky.social @davidwclarke.bsky.social & Sophie Parkes-Nield all quoted in The Guardian today about our Halloween results from the National Folklore Survey! #folklorethursday www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Patricia Crowther, known as UK’s oldest witch, dies aged 97 Wiccan high priestess’s 1970s BBC radio series is credited with helping to popularise modern witchcraft

Patricia Crowther, High Priestess of wicca, author and teacher, has died at the age of 97 in Sheffield.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The Druids Oak is 800 years old - can it help save forests? Scientists are decoding the DNA of Britain’s ancient oaks to crack the secrets of their superpowers.

The Druids Oak is 800 years old - can it help save tomorrow's forests?
www.bbc.com/news/article...

@royalsoced.bsky.social @dmcmenemy.bsky.social @davidwclarke.bsky.social

CALVINE This page contains information regarding the infamous Calvine UFO Sighting based on research undertaken by a team of academics, investigators and other contributors led by Dr David Clarke of the Ce…

To mark the 35th anniversary of Britain's most talked about #UFO legend our new resource page includes a hi-res download of the #CalvineUFO and links to our research dating back to 2009: contemporarylegend.co.uk/calvine/

The Canadian government release their Sky Project report on #ufos and recommend the launch of a new team to collect sightings. Their survey found 27% of Canadians have seen a #UFO #UAPs : science.gc.ca/site/science...

#ISCLR2025 Has opened! Fascinating talks from Aphrodite-Lidia Nounanaki and a wonderful keynote by legendary scholar Bengt at Kilntberg! @davidwclarke.bsky.social and I did our presentation on @nfsengland.bsky.social also :)

Scientists find promising hints of life on distant planet K2-18b Scientists find new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life.

'Greetings, carbon based bipeds!' - Scientists find 'strongest evidence yet' of life on distant planet #SETI
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Debunking the marsh gas theory for #folklore traditions and experiences of the Will o'the Wisp/ghost-lights in East Anglia and elsewhere: my presentation @lincsfolk.bsky.social symposium @trentuniversity.bsky.social i: lincolnshirefolktalesproject.com

April Fools Day: Are we too suspicious of a prank story nowadays? Humorous headlines once flooded the papers on 1 April. Experts explain why it does not happen today.

'Spaghetti growing on trees' - are we too wary of the #AprilFools prank? #folklore #NFS:
www.bbc.com/news/article...

The mythical creature from Harry Potter that has northern roots The grindylow is one of the creatures chosen to be featured on a new set of Royal Mail stamps.

The mythical creature from Harry Potter that has northern roots #NFS #folklorethursday
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Beowulf and Grendel

Grindylow

Selkie

Black Shuck

Exciting news: I’m thrilled to share a project I’ve loved working on – Royal Mail’s brand-new Myths and Legends Special Stamps, released this week!
Keep an eye out for the stamps – let me know which legendary figure is your favourite!
#FolkloreThursday
www.culturalfuturesfoundry.com/royal-mail-m...

For the love of: Folklore Ahead of a new National Folklore Study, David Clarke explains that myths and legends help meet our need for enchantment

For the love of #folklore: Positive News covers the launch if the #NFS for England:
www.positive.news/society/for-...

Royal Mail launches mythical creatures stamp collection Myths and fables from across the UK are illustrated in the set of stamps.

Royal Mail unveils folklore and mythology themed stamps #NFS: BBC News - Royal Mail launches mythical creatures stamp collection
www.bbc.com/news/article...

The 42nd Perspectives on Contemporary Legend conference hosted by The Institute for Language and Folklore, The Mid Sweden University and Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency is currently accepting abstracts for papers!

Abstracts are due March 17th! Learn more here: bit.ly/3EQd9c4

A discussion point that nobody expected to come out of tailoring the @nfsengland.bsky.social questions…

To what extent are cryptids and supernatural creatures in the landscape a smokescreen for dogging opportunities?

There’s a research paper in this for someone…

#nfs #nfsengland

The @nfsengland.bsky.social will poll 1,750 people through panels across various demographics

#nfs #nfsengland

The @nfsengland.bsky.social will focus on surveying:

Custom and Belief

Traditional Narrative (folktales, legends and personal experiences)

The survey will be carries out by IPSOS MORI.

#nfs #nfsengland

The @nfsengland.bsky.social builds on previous work, but more especially the Survey of English Folklore: 1955-1964 which was undertaken by University College London and is now held in the National Archive

#nfs #nfsengland

The @nfsengland.bsky.social is funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Why England only? Because it builds on a previous study and so the first stage has to have the same focus.

It is hoped to survey the rest of the UK in later projects too

#nfs #nfsengland

Can't believe I get to work with all these people - who's who of many UK folklorists yesterday (+ others who had to leave before this photo, taken by Andrew Robinson) @davidwclarke.bsky.social @nfsengland.bsky.social @folkloresociety.bsky.social @folklorepod.bsky.social @chrisbader.bsky.social etc!

Panorama of Sheffield from the conference room for @nfsengland.bsky.social today

And we’re off! Our project partners have descended from across the country (and beyond) to help us critique the first draft of the survey. Many excellent questions to focus thoughts.

“More twists and turns than a John le Carré thriller” 🛸

- @davidwclarke.bsky.social featured in The Guardian yesterday, talking about his research into the mysterious Calvine UFO photo ⬇

What really happened in Calvine? The mystery behind the best UFO picture ever seen In August 1990, two hikers sent photos of a strange diamond-shaped aircraft to the press – but the story never appeared. Was it a prank, a hoax, an optical illusion or something else entirely?

'This story's had more twists than a le Carre thriller': my take on the #Calvine #UFO mystery @theguardian.com : www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

So chuffed to officially launch the National Folklore Survey project yesterday with my lovely @nfsengland.bsky.social colleagues @davidwclarke.bsky.social and Sophie Parkes-Nield to surprisingly packed out room at @sheffieldhallamuni.bsky.social yesterday! #folklore