Old Crockern at The Museum of Dartmoor Life

We are pleased to share that Old Crockern is on display at Museum of Dartmoor Life as part of the Magic and Myth exhibition!

Crockern is the land that can’t be owned.

Land and folklore are inseparable. As ownership structures and land rights shift, we not only lost our connections to land but also many of our stories.

As we lose the tree, the river, the boulder that the story grew around, so too do we lose a part of our culture or lore and with this ways of living and a sense of belonging.

Purposeful separation of people from their land is a technique that has been used worldwide as a way of undermining and controlling those we want to colonise.

Alongside the loss of our folk stories we have also lost many of our customs. Within these were masked beings, inhabited by our ancestors, brought to life to mark the changing seasons, to make merry, to assert our rights, to tell stories and to connect us to our land and our communities.

We are in a time of folk revival, including the reimagination and celebration of masked beings. It is no coincidence that this folk revival has come at a time when many wish to restore the damaged land, to repair our relationship to it and to each other. A return to past traditions as a means of envisioning a better future.

Crockern is part of this movement.

Crockern was created in a two day workshop with a group from The Stars are for Everyone Wild Camping campaign with Right to Roam. In community creations such as this, we can find pathways to each other, to our ancestry, to our lands, and to our wilder selves. – Ruth Webb, The Lost Giants

The Lost Giants are the designers and co creators of many giants and re-imagined folklore beasties. They devise workshops, processions and create giant happenings. Born from friendship and family and a 35 year strong New Year’s Eve giant tradition in Lostwithiel, Cornwall.

The Magic & Myth exhibition will run all year until the Museum closes at the beginning of November.

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