Morris Ring Folk Play Archive (Ron Shuttleworth Collection)
Ref: MS 456
Title: The Morris Ring Folk Play Archive (Ron Shuttleworth Collection)
Scope: A collection of material relating to folk plays and cognate subjects.
Dates: 17th century onwards
Level: Fonds
Extent: more than 400 volumes
Name of creators: Ron Shuttleworth
Administrative / biographical history:
The collection consists of a vast range of material relating to folk plays and related subjects, including books and booklets, journal articles, audio and video recordings, unpublished works such as theses, dissertations and essays, and some ephemera.
The collection has been painstakingly assembled since the 1960s by Ron Shuttleworth who made it his aim to collect copies of everything that had been written on the subject of folk plays, and to provide access to the material to interested researchers.
Many of the works have been arranged in subject-based volumes such as “Hero-Combat”, “Wooing Plays”, “Longsword Plays”, etc., and a comprehensive database has been produced to enable researchers to navigate the Collection.
Ron Shuttleworth was born in Sheffield in 1930 and brought up in Hathersage in North Derbyshire, eventually settling in Coventry in 1960. An interest in folk music and custom led to contact with folk plays and the establishment of the Coventry Mummers in 1966. His research into mumming developed into the beginnings of this Collection, which was donated to the University of Sheffield Library in July 2015.
More information may be found on the Folk Play Archive website.
- Source: By donation in 2015
- System of arrangement: As received
- Subjects: Folk Drama; Mumming
- Names: Shuttleworth, Ron; Morris Ring (Society)
- Conditions of access: Available to all researchers, by appointment
- Restrictions: None
- Copyright: According to document
- Finding aids: Database available in the Special Collections Department