The 2021 Roy Palmer Lecture will be given by Jeremy Harte on 2 November as a live event at the Conway Hall in London, organised in association with the Folklore Society. The title of Jeremy’s talk, which was originally scheduled to be delivered in 2020, is ‘Brother Workmen: Solidarity in Trade Folklore’. Jeremy’s description of his talk is as follows.
‘They worked in unison, they sang in unison. For traditional artisans, the trade was more than a job: it was a living presence which might take form as Old Clem or St. Crispin or Bishop Blaize. Rules of the workplace were enforced with the kind of mock-earnestness that masks real solemnity, and humour, often tested to breaking-point was a test of whether mates could be relied on: that was why apprentices had to be teased and sent on fools’ errands. Mere skill was not enough for initiation: the rules of the workshop explicitly protected the interests of the group as against those of the individual, keeping back the over-industrious in order to redistribute work to the needy. Like soldiers, artisans saw the outside world through an atmosphere of slightly boozed male camaraderie, preposterous but well-loved traditions, fiercely enforced loyalty, and absolute unity against a common foe – the bosses.’