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County Durham Folk Tales
STORYTELLER and author Adam Bushnell brings together stories from the rugged coastlines, limestone cliffs, remote moorland, pastoral dales and settled coalfields of County Durham. In this treasure trove of tales you will meet the evil fairies of Weardale, the shape-changing witch from Easington, the Bishop Auckland boar, the Dun Cow from Durham City and many other characters – all as fantastical and powerful as the landscape they inhabit.Retold in an engaging style, and richly illustrated with unique line drawings, these humorous, clever and enchanting folk tales are sure to be enjoyed and shared time and again.
- GenresShort StoriesMythology
192 pages, Paperback
Published October 16, 2017
About the author
Adam Bushnell
72 books3 followersAdam Bushnell is an Amazon number 1 best selling author of fictional and academic books. He has written over thirty books including Descriptosaurus: Story Writing, Modelling Exciting Writing and Quests in Epica. His book of 100 Ideas for Outdoor Learning, published by Bloomsbury, won the prestigious ‘Creative Play Awards’ in 2020.
He is a Literacy Shed author and has a series of books published with Vocabulary Ninja. He is featured as a recommended author on the ‘Reading is Fundamental’ and the ‘National Centre for Language and Literacy’ databases.
Adam works in the UK and internationally in both state and private education delivering creative writing workshops to all ages. He regularly appears as guest author at the Northern Children’s Book Festival as well as other Literature Festivals across the U.K. His books are also on the ‘Boys Into Books’ recommended reading list.
He is the Cultural Ambassador for Gateshead Council and takes part in voluntary work for several children's charities including Abraham’s Children in Crisis, helping the social, emotional and educational needs of children in the Holy Land. http://acincrisis.weebly.com
A link to his Youtube channel can be found here
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0Ma...
He is a Literacy Shed author and has a series of books published with Vocabulary Ninja. He is featured as a recommended author on the ‘Reading is Fundamental’ and the ‘National Centre for Language and Literacy’ databases.
Adam works in the UK and internationally in both state and private education delivering creative writing workshops to all ages. He regularly appears as guest author at the Northern Children’s Book Festival as well as other Literature Festivals across the U.K. His books are also on the ‘Boys Into Books’ recommended reading list.
He is the Cultural Ambassador for Gateshead Council and takes part in voluntary work for several children's charities including Abraham’s Children in Crisis, helping the social, emotional and educational needs of children in the Holy Land. http://acincrisis.weebly.com
A link to his Youtube channel can be found here
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0Ma...
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 7, 2025
Stories like these are always going to be a little more entertaining when they involve your local area. Although the tales herein are much of a muchness compared to folk tales of other parts of England, having places local to you in them adds a little zest, especially when you can easily visit these places - and sometimes see monuments or natural features connected with the tales.
The book is a short but eclectic set of folk tales from around County Durham - and by that, we're talking the traditional boundaries - Tees to Tyne (and rightly so). We have weird beast, ghosts, fairy folk getting up to mischief and even stories that have been told about saints such as Bede and Godric - Durham having been a veritable centre of Christianity for many years.
Some will be familiar, many not. We do of course have the Lambton worm, its less famous cousin the Sockburn worm, and the Tees-dwelling child-eater Peg Powler. It might surprise some that the well-trodden story of an unfortunate monkey in Hartlepool is included - but let's face it: it is very much part of local folklore.
It's an entertaining enough read, though it could have done with some better proofreading. And all the better for the fact that I've spent the greater portion of my life in the area covered.
The book is a short but eclectic set of folk tales from around County Durham - and by that, we're talking the traditional boundaries - Tees to Tyne (and rightly so). We have weird beast, ghosts, fairy folk getting up to mischief and even stories that have been told about saints such as Bede and Godric - Durham having been a veritable centre of Christianity for many years.
Some will be familiar, many not. We do of course have the Lambton worm, its less famous cousin the Sockburn worm, and the Tees-dwelling child-eater Peg Powler. It might surprise some that the well-trodden story of an unfortunate monkey in Hartlepool is included - but let's face it: it is very much part of local folklore.
It's an entertaining enough read, though it could have done with some better proofreading. And all the better for the fact that I've spent the greater portion of my life in the area covered.
June 11, 2018
Have been picking this up repeatedly inbetween other things, must have read every story several times by now. Some of the stories are decent, but they just aren't presented very well unfortunately. The tellings are a little too emotionless and never really settle on a good tone for fairy tales. Disappointing, but still interesting.
December 19, 2020
Loved reading this with my year 5 class. The children know many of the places in the book and we used it as an end of day reader. They loved the gory parts and the use of colloquial language. Very enjoyable read.
April 29, 2018
Loved it. All the old ones I already knew, expansions on some I had only heard of vaguely and some new ones I had not heard before
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews