Theo Brown (1914–1993)

Abstract

THEO BROWN died in hospital in Exeter on February 3rd, 1993, and her death has revealed something of her wonderful capacity for making and keeping friends. There are many with a keen sense of loss at her passing, not least the children from the local primary school with which she became involved a short while ago. There is little doubt that she passed on to them something of her overwhelming passion-for it was nothing less-for local traditions, strange legends, eccentric characters and Otherworld beliefs. Her last published article reached her shortly before she died, in the collection Boundaries and Thresholds, and is typical of Theo's work at its best. She suggests that the song 'Widecombe Fair' is based on memories of a journey to the land of the dead, quoting from local records in support of this, with occasional flashes back to learned works to strengthen her case, and she presents it all with a lively directness characteristic of her folklore writing. Theo was an adopted child of Welsh parentage, whose mother had died at her birth. She studied at the Westminster School of Art and described herself as a wood engraver; her lifelong interest in art and poetry enriched her interpretation of folklore. During the war she served in the WRNS, with the Fleet Air Arm. Afterwards she lived for a time in a caravan, collecting local lore and setting out on countless journeys to visit other folklorists and antiquarians, or to investigate haunted houses, screaming skulls, white witches or black dogs, as well as giving frequent interviews on the local radio. Her Tales of a Dartmoor Village, first published in 1961, gives some idea of her work as a collector around the village of Postbridge, and in a long review in Folklore in 1962, W. F. Jackson Knight describes it as 'important beyond its length'. Later it appeared in the West Country Folklore Series which she edited, and to which such writers as Leslie Grinsell and Roy Vickery contributed. Her ambition-never fulfilled-was to set up a research centre and museum in some abandoned schoolhouse. Always generous in her readiness to help others, Theo would reply promptly to queries in her characteristic red and black typescript, often with valuable information from obscure sources, while she would drive visitors vast distances to see the Padstow Hobbyhorse or some reputed entrance to the underworld. Her work was devoted and spontaneous, and she had no instinct for self-advertisement or commercial gain. For a considerable time Theo's activities were curtailed by the long illness of her adoptive mother, and she was isolated in their gloomy house at Chudleigh. A visit there was an unforgettable experience: it was crammed from floor to ceiling with books and papers, pictures, bygones, maps and recordings, with furtive cats peering through the window and pigeons in the loft, but her friends were relieved when she moved much closer to Exeter, to Dog Village. She worked as Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of History and later in the Department of Theology in Exeter University, and in 1971 organized the first of a series of small conferences held there by the Folklore Society. This was in conjunction with the History Department and was on the Journey to the Land of the Dead, and papers from it were published in the Mistletoe Series in 1975.