Ralph Hedley: Painter of North East Scenes and the Working Class

Ralph Hedley: Painter of North East Scenes and the Working Class

Author: Icy Sedgwick January 31, 2026 Duration: 30:41

The arts remain one of the best ways to preserve culture in a way that people can interact with. Literature, folk music, and art, among others, allow us to experience culture, even secondhand, using tangible sources. Even better, we can create our own responses to this culture using our chosen cultural medium.

Painter Ralph Hedley captured ordinary, working-class life around Tyneside and Northumberland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. We’ll explore how he captured scenes of ritual, tradition, and custom in his beautiful paintings, and investigate what they can tell us about the way folklore shows up, primarily in cities. 

But we're also focusing on his work as an example of how much community rituals mattered in the past as a way of bringing people together. We need that now, more than ever.

Let’s go and explore the work of Ralph Hedley in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklore.

Find the blog post with all the images and references here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/ralph-hedley/

Donate to Stand with Minnesota: https://www.standwithminnesota.com/

Share your Children's Folklore here: https://forms.gle/D8mLW7q2um5ZYiTD9

Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/

Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595

Get weekly articles and bonus content at Substack: https://fabulousfolklore.substack.com/

Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick

Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore

Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop

Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7

Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick

Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social

'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/


Each week, Fabulous Folklore with Icy offers a compact, fifteen-minute dive into the strange and storied shadows of our world’s traditions. Host Icy Sedgwick, a writer steeped in fantasy and Gothic horror, brings a storyteller’s eye to the material, weaving together tales of local legends, deep-rooted superstitions, and ancient myths. The podcast moves beyond simple retellings to consider the cultural soil from which these stories grew-why people believed what they did, how these narratives functioned in society, and the peculiar, often unsettling details that make them endure. You’ll hear about the oddities and occult practices that textbooks often overlook, all delivered with a blend of curiosity and a slight chill. It’s a consistently engaging exploration for anyone fascinated by the weird corners of history and human belief, a weekly reminder that our world is far more mysterious than it seems. Sedgwick’s background ensures the tales are told with both authority and a palpable sense of wonder, making each short episode a perfect gateway into a larger, fabulously folkloric universe. This isn’t just a catalog of curiosities; it’s an invitation to look at the familiar landscapes around us and imagine the layers of story hidden just beneath the surface, all packed into a brief, compelling listen that easily fits into a daily routine.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Fabulous Folklore with Icy
Podcast Episodes
A Surprising 1485 Witch Trial with Marion Gibson [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:39
In this episode of Fabulous Folklore, I'm chatting to Marion Gibson about Helena Scheuberin and her witchcraft trial in 1485 in Innsbruck, how her clash with Inquisitor Heinrich Kramer led to the Malleus Maleficarum, and…
Jim Henson and the Fairy Tale Film with Dr Andrea Wright [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:11
In this episode of Fabulous Folklore Presents, I chat to Dr Andrea Wright about the fairy tale film as a concept, Jim Henson's career in film and television, the influence of the Muppets on fairy tales on screen, and wha…
Ann Morgan: A 19th Century Shropshire Witch with Amy Boucher [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:48
In this episode, we're chatting about witchcraft in Shropshire, a specific 19th century witch named Ann Morgan, and what Ann's life - and death - can tell us about Shropshire, her century, and ourselves. Amy Boucher is a…
Salem Witch Trials with Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:59
In this first episode of Fabulous Folklore's Witches theme for July, I'm chatting to Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack from the End Witch Hunts project about the Salem Witch Trials. We'll be discussing the context of the tr…
Maud Grieve: A Herbalist in War Time [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:22
I’ve covered three British herbalists so far on this podcast, and each has made a notable contribution to the development of botany and apothecary practice in Britain. This week, we’re going to meet Maud Grieve, whose co…
Nicholas Culpeper: Apothecary to the Masses [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:26
Last week, we met William Turner, who revolutionised English herbals in the 16th century by publishing the first one in English. This gave more people access to the herbal knowledge he felt people should have - although…
Ritual Building Protection with Wayne Perkins [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:58
In this episode of Fabulous Folklore Presents, I'm talking to archaeologist Wayne Perkins, who worked as a field archaeologist before moving into Historic Building Surveys. He supervises urban excavations in the City of…
William Turner: Meet the Father of British Botany [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:14
Herbalism has seen a boom of interest in recent years as people seek to find closer relationships with nature and create ways to supplement their wellbeing. The practice has a long history all over the world, with many c…
Elizabeth Blackwell: Pioneering Herbalist and Botanical Illustrator [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:21
If you’re interested in herbalism or plant lore, chances are that you’ve perused a herbal or two in your time. Culpeper's Complete Herbal: A Compendium of Herbs and Their Uses, Annotated for Modern Herbalists, Healers, a…
Folklore and Storytelling: A Narrative Match Made in Heaven [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:24
Storytelling is something we all do on a daily basis, whether we’re aware of it or not. Maybe we’re telling a funny anecdote about something that happened on the way to work. Perhaps we’re recounting how we first met the…