Hole

Life
Born in Rickmansworth in 1896 and brought up in Kingston-on-Thames by her grandmother. Christina Hole went to St Bernard's Convent in Slough and finished her education in France. Before the second world war she worked in Cheshire as an organizer and speaker for the Conservative Party.

It was during her time in Cheshire that she started to collect folklore seriously. She joined the Folklore Society in 1941, in 1956 she became a member of the Council and was asked to take on the office of Honorary Editor of the journal. According to her Folklore obituary she was most interested in domestic folklore, calendar customs and stories. She might have been considered by some rather eccentric - according to the obituary she refused to have a telephone installed in her home and was "surrounded by well-behaved cats whose idiosyncracies gave [her] great pleasure."

The authors of her obituary obviously also liked her a good deal remarking thatL


 * "there was a fundamental goodness and integrity in her which warmed the heart ... she possessed a lively sense of fun and delight in the oddities of people which made her excellent company ... a generous giver and dependable friend."

Works
The first book she published was "Traditions and Customs of Cheshire" [1937], and she published others on English folklore, English Custom and Usage and English folk-heroes.

Sources and Links

 * Christina Hole: An Appreciation;
 * H. R. Ellis Davidson and Theo Brown, ' Christina Hole 1896-1985', Folklore, Vol. 97, No. 1 (1986), pp. 109-110
 * Jacqueline Simpson's essay on Hole in Hilda Davidson & Carmen Blacker [eds.] 2000? 'Women and Tradition: a neglected group of folklorists'. Carolina Academic Press.