Long Term Mini Exhibition

The Mini Straw Museum

Come and wonder at this beautiful mini museum, artfully curated by Lucy of @corndollyfolklore and packed with treasures celebrating this heritage craft!

A redesigned display with new treasures to discover!

The Red Lion, Manningtree.

Tuesday 28th July

7pm - 9pm

An informal creative gathering!

Come and get inspired by local folklore with us!

Summer 2026

This summer something mythical is stirring.

We’re creating four straw beasts: spectacular wearable sculptures inspired by folk traditions and local legends. We need you to bring them to life.

A little history…

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Festival of Britain. For the festival Essex’s own Fred Mizen, a straw craftsman, created two monumental straw sculptures for the famous Lion and Unicorn Pavilion. These artworks greeted visitors to a space exploring the character of Britain, the lion stood for realism and strength, the unicorn represented fantasy, independence, and imagination. Mizen’s original creations no longer survive, so we want to bring them back.

We don’t want to make replicas, instead we’re inviting you to reimagine them for Tendring today.

Want to find out more about Fred Mizen? Check out the Museum of English Rural Life

What are we making?

With the Creative Tendring and local straw craft artists we’re using traditional techniques from corn dolly making, thatching, and straw plaiting to create a series of wearable straw mummers, spectacular costume sculptures inspired by the folk traditions of masked performers who once travelled from village to village bringing stories, mischief, and celebration.

As well as creating a lion and the unicorn we will be making St Osyth, the famed guardian of the priory. The Anglo-Saxon abbess, refusing to submit to the demands of Viking raiders, was beheaded. Legend tells that she picked up her head and carried it to her final resting place, and that a spring appeared in the spot she was struck. She is our symbol of resilience, strength, and our connection with nature.

We also need you to design special new character for Tendring. What could it be? A sea creature from the coast? A guardian of the fields? A folk legend brought to life? A symbol of community spirit? We want you to create characters that reflect our history, Tendring today, or your hopes for the future.

The Black Shuck Festival - Fisher Theatre, Bungay

Friday 31st July

3 pm

This Folkmoot, a repeat of March’s sellout event at The Holloway, brings together voices from across East Anglia to talk about East Anglia as a Folk Landscape, how it’s been imagined, mythologised and used, and whether all of that is a good thing or not.

East Anglia has long occupied a particular place in the folk imagination. The bleak and flat fenland, England’s haunted Atlantis in Dunwich, Suffolk and, of course, the legend of the Black Shuck.

It’s a landscape that’s often treated as being eerie, marginal or frozen in time, but how much of this is really true or even good for the area?

Sat 15th August - 7pm

@ The Commons Cafe

Tickets £10 - Includes cake and nibbles.

Come and gather with us as we enjoy some wonderful musical acts, sensational storytelling and community celebration. We have been in our home at the Minories for the last two years… While we make way for the Banksy exhibition we will be off to Harwich for 6 Months… Before we go let’s have a lovely folkloric knees up!

Featuring

THE OWL SERVICE

& PANAMA CITY

With plenty more to be announced.

*We have dropped our prices slightly to help relieve things during the cost of living crisis. But if you are struggling to afford tickets and don’t want to miss this opportunity to gather in community then please do get in touch with us!

‍The Commons Cafe is a wheelchair accessible venue.

Hadleigh Farm Rare Breeds Centre

Sunday August 16th

5pm

Join the artists as they open the kiln and reveal the fired bricks that will become Dreamspace: Pending Approval, a sculptural shelter planned for Hadleigh in Summer 2027.

Gather around the campfire for toasted marshmallows, food and traditional Essex storytelling from Gemma Garwood and Bethan Briggs-Miller of the East Anglian Folklore Centre. Inspired by the landscape, the kiln and the future sculptural shelter, this closing event is especially welcoming for families and young people.

A few important things to know

As this event takes place within a Salvation Army community setting, we ask all attendees and contributors to help create a welcoming and respectful environment for everyone.

• Please keep contributions family-friendly, inclusive and respectful.

• We welcome stories and creative content that promote kindness, hope, courage, respect and community.

• Folklore themes such as magic, fairies and other supernatural elements are welcome when presented as part of cultural storytelling and local heritage.

• Please avoid content that promotes occult, spiritualist or pagan practices.

• If your contribution includes potentially frightening or mature themes, please adapt it appropriately for the audience.

The site is alcohol-free and smoke-free, including vaping. We kindly ask all attendees to respect this throughout the event. Failure to comply may result in the cancellation of the event and affect future bookings.

Thank you for helping us create a safe, welcoming and enjoyable experience for everyone.

Saturday 19th Sep

10am-4pm

Expect magic, music and plenty of stories as we take over a family friendly space at Between the Tides!

Look out for our Tendring Beasts! Take part in our town Crying Competition! Get creative in our colouring corner! Sit back and enjoy stories and songs aplenty!

More information TBC!

Thursday 26th November

An evening of story and song with the EAFC

Join us for another wonderful event, reflecting on the magic and mystery to be found in the local area. As always we will present a varied programme including music, folk dance, ritual and a second round of our popular competitive storytelling POD OFF (A live recorded podcast where we gather together brilliant folklore and spooky podcasters to make them compete with their best seasonal and local stories for a smug ceramic vegetable of some sort)