| Description | This collection comprises materials relating to personal and research matters, which were created or collected by Theo Brown, and later came into the possession of her friend and executor of her will, Patricia Bourke. It includes:
Box 1 (Item Nos. 1-49; box list available on request) includes:
- personal photographic prints and negatives, including several prints of Theo Brown as a young woman
- annotated small album of photographs and drawings of Celtic crosses of Ireland (June 1976)
- correspondence, including letters relating to black dogs and whooping cough cures
- sketches, including drawings by a child/children
- 'Parts of a Rabbit' booklet, handmade by Theo Brown as a child (c 1930s?) with illustrations and descriptions of various body parts
- Christmas cards from Theo Brown and Dorothy Langford-Brown
- exercise book with notes
- items relating to the death of Theo Brown, including obituaries, a eulogy, and a copy of Theo Brown's will
- pamphlets, including some relating to historic churches in Cornwall; arts and windows in Canterbury Cathedral; and the Devon and Exeter Institution
Box 2 (Item Nos. 50-115; box list available on request) includes:
- three hag stones
- publications by Theo Brown on aspects of folklore, including books and pamphlets
- photographs and photograph albums, including an album of a book exhibition in honour of the Folklore Society in 1978
- personal notebooks, diaries, and books owned by Theo Brown
- a notebook entitled 'The Joy of Caravanning', containing sketches and stories of caravanning with 'Mr and Mrs Brown' and a dog (presumably created by Theo Brown as a child)
- a notebook entitled 'The Book of Theodora Brown', presumably written by her adoptive mother Dorothy Langford-Brown, describing the early years of Theo's life and including photographs and a lock of hair
- folder of photographs of Theo Brown as a child, also including photographs of her parents and sketches of family members (presumably by Dorothy Langford Brown)
- notes entitled 'War', comprising an account of Theo Brown joining up to the Women's Royal Naval Service, seeing her birth certificate and realising she was adopted
- a get well soon card from Broadclyst School
Box 3:
- one folder containing a notebook, photographs, coins, postcards, pamphlets, leaflets, Christmas cards, off-prints of articles, and artwork by Theo Brown (sketches, woodcuts and drawings)
Box 4 contains books and pamphlets relating to stained glass, including:
- 'Decorative Stained Glass' (1980) by Stephen Adam
- 'Stained Glass' (1979) by Michael Archer, Sonia Halliday and Laura Lushington
- 'A small anthology of Modern Stained Glass' (1955) by Arts Council of Great Britain
- 'Modern Stained Glass' (1960-1961) by Arts Council
- Two editions of 'Some notes on St Neot, Cornwall' (no dates) by E.C. Axford
- 'The nineteenth century Stained Glass in Lincoln Minster' (1966) by Peter B. G. Binnall
- 'The Treatment of Myth and Legend in the windows of St Neot's, Cornwall' 1986) by P.M. Bourke
- 'Stained Glass in Wells Cathedral' (1977) by L.S. Colchester
- 'Where and how to find Church Brasses in Devon' (1968) by Paul Corbould
- 'Saint Petrock, Abbot and Confessor' (1938) by Rev. Gilbert H. Doble
- 'Fairford Church and its Stained Glass Windows' (1956; and revised edition 1968) by Oscar G. Farme
- 'The Stained and Painted Glass of York Minster' (1979) by Peter Gibson
- 'The Seasons in Stained Glass' (1981) by Sonia Halliday and Laura Lushington
- 'Glass/Light: Festival of the City of London international exhibition of Stained Glass' (catalogue, 1978) by Martin Harrison for the City Arts Trust Ltd.
- 'The Stained Glass of Canterbury Cathedral' (no date) by Rev. Derek Ingram Hill
- 'Fonts in Lincolnshire' (1968) by Lincolnshire Old Churches Trust
- A pilgrim's guide to the Holy Wells of Cornwall and their Saints' (1982) by J. Meyrick.
- 'The Stained Glass of Ely Cathedral' (1973) by Peter Moore
- 'Hereford Cathedral Church Glass' (1967) by F.C. Morgan
- 'The stained Glass in Durham Cathedral' (1984) by Roger Norris
- 'Stained Glass: art or anti-art' (1968) by John Piper
- 'Cornish Churches' (1982) by Joan Rendell
- 'Lanhydrock House, Cornwall: a property of the National Trust' (1970) by Michael Trinick and Graham Thomas
- 'Irish Stained Glass: a catalogue of Stained Glass Windows by Irish Artists of the 20th Century' (1963) by James White and Michael Wynne
Metal index card cabinet
- containing index cards and 35mm photographic slides; most appear to be images of antiquities
Loose / oversized items:
- oversized illustrated and signed card 'In remembrance of a dear friend, Theo Brown from Class 7, Broadclyst C.P. School [including names of children]
- two rolled maps showing the 'Distribution of Black Dogs'
- rolled painting (with tear - fragile)
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| Admin History | Theo[dora] Brown (1914-1993), folklorist, was adopted at the age of two and raised by the Langford Brown family of Barton Hall, Kingskerswell, Devon. Her natural father was a Welsh scholar later head of a Department at the British Museum. Her adopted father, Hercules Langford Brown (1866-1936) was a magistrate and member of the local gentry; her adopted mother Dorothy (nee Reed) originally trained as an artist, exhibiting at the Royal Academy, and was also interested in pixies on Dartmoor and nature, particularly flowers. Theo took up painting as a result of her mother's encouragement and exhibited as a member of the Kenn group of artists.
Theo was educated at Beaufront School, Camberley, Surrey. During the Second World War she served as a petty officer with the Fleet Air Arm, training at the Moorfield Training Establishment at Plymouth and was stationed at Royal Naval Air Stations at Yeovilton and Henstridge, Somerset. On leaving the Wrens, she was resident in Chudleigh with her mother for many years from 1950, before eventually moving to Broadclyst where she spent the rest of her life. She had a stroke in 1978, but continued working and occasionally teaching at Broadclyst Primary School.
A chance encounter after the war with W F Jackson Knight of the University College of the South West (later the University of Exeter) started her career as a folklorist. In 1952 she took over from Knight as recorder of folklore for the Devonshire Association, and continued researching 'local traditions, strange legends, eccentric characters and Otherworld beliefs' for the rest of her life. She was elected to the Council of the Folklore Society in 1957, and was also a member of the Psychical Research Society and a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. She became a Research Fellow at the University of Exeter (Departments of Theology and History) in the 1960s. In 1971 she organised a colloquium entitled 'The Journey to the other world' and contributed a paper on West Country entrances to the Underworld. This was later published, as was her own books 'The Fate of the dead' and 'Tales of a Dartmoor Village'. In 1983, she was awarded the Coote Lake Medal by the Folklore Society for outstanding research and scholarship. |