An interesting programme on Radio 4 on Tueday morning about the Green Children of Woolpit in Suffolk, a staple of English folklore. You can listen again here for a week.
I was disappointed that the documentary makers decided to concentrate on subsequent artistic responses to the mysterious twelfth century event – village pantomimes, for example - rather then tell us the story in detail. They mentioned the accounts by William of Newburgh (1135/6-c.1198) and Ralph of Coggeshall (fl.1207-1226) but didn’t quote from them; despite the presence of the estimable historian and folklore expert Ronald Hutton I felt a bit let down. John Clark, who was a great help with my London folklore book has also written on the subject: John Clark ‘Martin and the Green Children’ Folklore vol.117, Issue 2, August 2006, pp207-14
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