Industrial Folkways Creative Heritage Project

Folk traditions and supernatural beliefs in Industrial Age Derbyshire

Illustration of an old man and old lady, standing beneath a bunch of mistletoe that hangs from the ceiling of a large kitchen, as if about to kiss.

Pickwick in the Park: A Dickensian Derbyshire Country Christmas

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Associated Activities

Family Festivities Quiz: Finding Festive Feasts Artefact Activity

Part 1: Finding Festive Feasts Quiz

Part 2: Finding Festive Feasts Quiz

Part 3: Finding Festive Feasts Quiz 

Part 4: Finding Festive Feasts Quiz 

Part 5: Finding Festive Feasts Quiz

Bonus (Part 6): The last in the ‘What is it?’ series of the Finding Festivities Quiz.

Pickwick in the Park Activity Seasonal Soundscapes Activity: There’s a coach fast approaching! Can you work out what the coach horn call means in time?!

The last Pickwick in the Park Christmas craft activity is now available: A cut-out coach card!

The final activity relating to the Dickensian Derbyshire Country Christmas Interactive Guide – the related Quiz – rounds off the Christmas-themed content for this year.

Participants can send in answers to quizzes; photos of their craft creations; and creative writing; for an online shout-out, using comments, or the mailing list signup form; or through social media.

Markeaton Park Family Festivities and Activities

Thanks to Parks staff and volunteers for all of their hard work in putting on the Family Festivities weekend; and for the opportunity to have a stall and slideshow to showcase the Interactive Guide, and their help in setting up.

It was great to speak with event visitors and other stall-holders (some of whom told intriguing family history stories relating to Markeaton and Derby; Christmas past; and objects on display). Thanks to all for the kind feedback about, and interest in, the Guide.

The associated activity – involving the late Georgian – early Victorian artefacts and other materials on display – will be posted here over the next few days; and other activities related to the Guide, over the next couple of weeks.

Notifications of activity availability will be made here; on the Pickwick in the Park Activities page; and through social media. So subscribe; sign-up for the mailing list (proving your email address on the contact form); or check back soon on this page.

Finding Festive Feasts Art and Craft Activities

The Finding Festive Feasts series concludes with a related art and crafts activity – here; and associated creative writing competition, here.

Decorative image. In front of a snow-covered country house stands a portly, bald-headed man stands with a low-crowned, broad-brimmed, hat in his right hand, his other hand slightly raised to the side, as if pointing (though he looks ahead, not in this direction). He wears early-1800s clothes, comprising boots and calf-length gaiters; pale tight-fitting, full-length, breeches; a pale waist coat beneath a dark, unfastened, cut-away tail-coat; a monocle on a long, dark, ribbon; and round- or oval-framed glasses.
Mr Pickwick and Markeaton Hall in the 1820s -30s.
Page Contents
1 Markeaton Park Family Festivities and Activities
1.1 Finding Festive Feasts Art and Craft Activities
2 About Pickwick in the Park
3 Direct Download
4 Web Browser Preview and Use

About Pickwick in the Park

Pickwick in the Park imagines what Dickens’ Mr Pickwick and friends might have encountered on a Christmas visit in the 1820s – 1830s, to Markeaton Hall (demolished in the 1960s), on the outskirts of Derby, in the English Midlands.

It also envisages the often very different surroundings and experiences of those serving these well-to-do guests, their hosts, and the estate; and of those, being unable to work, dependent on landowners for survival; considering relationships between rich and poor.

While the visit is imaginary, the ‘historical scenery’ is informed by detailed research and fieldwork (engaging in Archaeological Storytelling). The guide looks at long-lost features, as well as those still surviving today, integrating finds from archaeological investigations (including excavations carried out in the early 2010s; post-excavation analysis; and subsequent interpretation by the author). It also draws upon other historical studies, including previous research on the hall, park and associated manor; as well as research carried out in writing a forthcoming book on Christmas customs in Georgian Derbyshire (which examines a broad range of local and wider sources).

It explores sites and features present in the late Georgian era, alongside related Christmas customs of the time, through various seasonal themes and topics. These include travel and trade; work and holidays; entertainment, games and pastimes; accommodation and conditions; environment and migration; food and drink; decorations; crime and punishment; gift-giving and charity; religion and community; folk performances; and carols.

Pickwick in the Park also considers the impact of the widespread, and profound, changes of the day. It looks at how agricultural and industrial innovations began to transform traditions in the early 1800s, when mechanisation and commercialise started to reshape seasonal celebrations (including into forms that remain familiar today); and how and why some still clung on to outdated customs.

So, step back to Christmas Past, and see the hall and park from another standpoint – perhaps even discovering forgotten places and hidden histories along the way.

Direct Download

Interactive Guide Direct Download

This PDF file is approx. 7.5mb. It’s designed for use with the free Adobe Reader (available from Adobe, here), in full-screen mode (select View > Full Screen).

Web Browser Preview and Use

A web browser screenshot of the Online Guide opening page, reached by the URL made public in mid-November, 2024, with file name at the left on the top bar reading ‘A Dickensian Derbyshire Country Christmas: Pickwick in the Park’. In the centre of the top bar, the page number is shown as 1/98; and page view as zoomed-out to 90%, either side of which, to the left and right, respectively, are minus and plus symbols. At the right of the top bar are icons for printing, downloading and, at the far right, a page menu, represented by a vertical row of three dots. The drop-down menu list reads, from top to bottom, ‘Two-page view’, ‘Annotations’, ‘Present’, and ‘Document properties’, not of which are selected, although ‘Present’ is highlighted. The Interactive Guide title page, in the centre of the window, contains an old illustration of Markeaton Hall, covered in snow; and headed with the line ‘Industrial Folkways Presents’, above the main title, ‘Pickwick in the Park’. The subtitle, ‘A Dickensian Derbyshire Country Christmas’, is further down the page, above a large button labelled ‘Enter’.
Interactive guide viewed through a web browser (Google Chrome), zoomed-out from 100% to 90% view, using the minus icon (-) at the top centre of the window.

To ensure that all of the pages fit on the screen (and that the interactive buttons are fully accessible), click the minus (-) button (top centre in the window) once to zoom out to 90% view. Please note that Alt Text might not be accessible when viewed through web browsers.

View & Use Online

(Opens in a new window)

Further information on downloading and using the guide is available here, if required.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!