Several years ago I began researching Peg Powler as part of a wider project on the cultural representation of working-class experiences in Teesside. I kept making notes and keeping track of any reference that I found, waiting for someone step forward as a Peg Powler expert. That has not happened as yet. So I decided to make use of the information and start sharing it. This will be the space where I share what I know about Peg Powler so far, and share any new bits of information that come to light. Any further hints, tips, references to Peg Powler are always welcome.
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No comments on The Peg Powler Research Project
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The Peg Powler Art Collective Zine Library will be at the Tees Zine Fest Saturday 25th May 10 am – 4pm, Navigator North, Unit 7 in the Hill Street Shopping Centre (near the Wilson Street entrance).
From the Tees Zine Fest write up: “Peg Powler Art Collective is a DIY arts organisation founded in Stockton-on-Tees by artists AJ Garrett and Rebecca Little. Their operations have included exhibitions, events, workshops and publications in Teesside and across the country. They hosted a pop-up zine shop/publishing house/library in 2010 and also presented Middlesbrough Zine Fest that same year with activities, talks and an exhibition.”
“The Peg Powler Zine Library features zines that have been made in Teesside, sometimes supported by the collective’s activities, and many zines from around the UK and around the world that embody PPAC attitude: unusual, artistic, analogue, accessible, expressive and as unique as the people making them.”
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A parcel from The Folklore Box recently dropped through my letterbox – a gift from a friend who is all too familiar with my search for all things Peg Powler. The box features Folklore art by Matt Willis illustrator of Shuck Zine – a zine about Norfolk folklore and witchcraft and how that fits into the wider realm of British folklore.
Inside the box were:
- An 8 page black and white zine on the story of Jenny Greenteeth, Peg Powler and the similar water hags. The zine is illustrated throughout.
- An A4 Jenny Greenteeth print
- A Peg Powler print on vivid green paper
- 3x 25mm badges
- 3 x 80mm vinyl stickers
Zines are going to be a recurring theme in the next few posts…
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Today’s fragment from the Peg Powler story comes from “Strange Rivers of the North” written an illustrated by G. Bernard Wood* Britannia and Eve (London: London Illustrated News 1st March 1950) 3-5, 72-3.
In the article Wood* states: “The reputed abode of this god [Peg Powler] is that massive crag which divides the waters as they toss over seventy-eight feet high precipice at High Force – a crag known as the ‘Palace of the Genius of the River’” (73-4). A field trip to find the crag may be in order…
Britannia and Eve was “A Monthly Journal for Men & Women” containing articles on current affairs, history, folklore, and general interest, as well as sections dedicated to fashion, home, and short stories. The mid-century graphic design used in the many adverts are sublime:
Notes
*The publication lists J. Bernard Wood on the contents page – but G. Bernard Wood in the article by-line. Could it be George Bernard Wood the photographer and author?
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In previous posts we have looked at the wider mythological and folk family of Peg Powler, but in this post we will look at the possibility of other figures in the Powler family.
Nanny Powler
Nanny Powler is a similar creature to Peg Powler said to haunt the River Skerne, a tributary of the Tees. The Skerne runs from between Trimdon and Trimdon Grange, through Darlington, and meets the Tees at Hurworth Place and Croft-on-Tees. The folklorist Michael Denham has suggested that Nanny Powler is either the sister or daughter of Peg Powler.
This oulde ladye is the evil goddess of the Tees. I also meet with a Nanny Powler, at Darlington, who from the identity of their surnames, is, I judge, a sister, or it may be a daughter of Peg’s. Nanny Powler, aforesaid, haunts the Skerne, a tributary of the Tees.
Michael Aislabie Denham, The Denham tracts; a collection of folklore, reprinted from the original tracts and pamphlets printed by Denham between 1846 and 1859 (London: D. Nutt, 1892), Fn15 p 72.
The Tees between Hurworth Place Croft-on-Tees – the Skerne joins just to the right of the photograph, note the presence of islands in the river (February 2023). View of the bridge from the opposite bank following a continuous period of heavy rain (March 2024). The Tees where it is met by the Skerne (opposite bank – barely visible in rising water levels and thickets of undergrowth (March 2024). The High Green Ghost
Further upriver at Mickleton it is said she was known by a different name – the High Green Ghost “According to local legend she lived in the valley where Cow Green Reservoir can now be found, and haunted the river around Mickleton and Middleton-in-Teesdale where she was also known by another name – the High Green Ghost.” (“Peg Powler” – This is Durham).
There is undoubtedly many stories of monsters and mystery associated with the area, (The Hell’s Kettles are nearby), not to mention the Sockburn Worm…
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Peg Powler’s link to Ancient Egypt comes to us via the regional newspaper for parts of South West England, The Western Daily Press (established in 1858).
The column “Notes of the Day” discusses Pen Park Hole, a large underground cavern discovered in the 1600s, north of Bristol. In particular, it makes the connection between place names and their possible origins in Egyptian lore and the worship of Osiris:
“I was led to make inquiries at Over, just north of the Hole chiefly owing to the occurrence of the name Pegwell on the map… Mr Jones tells us (1) that Pen Park Hole as called ‘Hell’s Kettle,’ and (2) that a variant of an ancient saying runs ‘Put a duck in at Pen Park Hole and it’ll come out at Old Passage.’ He does not name his authorities, but I conclude that, like myself, he got these facts from ‘oldest inhabitants’.
“Now these statements are illuminating. The name ‘Hell’s Kettle’ and the ‘duck offering’ are exactly paralleled at the mineral springs, ‘Hell’s Kettles’ near the river Tees at Darlington, Durham, with an attendant water nymph, ‘Peg Powler’.
“Compare also the similar nymph ‘Peg O’Nell’ on the Lancashire Ribble. In both areas Egyptian place-names have been instanced. Certainly, at both the ‘Hole’ and Over we are in Egypt. One could add also the lore at Pagan’s Hill or Peganill, a place of springs near Stroud.”
“Notes of the Day: ‘Pen Park Hole’, ‘Egypt in Bristol’, ‘A Sacred Well’”, Western Daily Press and Bristol Mirror, Friday 16th January 1942, 3.
A custom akin to the modern day Duck Derby? Hell Kettles
The Hell Kettles are pools of water which were thought to be bottomless, now lie beside the A167 between Croft-on-Tees and Blackwell, borough of Darlington. In different occasions, ducks were given distinctive markings, and thrown in the kettles. One ended up swimming by the bridge at Croft on the Tees, and the other into the Skerne, a tributary of the Tees. These pools originated in 1179 sue to natural subsidence. Originally there were three, however, only two survive, both with different ecological characters.
Connection to Ancient Egypt
Near Abydos in Egypt are limestone mountains which surround the settlements, there is a gap in its centre known as Pega. This gap was believed by ancient Egyptians to lead directly to the kingdom of the dead, and a sacred centre of the worship of Osiris, god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation ,who is often depicted as being green. The historical evidence for this area dates to at least 3200 BCE and the worship of Osiris to 2400 BCE. Nearby is also the Pega Spring with a shrine to Osiris, which could also be where the Greek myth of the Pegasus, offspring of Poseidon and the gorgon Medusa, draws inspiration.
Osiris Statuette (664 BC – 525 BC), M11396, National Museums Liverpool, World Museum. Put all these thoughts and ideas through various languages, belief systems, and spoken storytelling narratives, and it is not beyond the realm of possibility that we end up with Peg Powler. Previous posts have covered the connection between horses, serpents and water spirits; Peg claiming lives; being green; and links to bodies of water. So although this link is tenuous and convoluted, it can be made.
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To begin, let’s point out that this account is based on an amalgamation of historical events, and anecdote.
The Northern Echo has a weekly section, “Echo Memories“, written by Chris Lloyd about the history of Darlington and its surrounding villages. In 1991 some of these were collected into The Northern Echo’s Memories of Darlington.
Front Cover: Chris Lloyd, Memories of Darlington (Darlington: Northern Echo, 1991). In this book Lloyd states that Peg Powler was a 17th Century invention to keep children away from the water, and that she replaced “The Headless Hobgoblin of Neasham”, and was herself replaced by the Boggly-Bo (39-41). It must be stated that it is all going to get a bit tangled from hereon in, and some of the views on gender are dated.
Headless Hobgoblin of Neasham
Lloyd states:
‘Hob Hedeless’ infested the road running from Hurworth to Neasham, but… he was unable to cross the Kent – the small stream that runs into the River Tees at Neasham. Hob was a kelpie, and evil spirit, who sat by the side of the Tees and lured women and children and easily-led men to him. He then took them into his subaqueous abode…” (39-40).
The hob was implicated in the death of Darlington bricklayer Robert Luck on 31st December 1722. In revenge, the villagers were said to have ensured that he was no more seen again. “He has been exorcised, however, and laid under a large stone formerly on the roadside, for ninety-nine years and a day. Should any luckless person sit on that stone, he would be unable to quit it for ever.” William Henderson, Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders (London: Published for the Folklore Society by W. Satchell, 1879) 264.
Lloyd suggests that with the Headless Hob gone, Peg Powler could rise up in his place.
Boggly-Bo
Lloyd does not offer an explanation of what could have happened to Peg, but goes on to explain her supplanted Boggle Bo:
the Boggly-Bo also had an unusual penchant for drowning people. For some strange reason defying old Boggy-Bo became a test of manhood and so is believed to be one of the derivations of the phrase ‘saying boo to a goose’ But towards the end of the last century [19th Century] Peg-Powler was reincarnated as a male and made a come-back, cleaning up his new-found male image in the process. (40).
Verdict of the Peg Powler Research Project
In all likelihood these are three separate creatures, with their stories being attached to different locations, but all were held responsible for various drownings in the river.
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Creatures of local folklore are a part of the collective social memory, and part of a cultural identity. But these stories are slippery creatures, told through spoken narrative tradition, and therefore never quite able to fully grasp. Stories are the means through which we shape our beliefs and create a dialogue with the past.
This depiction of Peg Powler comes from recent times, but reimagines her as a constant point from the past. The poet, writer, performer, editor, and freelance creative writing tutor Bob Beagrie’s Leásungspell (Ripon: Smoke stack, 2016), is a mixture of Old English, modern English and northern dialectal phrases. It is a narrative epic poem about a pre-Modern world of 657 BCE. The poem was also a performance accompanied by music and sound effects.
The poem recounts the journey of Oswin, a monk from the monastery of Herutea travelling to Streonshalh (nowadays Hartlepool to Whitby), bearing secret letters. A journey that requires a crossing of the Tees, and it is there that he encounters Peg Powler.
There is foreshadowing of what is to come, earlier on the journey, with a warning of “a deadly water ghost called Peg Power who scours the farthest reaches of this river” (73), [not how it appears in the original text, see below, but in the commentary in Unearthing The Epic: Historio-Mythographic Experimentations in the Poetry Collections
“The Seer Sung Husband”, “Leásungspell” & “Civil Insolencies” (2022)].An erotic feverish dream, and blurring the lines between hallucination and reality lead to Oswin, getting into difficulty in the water. The water ghost proclaims: “I be Peg, look upon me, my Son – I take you Oswin, for me fresh bedfellow” (113), [as pervious quote], the his fate is left to your imagination.
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One of the aims of this project is to try and see how far back and how widely references to Peg Powler can be found. There are references to an unnamed river deity in the Tees in Roman times, which is the earliest, and Canada is the furthest. However, the ealiest written source of the name Peg Powler found so far is in the mid Nineteenth Century (Denham Tracts, 1846-1859).
At a similar time, in 1854, William Hylton Dyer Longstaffe also makes reference to Peg Powler:
Some of my readers will doubtless, have a faint recollection of being awfully alarmed in their youthful days, least when they chanced to be alone on the margin of the stream, ‘Peg Powler, with her green hair’, should issue forth and snatch them into her watery chambers.
The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Darlington in the Bishoprick, (Darlington: Proprietors of the Darlington and Stockton Times, 1854) 16.
Longstaffe’s book was published thanks to the subscription of many patrons. Although the work was completed only after several of the patrons had died. In the preface Longstaffe states: “I have to apologise for that delay in their appearance which is so often and unavoidable the case in topographical works”. A commonality with nowadays, it is good to see that important writing projects will sometimes face delays, but they are worth seeing through.
Longstaffe has another written lasting legacy in Teesside. In 1853, when the town of Middlesbrough was granted its Charter of Incorporation, the new council commissioned a coat of arms and a motto. the job was taken up by Longstaffe who was then the Town Clerk of Gateshead.
Middlesbrough’s coat of arms and moto in the Middlesbrough Town Hall. -
Until 15th March 2024 you can see the joint exhibition “the light beyond the dark” featuring work by two Middlesbrough based creatives Mary Lou Springstead and p.a.morbid at The Python Gallery on Linthorpe Road in Middlesbrough, UK. I would heartily recommend that you go and take a look if you are in the area, its rich in striking visual images.
Two brilliant paintings piqued my Peg Powler radar. The first takes pride of place near the entrance, a huge canvas of Peg Powler. Peg is resplendently depicted in green, with serpent hair and ribbony eel like tail. In the background a waterfall (High Force, I think), which is a striking juxtaposition between myology and nature.
Mary Lou Springstead, Peg Powler (detail), acrylic on canvas, 152 x 112 cm, (2017). The second does not explicitly feature Peg, but a water spirit: “Blue Springs with Robot and Water Spirit: Post Human Era”. The painting features a pink robot, and I honestly love this painting so much, I love the idea that the earth will be left to mythical creatures and robots. Robots are a recurring imagery in Mary Lou Springstead’s work, and you can read about her process in “Crossing Thresholds: stories and art from beyond the boundaries of ordinary consciousness”.
Mary Lou Springstead, Blue Springs with Robot and Water Spirit: Post Human Era (detail). You can see the full paintings in the exhibition.
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Whilst Peg Powler is maligned as a malevolent water demon, hag, witch, or spirit; water creatures are depicted in terms of binary thinking. The labels assigned to Peg are overwhelmingly pejorative. However, within the mythology of the origin stories the river creatures are heralded as goddesses. Which is especially the case when the name of the creature is aligned with the name of the river (see for example Sabrina, the Spirit of the River Seven).
Trisentona Statue
A stone statue has recently been unveiled at Croxall Lakes Nature Reserve in the Trent Valley, Staffordshire to celebrate the site’s history. The sculpture depicts the river goddess Trisentona. The site is near the convergences of three rivers: the Tame, Mease, and Trent. Trisentona means thrice beloved, reflecting the three sacred water sources, and is said to be shortened to Trent over time. Artists Miranda Wakeman and Geraint Lloyd designed and sculpted the statue from Portland Stone. It has three head to represent the three rivers.
Trisentona goddess statue at Croxall Lakes by TTTV The site has great significance, as described on the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust website:
An archaeological team led by Professor Henry Chapman of the University of Birmingham unearthed an incredible series of finds at nearby Catholme, also near to Alrewas. A ritual landscape based around a series of ceremonial monuments focussed on the confluence of three rivers, the Trent, Tame and Mease, was discovered to have existed between about 3,000 BCE and 1,500-1,000 BCE. The importance and sanctity of this unusual triple confluence was of utmost significance. Starting in the late Neolithic, these monuments may have stood in the landscape for well over 1,500 years and influenced the building and placement of later Bronze Age burial mounds and other landscape features. This ceremonial complex was of national significance, despite there being nothing visible above ground now.
The statue is part of the Transforming the Trent Valley Partnership, which is led by Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and comprises 18 organisations which aim to engage communities and visitors in the cultural, industrial, and natural heritage of the area, to protect and preserve the landscape and offer sustainable access to the countryside.
Peg Powler Statue near the Tees?
There is a trail of 25 artworks by five different artists as part of the Tees Sculpture Trail, part of the River Tees Rediscovered Project. It begins in Piercebridge, following the river, and forking off to the old route, South Gare, and Seaton Carew. It is well worth taking several walks to visit them all.
Infinite… “Cascade” at Broken Scar Pat Walls, “Meander”, Middleton One Row. Steve Tomlinson, “Ship Seal”, Iron Masters Way. Russ Coleman, “Saltern Touchstone”, Greatham Creek. Andrew McKeown, “Crossing Points”, Hurworth. Lack of Female Representation in Teesside Public Art
There is a distinct lack of representations of female figures in statues and sculptures in Teesside. The PSSA (Public Statues and Sculpture Association) created a database of UK Public Statues of Women which at the time of writing stands at 156 nationwide. In Middlesbrough, Emma Chesworth’s Eighth Plinth Campaign campaigned for a female figure to counteract seven male statues in the town has thus far not come to fruition. Since the campaign, several more male depicted sculptures have been unveiled.
Representation in the UK’s public statues is a big issue. Analysis of the online database via Art UK of 13,500 works found that just 2% of public sculptures of named individuals across the UK are of people of ethnic minority backgrounds. 77.5% of the named public statues are dedicated to men, with only 17% are dedicated to women. The remaining 5.5% are dedicated to both genders.
The PSSA make the distinction that “mythological or allegorical female figures, which are in a different category from these representations of people whose successes stemmed from their own endeavours”. A Peg Powler sculpture or statue would nevertheless make an amazing addition to the collection of public art on Teesside.
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In 2023, as part of the exhibition People Powered: Stories from the River Tees, members of the Tees Women Poets were invited to produce new work in response to the exhibition. A previous post (December 2023) covered the artworks from the MIMA Saturday Club also a part of this exhibition.
Peg Powler Project (2024), screen print, Karis Lou Sirak. A selection of which were reproduced in MIMAZINA #32 (Autumn 2023). Two contain clear reference to Peg Powler. The first is from Sara Dennis, who is a Peg Powler aficionado, have already appearing in the post about the Peg Powler band (November 2023). The second is from Audrey Cook, performer, theatre creative, community arts practitioner, and awesome D&D game writer and dungeon lead. A recording of Sara Dennis and Audrey Cook reading their poems, alongside special guest Demela Dhotel and Khaddim Hussein, was performed at MIMA in October 2023.
Riverscape
From a Pom-pom hill
Runs a fleecy meadow
Beads and buttons,
Bobbles of bubbles,
Peg’s suds, tinted
With fairy washing,
All the colours of the rainbow…
listen with your eyes…
listen with your eyes…
Felt fish flutter by
all sequin scaled,
shiny leaves of steel
In red and blue and green…
paint everything you see…
The Grindylow
serpentine and twisted
Gog eyed, cruising
for woolly prey…
beware…beware
of old Peg Powler!
Yarns spin from the mouths of river folk,
firesides and elders,
clippy mats and granny squares,
the wool, unpicked from old pullovers,
strips, ripped from old rags,
fingers bloodied by hooks and needles
scarred by years of
making do and mending,
moving and blending,
meandering, bending,
Going with the flow
Of a new home.
Hark, hark! the dogs do bark,
Beggars are coming to town.
Some in rags, some in jags,
And some in velvet gowns
What lives in the Tees?
What lives in the Tees?
Is it bees?
Is that where they keep all their honey?
And that’s why the river looks murky?
What lives in the Tees?
Chimpanzees!
Took a break from their game of clambering trees
Followed a river from jungle to Boro
And they all have the names of Arsenal footballers.
My sister actually lives in the Tees
She’s an infantile super spy mermaid you see!
She’s shown brilliant skill to inherit her gills
She’s evil and constantly watching me.
Are there treats in the Tees?
They could fill our bellies!
Look to critters in rivers to feed us fish fingers.
My brothers and sisters are hungry.
Come live in the Tees!
The river decrees!
There are dolphins and turtles and fish having parties
Dads local has closed and it’s hurting his bones
I’ll tell him and he should be pleased
Did I mention my favourite colour is green?
So the River Tees never looked spooky to me
I jumped in it once, met a family of frogs
Their hues were the limeyest slimeyest dream
As above so below really should mean
That the river is rotten and scary
Endeavour or you’ll never find any treasure
There’s more to these waters than trollies
MIMAZINA #32 (Autumn 2023), Foundation Press. -
In the pre-digital age, the print media precursor to Quora was either the libraries* or the letter pages in local newspapers. The Leeds Mercury (1718-1755; 1767-1939) ran a column in its weekly supplement, “Local Notes and Queries”, which included small articles and letters concerning titbits about local history and culture. It included a section of readers’ letters, “Questions asked,” where hive-mind and crowdsourced answers were sought.
On Saturday, 24th May 1902, No. 1,220, T.T. from Darlington asked: “Dwellers on either side of the Tees – both [Yorkshire] and Durham people – speak of a certain Peg [Powler and her] connection with that river, generally in a [gothic/horror/folktale] sense. Who was this Peg, and what was [her] claim to notoriety?”
Unfortunately, despite consulting several sources, the digitisation process has obliterated parts of the letter, as the margins on the original were slim to save on paper. Therefore, some words are guessed, but the overall meaning is still evident. It is one of the downsides of digitisation, another of which the British Library encountered.
The following week, G. F. answered, but alas, the same issue with a missing sliver from the side of the page interrupts the text flow. “In answer to “T. T.” (No. 1,200), I find…J. R. Boyle in his “County of Durham” s… ‘the river Tees is credited with a sprite [called] Peg Powler, who has green tresses and an insatiable [appetite] for human life. The foam or froth which [can be] seen floating on the higher portion of the Tees…masses, is called Peg Powler’ suds. The…less sponge-like froth is called Peg Powler’s… [the most tantalising absence] Mr Boyle adds that children are warned from…on the banks of the river, especially on Su[ndays]…treats that Peg Powler will grand the [under] water”.
The book mentioned is either John Roberts Boyle’s History of the County of Durham (1892) or Comprehensive Guide to the County of Durham (1892). A few copies of these books survive, but these will require a trip northward to consult. Hopefully, there will be a future post on what Boyle says about Peg Powler.
*In 2015 the New York Public Library published some of the quirkiest questions from their archive. They still provide this service today. Is the internet always the best source of answers still today?
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One of the difficult parts about researching figures from local mythology is the scarcity of written sources. Often it is not until the Victorian period that stories from the oral tradition are transcribed into text. It is possible to look back in time and look at stories from classical mythology which may have inspired, or at least have some similarities to the Peg Powler story. The Pegaeae came to my attention thanks to Ironopolis/The Smell of Water.
Firstly, the name Peg as a diminutive of Pagaeae is an interesting possibility. In Greek mythology the Pegaeae were a type of naiad, or water nymphs. They are mortal creatures which can live for a long time. They incarnate the divinity of the spring or stream which they inhabit, daughters of the connecting rivers. Each body of water could therefore have many nymphs and creatures.
The Naiad would often have healing powers. Although if you offended them by bathing at the wrong times or conditions, they could cause you server mental illness and anguish.
Naiads are distinct from river gods who embody the rivers. Sabrina of the River Severn could be thought of in terms of a river god, whereas Peg would align more closely with the Naiad. To think of Peg as mortal but long lived would add a layer of susceptibility and imply there is an Achilles heel which would threaten her, but so far there has been no mention of this in her story.
Naiads, in conjunction with the god Artemis, were protectors of girls, overseeing their safe passage from child to adult. Much is made of maidenly virtue, which is echoed in the legend of Saint Winifred, Welsh virgin martyr – a healing spring at the site of her decapitation is a site of a shrine and pilgrimage. However, how that is balanced with the alluring, scantily clad depictions in the like of Paul Emile Chabas’ Jeune Naiade and Les nymphes de danse (1899), and George William Wagstaffe’s The Naiad, is not clear.
Lastly, on a different note, Naiad is a game currently in development using retro or “last-gen graphics” and gentle music to create a relaxing journey of discovery in a flowing river. It looks gorgeous and comforting, a world in which to find a general sense of die Gerborgenheit.
Naiad game art by HiWarp, a ‘solo dev’ Indie Game Studio based in Spain. -
In early 2023 a picture appeared in the TeessideLive online arm of the Evening Gazette which appeared to show a Peg Powler puppet:
The article detailed the events that would be happening in the Summer for the Hi! Street Fest, as series of community led street celebrations and parades. Historic England in partnership with National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Arts Council England were running a programme for the promotion of High Street Culture, as part of the High Streets Heritage Action Zones initiative funded by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Councils, alongside art and heritage organisations have been running events to raise awareness and engagement with specific town centre locations to try and reverse the fortunes of the declining traditional High Street. There are more than 60 areas in the programme across England.
Middlesbrough
In Middlesbrough this focuses around the High Street Heritage Action Zone focuses on the Historic Quarter an area around the train station and the main thoroughfares. A map created with the help of local historian p.a.morbid, Teesside Archives, Middlesbrough Libraries gives more details about the Historic Quarter. Middlesbrough was one of the six places alongside Lowestoft, Gloucester, Wigan, Gosport, Stalybridge, and Greenwich were a street parade was held. A large-scale animatronic puppet fox named Farrah visited each of these locations as part of the festivities, but there was also a puppet made in collaboration with local community groups to celebrate the unique identity of the area. The puppet in Middlesbrough was called Tia, who represents the diversity of the town.
Tia with the Living Statues inspired by influential local women. Photo: Historic England Archive. Hi! Street Fest July 2023. Photographs: Karis Richardson. So who is the water spirit puppet?
Historic England Archive Historic England Archive The puppet that first piqued my interest was Sabrina, the Sprit of the River Seven, made by Thingumajig Theatre as part of Gloucester’s celebrations. In Welsh she is Hafren, Hafren/Sabrina was drowned in the River Severn. She shares some of the same icons and symbolism as Peg Powler, notably the green and water weeds. Another point of comparison with Peg is how the River Seven provides a natural boarder, between England and Wales, like the Tees between Yorkshire and Durham. The serpents coiling around Sabrina’s neck are an interesting addition.
In The History of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Sabre (aka Hafren/Sabrina) is the offspring of the King Locrin and his lover Estrildis (daughter of a King in Germany, who along with her two sisters was forcibly removed by Locrin’s brother after their father was defeated in battle). Estrildis is described thus: “her Beauty was such as was hardly to be matched. No Ivory, no new fallen Snow, no Lillies could exceed the whiteness of her Skin” (Book II Chapter II) . Locrin was deeply in love and would have gladly married her, except he was promised to another – Gwendolen – whom he marries after some violent intimidation in a political match. He hides Estrildis underground, continuing their relations, when she “was delivered a most beautiful daughter” (Book II Chapter IV). Locrin is killed, and Gwendolen assumes power for her offspring, but “commanded Estrildis and her Daughter Sabre to be thrown into the River and now called Severn, and publish a Edict though all Britian, that the River should bear the Damels Name, as being desirous to perpetuate her Memory, and by that the Infamy of her Husband : So that to this Day the River is called in the British Tongue Sabren which by the Corruption of the Name, is in another Language Sabrina.” (Book II Chapter V.) [spellings, punctuation, and capitalisations as in manuscript]. Similar tales are told in Oliver Matthews, Town of Sallop (1616), Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queen (1590), and Richard William Morgan, The British Kymry (1857).
There are several statues of Sabrina, including one which made the headlines recently when a young child drew on it in crayon. The majority of these are reclining figures, naked from the waist up. Although, a 2013 steel outline sculpture can be seen here. The Sabrina Statue (1846) by Peter Hollins, the Dingle, Shrewsbury, includes an inscription at the base of the statue is from Comus (1634) by John Milton:
“Sabrina fair, listen where thou art sitting
under the glassie, cool, translucent wave,
in twisted braids of lilies knitting
the loose train of thy amber-dropping hair;
listen for dear honour’s sake,
goddess of the silver lake, listen and save!”Unlike Peg, Sabrina is a personification of the River rather than a creature within it.
According to Philip Schwyzer, the story of Sabrina may not be that deep rooted: “the assumption that Sabrina had a place in the local folklore and folklife of Wales and the borderlands is almost certainly unfounded…the evidence suggests that she was far better known in London’s literary circles than on the Severn’s banks” (“Purity and Danger on the West Bank of the Severn: The Cultural Geography of A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634”, Representations, No. 60 Autumn, 1997, p. 18).
She also has a long distance path The Sabrina Way named in her honour. There is also a fantastic page on Facebook: Sabrina, Goddess of the River Severn by Nicola Haasz with lots of information.
Puppets from the Hi! Street Fest, Historic England Archive. -
Digging in the local newspaper archives helped to uncover the story of Peg Powler being blamed for the collapse of a bridge in Yarm-on-Tees. A bit of historical context might help shed light on why this was such a dastardly deed: the River Tees marked the boundary between the counties of North Yorkshire and Durham. The river begins on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for 85 miles to reach the North Sea.
There are currently 49 bridges which span the River Tees, from foot bridges, to ancient stone bridges, to colossal metal monsters. Artist and writer Chris Davies created the self-published title Bridging the Tees (2023) which photographs them all and gives a bit of historical context to each of the crossings.
On Friday 30th January 1959, an article appeared in the Northern Daily Mail, “Yarm’s ancient bridge is not busier than ever” written by Alec Writght. The bridge still stands and is in use today as the route of the A67 from Egglescliffe to Yarm. It was commissioned around 1400 CE by Walter Skirlaw, the Bishop of Durham. It replaced an earlier bridge which had been built around two hundred years previously.
Yarm Bridge as it stands today. Photo: Karis Richardson. But in the early 1800s the bridge was thought to be a cumbersome design impacting traffic on the river and causing flooding, due to its multiple archways. A new iron bridge with a single arch span of 180 feet was built between 1803-5. An image of the bridge can be seen on the Picture Stockton Archive. Unfortunately the bridge collapsed before it could be officially opened, on the night of the 13th January 1806. What caused the ill-fated bridge to collapse? The article from the Northern Daily Mail blames the “Spirit of the Tees”:
“The new bridge was built adjacent to the old one, but “Peg Powler”, the mythical spirit of the River Tees, objected to the effrontery offered by these new-fangled ideas rose in her wrath and before the much-vaunted new way was opened to the public, it collapsed, at midnight on January 12 1860.
The whole scheme was quickly cleared up, and from that day to this wheeled traffic has continued to flow in ever-increasing volume across Bishop Skirlaugh’s bridge.”
Alec Wright’s pen and pencil illustration of Yarm Bridge which accompanies the article. According to John Graves in The History of Cleveland (1808), when digging the foundations for an abutment to the iron bridge, workmen discovered “the truck of a large oak… horns, skull and other remains of a stag; a horse-shoe of great size and uncommon thickness, and also the core of an ox’s horn measuring 12 1/2 inches in its greatest circumference, and upwards of 26 inches in length…they had been lodged there some time before the erection of the old bridge, and at a period when the bed of the river was at least twelve feet lower” p. 67. Perhaps the work had disturbed something best left hidden. Local historian and author Ian Stubbs (as Bolckow on Flikr), describes how the “south abutment had collapsed. A panel of architects appointed to inquire into the disaster blade principally the fact that the abutment, instead of being of solid masonry, had consisted of a masonry shell filled with rubbish.” Perhaps Peg was not to blame.
Peg did not however object to the building of the red brick railway viaduct which opened in 1852. It is still in use today, although there have been a number of fatalities connected with the viaduct. With its 43 arches stretching 20 m above the river, it makes for an impressive sight. It is worth pointing out that the two arches which span the river are constructed of stone rather than brick, so maybe there was a need to appease Peg to build crossings across the Tees in Yarm…
A section of Yarm Viaduct as it appears today. Photo: Karis Richardson. Digging in the local newspaper archives helped to uncover the story of Peg Powler being blamed for the collapse of a bridge in Yarm-on-Tees. A bit of historical context might help shed light on why this was such a dastardly deed: the River Tees marked the boundary between the counties of North Yorkshire and Durham. The river begins on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for 85 miles to reach the North Sea.
There are currently 49 bridges which span the River Tees, from foot bridges, to ancient stone bridges, to colossal metal monsters. Artist and writer Chris Davies created the self-published title Bridging the Tees (2023) which photographs them all and gives a bit of historical context to each of the crossings.
On Friday 30th January 1959, an article appeared in the Northern Daily Mail, “Yarm’s ancient bridge is not busier than ever” written by Alec Writght. The bridge still stands and is in use today as the route of the A67 from Egglescliffe to Yarm. It was commissioned around 1400 CE by Walter Skirlaw, the Bishop of Durham. It replaced an earlier bridge which had been built around two hundred years previously.
Yarm Bridge as it stands today. Photo: Karis Richardson. But in the early 1800s the bridge was thought to be a cumbersome design impacting traffic on the river and causing flooding, due to its multiple archways. A new iron bridge with a single arch span of 180 feet was built between 1803-5. An image of the bridge can be seen on the Picture Stockton Archive. Unfortunately the bridge collapsed before it could be officially opened, on the night of the 13th January 1806. What caused the ill-fated bridge to collapse? The article from the Northern Daily Mail blames the “Spirit of the Tees”:
“The new bridge was built adjacent to the old one, but “Peg Powler”, the mythical spirit of the River Tees, objected to the effrontery offered by these new-fangled ideas rose in her wrath and before the much-vaunted new way was opened to the public, it collapsed, at midnight on January 12 1860.
The whole scheme was quickly cleared up, and from that day to this wheeled traffic has continued to flow in ever-increasing volume across Bishop Skirlaugh’s bridge.”
Alec Wright’s pen and pencil illustration of Yarm Bridge which accompanies the article. According to John Graves in The History of Cleveland (1808), when digging the foundations for an abutment to the iron bridge, workmen discovered “the truck of a large oak… horns, skull and other remains of a stag; a horse-shoe of great size and uncommon thickness, and also the core of an ox’s horn measuring 12 1/2 inches in its greatest circumference, and upwards of 26 inches in length…they had been lodged there some time before the erection of the old bridge, and at a period when the bed of the river was at least twelve feet lower” p. 67. Perhaps the work had disturbed something best left hidden. Local historian and author Ian Stubbs (as Bolckow on Flikr), describes how the “south abutment had collapsed. A panel of architects appointed to inquire into the disaster blade principally the fact that the abutment, instead of being of solid masonry, had consisted of a masonry shell filled with rubbish.” Perhaps Peg was not to blame.
Peg did not however object to the building of the red brick railway viaduct which opened in 1852. It is still in use today, although there have been a number of fatalities connected with the viaduct. With its 43 arches stretching 20 m above the river, it makes for an impressive sight. It is worth pointing out that the two arches which span the river are constructed of stone rather than brick, so maybe there was a need to appease Peg to build crossings across the Tees in Yarm…
A section of Yarm Viaduct as it appears today. Photo: Karis Richardson. -
Nik Poliwko @nikpoliwko (Instagram), Peg Powler (8th March 2023). Nik Poliwko is a comic book artist, illustrator, and writer whose work appears in many horror comics. The strip featuring Peg Powler appeared in Vampiress Carmilla, whose tagline is “Tales of Enchantment and Horror”. In this version of the Peg story there is an extra gory detail. After luring children into the river “with her long arms” she “drowns the and eats them!”
Vampiress Carmilla #13 (March 2023). -
Artworks on display as part of the exhibition People Powered: Stories from the River Tees, MIMA (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art), 22nd July 2023 – 22nd December 2023.
Installation view. The National Saturday Club gives young people aged 13-16 the opportunity to participate in creative learning programmes in local university, colleges, or cultural institutions. The groups meet on Saturday mornings, and in 2022/3 1,500 young people attended 74 Saturday Clubs in 56 locations. The Saturday Club at MIMA ran from 30 Oct 2021 – 25 Jun 2022 working with Artist Bobby Benjamin, Julian Lawrence (Senior Lecturer in Comics and Graphic Novels, Teesside University), creative Sadie Rogers, and artist and writer Wil Jackson. The group looked at the myths and folklore associated with the River Tees and took inspiration from the tales of Peg Powler to create artworks.
Ellanor Sylvia Fischer, Worth (2023), lampshade, embroidery thread, table. pen, paper, ceramic, scrap fabric, and thigh-high boot. Fisher on Worth: “I like to think that Peg Powler is a Boro woman herself. I don’t like the idea of stripping her femininity or glamour away…I like to imagine Peg as quite sentimental. I can’t envision her being wasteful, especially if she’s a typical northern women. Maybe she keeps the clothes of her victims or maybe she retains her own.”
Brooke Jefferson, A Gift for Peg Powler (2023), mixed media. Brooke Jefferson: “This piece is inspired by the idea that Peg Powler was once a regular girl who fell into the River Tees and was transformed into a monster…This gift is a reward for her hard work and includes drawings of her changes appearance to act as a warning to others.”
Poppy Train, Powlinho (2023), mixed media. Poppy Train: “This piece is a football toy figurine that had been thrown into the River Tees. Peg Powler has tried to reassemble the individual pieces in an attempt to understand the game of football.”
Cayla Dowse, The Beautiful Monster (2023), acrylic offcuts, clay, and wire. Cayla Dowse: “This piece is inspired by the artwork The Present by Kepa Karmona in the Middlesbrough Collection…The jutting ribs on the base reflect dangerous beauty standards and the piece overall has a horrifying beauty.”
Chloe Haykin, The Lost Artefacts (2023), mixed media. Chloe Haykin: “This piece of jewellery brings together imagined items salvaged by Peg Powler from the River Tees including the teeth of her victims.”
Trixabelle O’Malley, Peg’s Alter-Ego (2023), meixed media. Siân Maria Tumelty, The Mirror of Vanity (2023), mixed media. Alana Grace Richardson, The Beauty of Danger (2023), mixed media. Alana Grace Richardson: “My piece is inspired by an object Peg Powler would create to make herself beautiful in order to lure people into the river…The rings of glass fixed to the top of the brick represent the streets that have glass embedded in the concrete on the tops. They remind me of the working class area that I used to live in.”
Lucy Cooper, Lost Toys of the River Tees (2023), mixed media. Lucy Cooper: “This piece is inspired by the large volume of toys that have been abandoned in the River Tees over many years. I imagine tis work as Peg Powler’s revolt against river pollution caused by himan activity.”
Jade Cooper, The River Bound (2023), airdry clay, wire, string, and sea glass. Jade Cooper: “This piece is inspired by the bracelet owned by Peg Powler. In my imagination, Peg befriends the animals living in and along the River Tees and becomes friends with an otter.”
As part of an Artists Q&A for MIMAZINA #32 (Autumn 2023) the young people were asked “What parts of the Peg Powler myth did you think about and explore in your artwork?” These were their responses:
”Wanted to look at both sides of the myth of Peg, the real and the imaginary.”
“I wanted to humanise Peg Powler.”
“I connected football and the river. I was thinking about footballs that would have fallen into the river and that Peg would find.”
“I looked at her as a normal woman and thought about what she was doing when she wasn’t in the river.”
“I wanted to show that Peg can be pretty even though she lives in the river. I showed her with lots of jewels inside her body in my artwork.”
It is fabulous to see a new generation engaging with the Peg Powler story and adding their own brilliant twists.
Exhibition installation photographs by Karis Richardson.
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Released on 9th February 2013, the last song on the Bonehoof EP is Peggy Powler. At six and a half minutes long, it is an epic soundscape. Bonehoof were a four piece from Victoria, British Columbia. The lyrics were the creation of vocalist and guitarist Chris Lloyd:
“I’m a hunter I’m a scavenger, the Devil’s only one
Skin of scales and hair in tails, my eyes so deeply sunk
I’m the queen of the River Tees I’m a mistress of the murk
An evil wench with a sickly stench between the reeds I do lurkThey call me Peggy Powler, that’s my name
I bite the legs of the children that come up to the shore
Line them up like lobster pots upon the rivers floor
I’ll turn your child into a trout and forever be my slave
Bubbles jump from their open mouths as they sink to a watery grave”The line up of Bonehoof at the time was: Benji Coey – Drums, Geoff Howe – Bass Guitar/Vocals, Chris Lloyd – Guitar/Vocals, Jack Weyler – Keys. Unfortunately, than band have been inactive online since 2018/9. Chris Lllyod is now guitarist with Sail Cassidy. But the fact that the mythology of Peg made it to Canada is rather brilliant.
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Broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday 20th December at 13:45 and available on BBC Sounds, the third episode of the documentary podcast Mythical Creatures (2023) covers “Water Demons”. Presented by fantasy writer Rhianna Pratchett – daughter of writer Terry Pratchett – the show starts with Jenny Greenteeth and guides the listener through some of the tales of water hags and water horses of the British Isles. Peg Powler is mentioned briefly as Jenny Greenteeth’s counterpart.
There are ten episodes in the series, each one focusing on a different creature. Their stories are contextualised in narrative landscape in terms of the social and historical implications and what they tell us about our world today.
Jenny Greenteeth in Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men (2003).
“Jenny Green-Teeth. A water-dwelling monster with big teeth and claws and eyes like soup plates” – as described by Tiffany, a trainee witch in the Discworld series. Listen to the podcast, or read the book (a preview of which is here) to find out what happens by Agnes meets Jenny.
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Peg Powler is a nursery bogie, closely associated with the colour green, and unique to the River Tees in North East England. However, there are lots of other water dwelling creatures in folklore. Here is a brief overview of some further examples.
Good and Kind Water Spirits
There are water spirits which are good and kind including the Merfolk and Selkies who warn sailors of dangers and keep ships safe in dangerous waters. Their opposite being sirens who lure sailors into danger. There is also the Lady of the Lake who plays a pivotal role in many of the legends of Arthur.
Water creatures are not always malevolent. W. Y. Evans Wentz describes small spirits who correspond to the four “elements of nature” as termed in The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries (1911). These are: Gnomes who inhabit earth, Sylphs inhabit the air, Salamanders inhabit fire, and “Those inhabiting the water are called Undines, and correspond exactly to the fairies who live in sacred fountains, lakes, or rivers.” (p, 424).
Chauncy Bradley Ives, Undine Rising from the Waters (1880), marble, Yale University Art Gallery. Not all depictions of the Undine are malign, however, as the listings for Yale University Art Gallery explains: “According to medieval lore, undines were Mediterranean Sea spirits who lived as soulless mortals. In the nineteenth century, this story gained prominence through Baron Heinrich Karl de la Motte Fouqué’s popular novel Undine [published 1811], in which a water spirit gains a human form and soul by marrying the mortal knight she loves. When her husband proves unfaithful, the laws of the water spirits force her to kill him. Chauncey Bradley Ives depicts the moment when the mournful Undine, cloaked in a white veil, rises like a fountain to claim her husband’s life. Exquisitely rendered, the diaphanous wet drapery is a masterful example of illusionistic carving.”
Water Spirits as Life Givers
Water is vital for life to survive as we know it on Earth. As such, water spirits are venerated and there are many examples found worldwide. In West, Central, and Southern Africa and in the Afro-American diaspora Mami Wata is depicted as a human-fish-snake shape shifter. Yemọja is an orisha, a patron spirit of rivers, particularly the Ogun River in Nigeria, and oceans in Cuban and Brazilian Orisa religions.
Mami Wata, (early 20th Century), Old Calabar, Southern Nigeria, West Africa, brass tray, National Museums Scotland. Water Spirit as male.
The Scandinavian Nøkken, or the German Nix, were male water spirits who played enchanted songs on the violin, luring women and children to drown in lakes or streams.
Nils Blommér, Näcken och Ägirs Döttrar (1850), oil on canvas, Nationalmuseum, Sweden. Malevolent Water Spirits
Water creatures are often depicted malevolent, these include: Afanc, Fideal, Fuath, Grindylow, Jenny Greenteeth, Mermaids, Mermen, and Water Wraiths. Sometimes water spirits are said to specifically lure children into water: Nursery Bogies, Peg Powler. Sometimes their dangerous ways are bound in number superstitions such as Peg O’Nel who only claims a life every seven years.
Water Spirits as Horses.
The powerful force of water is sometimes depicted as stampeding horses. It’s an image which permeates popular culture, from the Guiness advert in 1999, which was inspired by inspired by Walter Crane’s 1893 painting Neptune’s Horses, to the water Spirit in Frozen 2. The Scottish Kelpie is a shape shifting creature that can appear as human and as a black horse. Also in Scotland, the Nuckelavee is a horse-human and one of the most malevolent, however, it is confined to the sea and cannot enter fresh flowing water. Further examples from folklore include the Each Uisage, and Noggle.
Still from Disney’s Frozen 2 (2019). Water Spirits as Other Animals
There are also depictions of water spirits as a Water Bull – again drawing on the destructive power of ferociously flowing water. The Afanc in Welsh folklore is often a crocodile-beaver hybrid, and the Llamhigyn y Dwr is a bat-frog. In Japan, the Kappa is a yōkai which are blend of humanoid and reptilian appearance.
Netsuke of a Kappa, mid-19th Century, wood, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA. Water Spirits Associated with Green.
In many representations the Kappa is depicted as green. Green is a colour recurrent in water spirits, which links to the dangers of water weeds as previously discussed. Jenny Greenteeth has it in her name for instance, and Asrai are found in lakes and ponds.
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Dr Katherine Mary Briggs (1898-1890) was a British folklorist and writer, and chair of the Folklore Society from 1969-72. She wrote many books on folklore, including Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language in four volumes (1970–71). Briggs completed a D.Phil in Folklore in 17th Century Literature at Oxford. In 1976 An Encylopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures was published, which includes this entry for Peg Powler on pages 323-4:
“PEG POWLER. If PEG O’NELL is a wronged ghost, Peg Powler is a relative of JENNY GREENTEETH, true-bred water-demon, according to the DENHAM TRACTS (voll 11, p. 42), she must be rated as a NURSERY BOGIE.
‘Peg Powler is the evil goddess of the Tees; and many are the tales still told at Piersebridge, of her dragging naughty children into its deep waters when playing, despite the orders and threats of their parents, on its banks – especially on the Sabbath-day. And the writer still perfectly recollects being dreadfully alarmed in the days of his childhood lest, more practically when he chances to be alone on the margin of those waters, she should issue from the stream and snatch him into her watery chambers.’
Henderson gives a more explicit description of the spirit in Folk-lore of the Northern Counties (p, 265):
‘The river Tees and its spirit, called Peg Powler, as sort of Lorelei, with green tresses, and an insatiable desire for human life, as has the Jenny Greenteeth of Lancashire streams. Both are said to lure people to their subaqueous haunts, and then drown or devour them. The foam or froth, which is often seen floating on the higher portion of the Tees in large masses is called ‘Peg Powler’s suds’; the finer, less sponge-like froth is called ‘Peg Powler’s cream’.
GRINDYLOW and NELLY LONG-ARMS are both mention by E. M. Wright in Rustic Speech and Folk-lore (p. 198) as similar GOBLINS who drag children down into water. She gives the last a wider range than the others (Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Shropshire), but gives no special descriptions of her. “
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Peg Powler appears in Glen James Brown’s magnificent novel Ironopolis. I came across a mention to the novel online in 2019, and immediately knew I had to read it with a title that had such obvious connections to Middlesbrough. The town had a massive growth from a small agricultural community to ever expanding boom town fuelled by industry, and its association with pig iron production led to the moniker. I was at the time researching for a dissertation on “Life and Death in Working-Class Teesside”, and this novel alongside a couple of Pat Barker novels became primary texts.
In an interview with Thom Cuell, author Glen James Brown describes significance of including Peg Powler in the novel:
with these long-standing working-class communities being split up and moved along by housing associations and government policy — I thought, what happens to Peg? How would she feel if the only people who know who she is are scattered forever? She becomes a forgotten totem and metaphor for the destruction of working-class narratives, history, culture, identity.
Cover art in the French edition. Cover art in the Polish edition. Brown’s depiction of Peg was inspired by the work of controversial Austrian expressionist painter Egon Schiele (1890-1918) because “his figures are twisted and otherworldly and radiate raw sexuality that upset the art world of the day” (from and interview with NARC Magazine on his inspirations).
I am not going to go into detail about the novel, because I would recommend that you read it, because it is brilliant. It is dark at times, but also engaging and complex and has stayed with me ever since first reading it. There are several strands of stories which make up this novel, and Peg Powler appears throughout in various significant means. Although I will not give too much away, I will share the following passage, which is told through the point of view of Jean who writes a search of letters to someone trying to research the life of an allusive artist. Here Jean is recalling childhood memories of her Nanas stories about Peg Powler:
When I stood to get out of the bath, I saw myself reflected in the mirror, what the cancer and the chemo had done. Nana’s words: ‘You could see her workings under what little flesh she had left – the bones, sinews, tendons’. I touched my pallid and thread-veined thigh. This body, somehow, was mine, but inside I was still me. The two truths superimposed, and a wave of dizziness rushed over me, only the threat of Vincent’s sponge bucket kept me upright. Still, I couldn’t turn away, and suddenly I knew why Nana had said Peg was beautiful. Beauty and decay do not exist independently from each other. The one comes from the other, and it is us – people – who, out of ignorance or fear, insist on their separation. Peg collapsed all that. She was both what we want and fear most, and, like me in the bathroom mirror, we are powerless to look away.
Brown has been working on another novel for several years, and in 2022 secured a Writers in Residence Award a Gladstone’s Library. I eagerly awaited any further news.
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An article on “Folklore Scraps from Several Localities” from 1909 contains many gems. The stories were collected from spoken testimonies in Gainford, County Durham, by Miss Alice Edleston, and wrote down in July 1893. In amongst the many brilliant brief tales are these two:
“She is now all but forgotten” yet here we are 130 years later, keeping the story of Peg Powler alive.
Collection of hag stones collected from the sands between South Gare and Huntcliff, near the mouth of the River Tees. -
An independent art collective founded by AJ Garrett and Rebecca Little in 2010, hosting exhibitions, events, workshops and shows in Teesside, with their original home as the Green Dragon Studios in Stockton-on-Tees. Active pre-pandemic, but an archive of activities can be found at: http://pegpowler.blogspot.com/