Christina Hole

Background

Christina Hole was born in 1896 in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. She was brought up in Kingston upon Thames by her grandmother.

Education

Christina Hole went to St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School in Slough and finished her education privately in France.

Career

Prior to World War II, Hole was a speaker and organizer for the British Conservative Party. She wrote her first serious book on folklore, Traditions and Customs of Cheshire (1937), while she was still involved in political work. During the war, she was the Oxfordshire Women’s Land Army County Secretary. When the war was over, Hole dedicated her life to writing books about British customs, culminating in her most ambitious work, the first alphabetically-organized guidebook to the subject, A Dictionary of British Folk Customs.

Hole joined the Folklore Society in 1941, in 1956 she became a member of the Council and was asked to take on the office of Honorary Editor of the journal. According to her Folklore obituary, she was most interested in domestic folklore, calendar customs, and stories. She published books on English folklore, English Custom and Usage, and English folk-heroes. She edited books on the subject of folklore as well as wrote them.

Works

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• book

  • British folk customs

    (The first guide to the subject in easy to consult, alphab...)

    1976
  • Witchcraft in England

    (A brief survey which gives a general impression of witchc...)

    1947
  • English Folk Heroes

    (Storytelling is a universal instinct, and stories of huma...)

    1948
  • Haunted England: A Survey of English Ghost-Lore

    (In this book are gathered a few of the stories which form...)

    1941
  • Dictionary of British Folk Customs

    (A nationwide listing of folk customs and practices, both ...)

    1976
  • Traditions and Customs of Cheshire 1937
  • English Home-Life 1500 to 1800 1947
  • English Traditional Customs 1975
  • English Custom and Usage 1990

Views

Christina Hole supported, that old beliefs, while submerged by modern civilization, remain relevant and alive. The survival of ancient beliefs, according to Hole, is clearly demonstrated in superstitious behavior, in which many people, although they rationally dismiss it as nonsensical, still indulge, perhaps heeding some mysterious inner voice.

Membership

Christina Hole was a member of the FolkLore Society and Oxford Folklore Society.

Personality

Christina Hole might have been considered by some rather eccentric - according to the obituary she refused to have a telephone installed in her home even though it would have made her honorary duties easier.

Quotes from others about the person

• "I suppose one could call her 'eccentric' because of the cats and the no-phone, but it was a very quiet, ladylike form of eccentricity." - Jacqueline Simpson
  
  "There were fundamental goodness and integrity in her which warmed the heart. She possessed a lively sense of fun and delight in the oddities of people."