Free introductory tours, conducted by Guildhall Art Gallery’s team of City Guides, are available every day, from Tuesday to Sunday.
Join storyteller and historian Dave Tonge for an afternoon of tales, ballads and chapbooks
In his Dictionary of the English Language, Dr Samuel Johnson defines a story as ‘A petty fiction’, and ‘An idle, or trifling tale’. But whatever the definition there was an explosion of stories finding their way into print in his life time.
While some printers were producing learned works like Dr Johnson’s Dictionary, many a back street press was knocking out broadside ballads, almanacs, chapbooks and other crudely produced cheap print.
Reworking's of much older tales like Jack the Giant Killer, Aesops Fables and all new versions of the Merry Gestes of Robin Hood, to tales focused on England’s capital city. Stories like A Pleasant History of Taffy’s Progress to London and The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green.
Stories that were popular among polite society and the common folk alike, and shared in the coffee houses, market places, the back street alehouses, and wherever 18th-century people gathered together.
About Dave Tonge
Dave Tonge is a storyteller and historian. He is the author of three books, Tudor Folk Tales, Norfolk Folk Tales for Children, and Medieval Tales for Children which is a fusion of medieval folktales and horrible history style anecdotes.
He has been storytelling for 25 years and conducted sessions for the Ashmolean and British Museum, as well as for English Heritage, National Trust and the Shakespeare's Birthplace Trust.
Time: Sunday 12 July 2026, 12-4pm.
Tickets: included in your admission fee to the house. Concessions available.
