Charles Dack

Born in Norfolk and later based in Peterborough, Charles Dack was a railway clerk who also became an energetic amateur antiquary, folklorist, and musician. He was associated with Peterborough Museum as an early honorary curator, and his interests ranged from local history to old customs and community traditions.

His best-known work, Weather and Folk Lore of Peterborough and District (1911), brings together weather sayings, seasonal beliefs, and traditional practices from the borderlands around Peterborough. He also wrote on subjects including old Peterborough customs, the Peterborough Gentlemen's Society, John Clare-related exhibitions, and Mary, Queen of Scots, showing how wide his historical curiosity was.

What makes his writing appealing now is its strong sense of place. Instead of treating folklore as something distant or fanciful, he recorded the habits, sayings, and observations of ordinary people, leaving behind a lively picture of local English life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.