Robin Hood, King Arthur and the Loch Ness monster may not be the first three characters that come to mind when you think of Center Parcs, but they were the heroes of our piece when we released a story this week revealing that folklore is in danger of dying out.
In the year that Center Parcs celebrates 30 years at Sherwood Forest – famous home of the legendary hero Robin Hood – we wanted to explore the current state of affairs for British myths and legends, and it turned out the future didn’t look very bright.
With a strong research story that revealed a quarter of Brits can’t name even one story from folklore and three in five haven’t heard a traditional story for at least two years, we set ourselves a mission to bring back these stories of old.
A link up with The Folklore Society later, and we had created a map that told some of the biggest mythical tales from across the country.
Despite a heavy news agenda (which saw the Conservative-DUP partnership confirmed on the same day) the first day of selling in resulted in six pieces of national coverage including Daily Mail and Scotsman in print and a wide spread across online nationals including Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, The Sun and Scottish Sun.
The story continues to build traction with over 17 pieces of regional coverage to date, interviews on BBC Radio Devon and BBC Radio Surrey and key parenting press, including Families Online and Entertain the Kids, also getting in on the story – and it all comes complete with 30th anniversary messaging.
As the conversation rages on, the only question that remains is – what is your favourite folklore tale?
