Edward Fletcher Cass (12 February 1937 – 17 September 2014) was a British miner,

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becaus ...

and authority on Lancashire folklore, industrial archaeology and the arts who was President of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, Folklore Society, Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society and Society for Folk Life Studies.

Career

Mining and banking

Cass was born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

in 1937. He attended the Central High School (later Sheena Simon College) before starting work in a pharmacy and then as a coal miner at

Bradford Colliery Bradford Colliery was a coal mine in Bradford, Manchester, England. Although part of the Manchester Coalfield, the seams of the Bradford Coalfield correspond more closely to those of the Oldham Coalfield. The Bradford Coalfield is crossed by ...

, where he formed an attachment to the National Union of Mineworkers (though not always its leadership) and became friends with Jim Allen. From there he moved to William Deacon's Bank (later Royal Bank of Scotland), where he became a bank manager and studied part-time at the Manchester College of Commerce. He was later elected an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.

Academia

Cass continued his studies with an MA (1992) at Manchester Polytechnic (later Manchester Metropolitan University) with a thesis on ‘A Local Newspaper and Its Community: Literature and The Cotton Factory Times, 1885–1937’ and then studied his PhD (1996) at

Edge Hill University Edge Hill University is a campus-based public university in Ormskirk, Lancashire, England, which opened in 1885 as Edge Hill College, the first non-denominational teacher training college for women in England, before admitting its first male stu ...

(awarded by Lancaster University) on "The Cotton Factory Times, 1885–1937: A Family Newspaper and the Lancashire Cotton Community". He was a Research Fellow of the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition at the

University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

(1997–2004) and then a Research Fellow in The Elphinstone Institute at the

University of Aberdeen , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

(2004–14). Cass was involved with

The Folklore Society The Folklore Society (FLS) is a national association in the United Kingdom for the study of folklore. It was founded in London in 1878 to study traditional vernacular culture, including traditional music, song, dance and drama, narrative, arts an ...

as a Council Member (from 2001) then President (2008–11) and vice-president (2011–14) and was also involved in The Society for Folk Life Studies first as Council Member (2002–03) then Honorary Secretary (2003–08), vice-president (2008–11) and President (2011–14) and was awarded their Coote Lake Medal for ‘outstanding research in folklore’.

Other activities

Cass was Chairman of

The Portico Library The Portico Library, The Portico or Portico Library and Gallery on Mosley Street, Manchester, is an independent subscription library designed in the Greek Revival style by Thomas Harrison of Chester and built between 1802 and 1806. It is record ...

(1988–90) where he was also a curator of exhibitions, Secretary and Trustee of the

National Museum of Labour History The People's History Museum (the National Museum of Labour History until 2001) in Manchester, England, is the UK's national centre for the collection, conservation, interpretation and study of material relating to the history of working people ...

later the

People's History Museum The People's History Museum (the National Museum of Labour History until 2001) in Manchester, England, is the UK's national centre for the collection, conservation, interpretation and study of material relating to the history of working people ...

(1989–2002), President of the

Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, popularly known as the Lit. & Phil., is one of the oldest learned societies in the United Kingdom and second oldest provincial learned society (after the Spalding Gentlemen's Society). Promine ...

(1993–95) and

Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society The Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society is a historical society and registered charity founded, on 21 March 1883, for the study of any aspects of the area covered by the Palatine Counties of Lancashire and Cheshire (and succeeding local ...

(2009–12) and was also involved with Manchester's

Cornerhouse Cornerhouse was a centre for cinema and the contemporary visual arts, located next to Oxford Road Station on Oxford Street, Manchester, England, which was active from 1985–2015. It had three floors of art galleries, three cinemas, a booksho ...

and Museum of Science and Industry.

Select bibliography

*
The Lancashire Pace-Egg Play: A Social History
' (FLS Books, 2001). *
The Pace-Egg Plays of the Calder Valley
' (FLS Books, 2004) * (with M. J. Preston and Paul Smith), eds,
The English Mumming Play: An Introductory Bibliography
' (FLS Books, 2000). * with M. J. Preston and Paul Smith), "The Peace Egg Book: An Anglo-Irish Chapbook Connection Discovered" in ''Folklore'' (2003). *
Room, Room, Ladies and Gentlemen...: An Introduction to the English Mummers’ Play
' (English Folk Dance and Song Society in association with The Folklore Society, 2002). * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cass, Edward Fletcher 1937 births 2014 deaths People from Manchester Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society Alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University Alumni of Edge Hill University 20th-century British historians 20th-century English historians 21st-century British historians 21st-century English historians British folklorists English folklorists Presidents of the Folklore Society Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society