THIS spring heralds the launch of the first, and currently only, Museum of British Folklore within the main Gatehouse of the beautiful Port Eliot House at St Germans in Cornwall.

Tucked away in this secret corner of South East Cornwall will be the country's most comprehensive museum dedicated to the weird and wonderful artifacts, ephemera, costumes and images that document not only the history but the living tradition of Britain's annual and seasonal customs in all their archaic glory.

Visitors to this enchanting house and gardens will be able to view the folklore, superstitions and myths of the area and hear the intriguing story of the dissolute 14th century priest, Dando of St Germans.

This fascinating museum will also explore the supposed origins of the Helston Furry Dance, the Padstow Obby Oss and the meaning of 'Crying the Neck'.

Corn dollies specific to the area, such as the St Neot Dolly and the Polzeath Dolly, will be on display among other peculiar and astonishing artifacts celebrating British customs and folklore from across the country.

The driving creative force behind the Museum of British Folklore is Simon Costin, an internationally respected art director and designer renowned for his conceptually ambitious work as an artist, which has been exhibited in venues as diverse as a forest in Argyll and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Costin has been busy at work creating theatrical and bespoke displays for the museum, and has a team making corn dollies and mini Morris Dancer suits especially for the Port Eliot exhibition.

The museum will be a highly personal selection of objects and programming, as exceptional and strange as the subject matter it pays tribute to. There will be all the signs of an institutional authority – meticulous presentation, exhaustive captions and hushed lighting. However, under Costin's direction, alluring displays and novel lighting effects usually associated with an art installation will work to subvert the traditional way in which items are presented.

Costin has a lifelong obsession with the strange world of British Folklore and as there is no National Museum chronicling the origins of this fascinating world, he decided to start a museum of his own.

As a child, Costin devoured the information in his parents' copy of Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain, published by the Readers Digest in the mid-sixties. Inside its black, embossed covers, was a rich and magical world of green men, stone circles, witches, giants, haunted houses and seasonal customs. Single-handedly, it engendered his passionate interest in the folklore traditions of these Islands.

Many of his family holidays were spent in the British Isles, and particularly in Devon, where his mother was evacuated during the war. When he was seven, they visited St Ives in Cornwall, and wandered around a tiny museum filled with Victorian toys and penny slot machines. Dotted among the exhibits were fine examples of the British Vernacular arts: Corn dollies, Staffordshire figurines, Nailsea glass canes and horse brasses. Sadly, the museum no longer exists. However, Simon's memory of his visit to it has remained. He remembers: "I have only to smell patchouli oil to conjure the memory of the museum's owner; her mane of black hair, and her dark, smoky eye make-up. She was a veritable siren from a silent movie as she showed me, wide-eyed, around her magic kingdom, painstakingly explaining the exhibits to a child filled with wonder at the sight of them."

In order to raise awareness of his museum project Costin purchased a 1976 Castleton Caravan, painted it in bright colours and fitted the interior with a series of display cases to exhibit artifacts and images associated with the customs and traditions of the British Isles. He then undertook a highly successful five-month tour of the UK with the mini, mobile version of his vision for the Museum of British Folklore.

In July 2009 the mobile museum paid a visit to the Port Eliot Festival and went down a storm with festivalgoers. So much so, that this year Port Eliot House has given the Museum its first bricks and mortar home.

For further information on the Museum of British Folklore visit www.museumofbritishfolklore.com