You can probably find them anywhere if you can get access to the local old (ahem, established) people. It can be a tough crowd to break into though. Coming at

You can probably find them anywhere if you can get access to the local old (ahem, established) people. It can be a tough crowd to break into though. Coming at it from the right angle helps. Deference and respect to the local history is just as important as a trip to any foreign place, or rather, a place where you are a foreigner. Local businesses unlock a lot of connections. Hardwood sawmills and butchers have worked well for me. A good local butcher supplies the best local pubs so getting to know one can unlock access to t’other. Pubs are extremely variable in the localness of their management. A village pub that’s owned by Greene King and no longer has a snug is a world away from a village freehouse with a family friendly public bar and a saloon bar full of sozzled young farmers. Knowledge of the countryside and Anglicanism helps too. The old guard’s interests overlap a lot with bird watching and Christ. I’m not religious but I am spiritual enough to enjoy chapel, and choral music is a free gig if you’re into that sound. People are glad to meet you in church: it’s the easiest way of signalling you take the community seriously. With all respect to the actual religious practice, in terms of the old ways far too many villages became Alpha / evangelical over the past few decades and in my limited experience it’s those communities that are letting go of the past. (This is a sweeping generalisation so I hope I’m not offending anyone.) I used to think that venerable old cultures were a mystical thing one only found in the Far East but they can also be right on your doorstep.