What about starting with the following:
James Obelkevich, _Religion and rural society: South Lindsey, 1825-1875_,
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976.
or
Charles Mackay (1814-1889),
_Memoirs of extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds_
London, Office of the National Illustrated Library, 1852.
then going on to folk-lore journals
Simon Stevenson,
School of Cultural & Historical Studies,
Griffith University,
Nathan Campus,
AUSTRALIA, Q4111 e-mail: s.stevenson@hum.gu.edu.au