Sound Recordings, Bedfordshire

Description

Bob King and his wife, recorded in Totternhoe;[Gap, 2 mins.]; Mr. King describes some [?local] caves; Sunday School treats; visitors to the area and locals serving tea to them; local people; the litany (common land); bat folding (catching bats with nets); poaching; children's games - describes Knocking Off, Hare and Hounds, window tapping, ?Cut and Spanny (cricket-like game with sticks), Round-O (chasing game); playing on The Knolls (hill); local area little affected by World War Two; trenches dug during World War One in local field; Flaps (style of trouser); Mrs. King, born in Billington, looks at photographs and talks about the people in them, and the clothes they are wearing. [Tr. 1]


Harry Scott, recorded in Billington; sings a selection of traditional and popular songs. The majority of the song titles have not been identified, and Mr. Scott generally sings only one verse of each.


Discussion of the song 'Jolly Herring' - sings two verses; sings 'Old Mackenzie the Donkey Man' ; sings [unidentified fragment]; sings 'Jump Out of Bed' ; sings [first line: 'I've lived in this world a number of years'] ; [first line: 'I'm rather too old for it now']; [first line: 'Darling Mabel if you're able to sing us an Irish song']; [first line: 'Twas in the pleasant month of May']; [first line: 'I was born in the old county of Bedfordshire']; [first line: 'As I came home so late last night']; 'Banks of the Sweet Dundee'; 'The Life of a Man'; [first line: 'Why was I born to be tormented so?']; [first line: 'Now he's dead and he's gone and his troubles are over']; 'Turkey Rhubarb'; 'Nelly Ray'; 'Tiddlywink the Barber'; recites the words to a song about the Isle of Wight; sings 'Over the Garden Wall'; 'Darling Nellie Gray'; [first line: 'It's nice to have a home of your own']; [first line: 'It's waste not want not']; recites a toast; recites a poem (written by himself); recites a toast,
and part of one other. [Tr. 2]. Continues on tape LAVC/SRE/A748r.


Will Twidell and his wife, Mrs. Twidell, recorded in Totternhoe; discuss the tape recorder; talk about clangers (dumplings eaten for dinner by men working in the fields); mowing a field in a team; cow's head soup; drink and food for workers during harvest time; malting and brewing; school and corporal punishment; woodworking tools (planes), coffin making - working with his father; schooling; comments on radio announcers and the sounding of the letter r; singing and services during World War One in France; haggle carts/carters, carrying stone and other loads. [Tr. 3]


Horace Henley and his wife, Mrs. Horace Henley, recorded in Totternhoe; talk of local people, some of whom David Shaw has interviewed; clothing - box hats, smock frocks; sweeping chimneys; clogs; Norfolk jackets worn to school; cardigans/ganzies; duck breeding; discussion re. the tape recorder/recording. [Tr. 4]


Tape 1. [1 of 8].

Access and usage

Reproduction

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Physical and technical conditions

9.5cm/sec. All recordings made on the right-hand track.

Related material

The collector's lists of informants and interview locations, and correspondence between Bedfordshire County Record Office and the University of Leeds relating to the sound recordings and their deposit, are held in file LAVC/SRE/ARI/058.

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