Sound Recordings, Kent

Description

[Collector announcement]; Charles Joiner, recorded in Staple in December 1958; talks about storing apples in earth; first thatching job, aged fifteen/sixteen; describes thatch sewn onto barn roofs; his own farm and jobs/responsibilities; farm modernisation and the decline in the use of horses; horse and van transport; his first farm lorry; marriage; modern farming and the amalgamation of smaller farms; small farmers and the involvement of the State; describes building a rick; describes a flail, used for threshing; hay sweeps/reapers; first motor car and aeroplane seen; ploughs and ploughing (horses and modern machinery compared); farm mechanisation and tools/equipment; obsolescence of old farming equipment. [Tr. 3]


William Bushell, recorded in Denton in January 1959. [This is the conclusion of an interview which starts on Track Two of this tape - see below.]


Mr. Bushell talks about his working life in coal mines; war service in the Army; work as a trammer in Snowdown Colliery; pit ponies; miners' lamps; working conditions; miners' clogs; accidents and injuries; pit ponies; coal production; old mining practices; leaving the pit; threshing work; reapplying for a pit job, driving a steam waggon; petrol lorries; work at a fitting shop. [Tr. 4]


[Collector announcement]; William Bushell, recorded in Denton in January 1959. [This is the start of the interview with Mr. Bushell, recorded on Track Two of the tape.]


Mr. Bushell talks about working with a threshing machine; wet days and lost time, wages; summer work with a steam roller for Margate County Council; driving a (road) haulage engine; the commandeering of engines by the Army during the [second] war; making brick rubble roads for the Army; father's work as a waggoner; biographical details; family; selling straw at Canterbury market; Mr. Bushell's aunt. [Tr. 5]


Mr. Bushell talks about hop gardens, tools and hop hills (potatoes to attract worms that would otherwise eat the hops); hop-growing and training shoots; hop-picking - wages and the tally man; hop-drying in oast houses, and the dry man; work on leaving school; apprenticeship with a Mr. Arthur, at an agricultural engineering works; working on adapting an American-made binder, to be driven by an engine rather than pulled by a horse; describes first attempt at using such a machine; describes the machine and how it worked, adjustments made after trials; describes and explains the working of a potato planter, invented by Mr. Arthur; trials of the machine, reaction of farmers and the sale of the patent; work on lawnmower maintenance; inspection of the adapted binder by the American firm ( Walter A. Woods) who made the original; leaving the engineering firm and considering job options; the opening of coal mines in Kent; the village of Snowdown before the colliery; describes his father's work in the
fields; reference to work food (prodder); sinking the coal shaft at Snowdown; describes method of draining water from the mine; riding the hoppit into the pit. [Tr. 1]. Continues on Track One of the tape [AC Tr. 4 above].

Access and usage

Reproduction

Access

This collection is currently being worked on by the Special Collections team and therefore may not always be readily available for users to consult. Please contact staff in advance if you would like to access the material.

This material is in copyright. Photocopies or digital images can be supplied by the Library for research or private study. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain the copyright holder's permission to reproduce for any other purpose. Guidance is available on tracing copyright status and ownership.

Physical and technical conditions

9.5cm/sec.

Related records in our catalogue

Related subjects / tags

WARNING: many of our records have not been classified by subject. So if you search our catalogue by subject using the links below then you are unlikely to find all relevant records. But you will find some...

Related people and organisations