Gramophone and Long Play Disc Recordings

Description

Series of dialect rcordings that include:


1)Earlier recordings of dialect speakers from the North-East of England, made by Harold Orton and others in the late 1930s as part of the Armstrong College Survey of Northumbrian Dialects, are also contained in this series. These comprise a mixture of copy and master Instantaneous discs.


2)Sound recordings of English and Welsh dialect speakers, recorded in the 1950s and 1960s as part of the Survey of English Dialects initiated by Harold Orton and Eugen Dieth. All the English and Welsh fieldwork localities surveyed were originally represented in these recordings. These are edited copies (usually about ten minutes duration) taken from original field tape recordings which, once the copies had been made, were erased and the tapes used again. These and a number of duplicate sets form the largest part of this series.


3) A small collection of commercial spoken word, instrumental and vocal traditional music recordings make up the rest of this series, along with a small number of duplicate dialect discs/samples [un-numbered], used for demonstrations/talks.


4) Duplicate (SED) sound recordings as referenced above.

Provenance

The Northumbrian dialect recordings in SRE/D/1 were brought to Leeds in 1946 by Harold Orton when he accepted the Chair of English Language and Medieval Literature at the University.


The discs in SRE/D/2 contain edited copies of original Survey of English Dialects tape recordings, and were made under the supervision of Henry Ellis, technician in the University of Leeds' Phonetics Department. These were regarded as master copies, whilst an additional duplicate set was also made (now held in SRE/D/4). This was a rolling programme from the 1950s onwards. The cost of audio tape at the time necessitated the copying of material without too much delay, as tapes were then wiped and reused. The BBC also made copies (edited and unedited) of the Survey tape recordings during this period, and copy sets are held in SRE/D/4.


The commercial recordings in SRE/D/3 were collected over a number of years during the lifetime of the Institute of Dialect and Folk Life Studies, gifted by students and researchers who studied at/knew of the Institute.


The Survey of English Dialects gramophone discs were transferred from the School of English to Special Collections, Brotherton Library, in the autumn of 2002.


In 2019 the SRE/D1-2 were transferred to the British Library for digital transfer. Original discs were deposited there for long-term preservation, with the University now holding digital masters and retaining copyright.

System of arrangement

The content of this series has been arranged in four subseries:

- English Dialect Sound Recordings (Northern England)

- English Dialect Sound Recordings (England and Wales)

- Commercial Sound Recordings

- Duplicate Sound Recordings

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.

Copyright in the Survey of English Dialects recordings resides with the University of Leeds.

© University of Leeds

Physical and technical conditions

Original discs 78 r.p.m., 45 r.p.m. and 33 1/3 r.p.m.

Related material

Correspondence between Tom Shippey of the University of Leeds and the North West Sound Archive, concerning the condition and copying of Harold Orton's Northumbrian dialect survey and the Survey of English Dialects disc recordings, is held at LAVC/SED/3/6.



A handlist in file LAVC/SRE/ARI/068 gives a reference number, collector name, recording location, date and informant names for each disc in this series. Brief contents summaries are included for a small number of the discs.


Papers relating to the Survey of English Dialects are held in the subfonds LAVC/SED.

Related records in our catalogue

Related subjects / tags

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