Sound Recordings, Northumberland, Durham, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire and South Wales

Description

'The Big Hewer', the fourth of eight radio ballads transmitted by the BBC Home Service between July 1958 and April 1964. This programme was produced by Charles Parker, written by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger and broadcast on the 18 August 1961. The programme is a documentary about the lives of coal miners in the coalfields of Northumberland, Durham, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire and South Wales, and incorporates folk songs and actuality. The subjects discussed include miners/being a miner, becoming a miner, going into the pit and down the mine for the first time, the coal seam, the experience of working underground, jobs in the mines, big hewers, awareness in the mine (pit sense), mining accidents and deaths [some of the informants are miners' widows]. Continues on tape LAVC/SRE/A757r. The contributors on this recording are Ewan MacColl, A. L. Lloyd, Isla Cameron, Lou Killen, Ian Campbell, Joe Higgins, Peggy Seeger (auto harp, guitar, mandolin, 5-string banjo), Alf Edwards (English concertina, harmonica, clarinet), Alfie Kahn (tin whistle), Bryan Daley (guitar), Jim Bray (double bass), Dave Swarbrick, Ben Davies, John Williams, Dafydd Thomas, Evan Williams, Philip Weekes, Dick Beamish, George Newman, Ernest Black, Jack Elliott, Rees Elliott, Johnny Pandrich and George Earl.

Metadata

Identifier f862cnvy
IRN 414807
Class Mark LAVC/SRE/A756r
Level Item
Type of Record Archives - ISAD(G)
Peristent Link http://prototype1.library.leeds.ac.uk/f862cnvy
Collection(s) Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture
Category Archive
Parent Record Audiotape Sound Recordings
Creator(s) BBC, Parker, Charles
Date [1950s]
Size and Medium 1 x 17.8cm open reel spool, Duration: 30' 38".

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