Sound Recordings, Devon

Description

[Announcement, ?by Tony Green]; Ernest Smythe, recorded in Parracombe; talks about working life on the railway (as office boy, timekeeper); gangs working on the line, and the difficulty of building it [unclear which line is being talked about, although there is a (now dismantled) line to the south-west of Parracombe, running through Blackmoor Gate]; work at a local brewery; mineral waters; changes in the village - population, shops/traders, churches and chapel; local flooding; flooding at Lynmouth [August 1952]; fox/stag/hare hunting; pigeon shooting; thoughts on cruelty and fox hunting/hare coursing; Parracombe Revel (Whit Monday) - wrestling for silver spoons (traditionally worn in men's hats at church the following Sunday); mischief as a boy; Parracombe's older residents; Harvest Festivals; rabbiting parties; modern and traditional farming compared; community life and neighbourliness; cost of living; music and singing entertainment; cider; farmer-farm labourer relations in the past; Holwell Castle [motte and bailey], and the local belief that the motte is hollow; poaching - rabbits, gripping fish; disappearance of trout; thoughts on living in the Parracombe area; transport and horse-drawn charabancs of the past; bad winters and losing sheep - describes method of finding buried sheep. [Tr. 5] [Collector announcement]; Richard Gilbert, recorded in Weare Giffard on the 20 October 1958; talks about milking cows at the age of six; shearing sheep with his father; quality of life, farm food and wages; anecdotes re. his and his father's farming experiences; building his first haystack; sowing corn with horses; storing mangel-wurzles for winter cattle feed; recollection of local flooding when aged five; rabbiting; work as an independent farm labourer. [Tr. 6]

Metadata

Identifier szwkndn2
IRN 414866
Class Mark LAVC/SRE/A815r
Level Item
Type of Record Archives - ISAD(G)
Peristent Link http://prototype1.library.leeds.ac.uk/szwkndn2
Collection(s) Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture
Category Archive
Parent Record Audiotape Sound Recordings
Creator(s) Wright, John T
Date October 1958
Size and Medium 1 x 17.8cm open reel spool, Duration: 50' 18".

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