Rare 'fragile' recordings saved before they disappear

Hundreds of recordings capturing the voices, accents and memories of people across the South West are being rescued before fragile tapes deteriorate beyond repair.

Archivists say some are at risk of being lost forever as ageing cassette and reel-to-reel tapes begin to break down.

The Sounds of the South West project is digitising them, preserving everything from Cornish dialect and sea shanties to memories of salmon fishing on the River Severn.

"It's a living history and it's a glimpse into the past, which you often don't find so easy to get from a book," said Philip Walker, head of culture and creative industries at Bristol City Council.

The project is making rare archive recordings available online for the first time, with plans to share around 1,500 clips from collections stretching from Gloucestershire to Cornwall.

"What we'll have is an incredible picture of the region's stories," said Walker.

"Either it's people's local accents, or it's what happened in their local communities."

The team of five staff at Bristol City Council's archives already has around 8,000 separate items, of which around 3,000 have been digitised.

Making recordings available online to the public requires diligent work not only to re-record them onto a digital format but to trace the owners, interviewees and copyright holders.

And in some cases, it is a race against time.

Walker said: "These recordings and the formats on which they're recorded are very, very fragile.

"Tape degrades over time and there's only a short window of opportunity left before they disintegrate and we'll lose whatever's on them."

Many of the 100 or so recordings currently on the website contain voices and snippets of oral history.

In one, Cornishman Fred Cock, who was born in St Ives, in 1929 recalls words of Cornish dialect such as 'crant' meaning a joke, or 'clidgey' for sticky.

Another features fisherman Deryck Huby from Gloucestershire who remembers the techniques and culture of salmon fishing on the River Severn.

In another, Joan Hellings, born in 1921 in Penryn, Cornwall, talks about her childhood and the days she spent exploring the town.

Among those helping preserve the region's history is 95-year-old Bristol jazz musician John Berry, who donated dozens of cassette recordings containing interviews with local musicians dating from the 1960s to the 1990s.

He said: "I was very interested in how they got into it, how they learned."

The recordings, made on a portable tape recorder, give a rare insight into Bristol's music scene in the 20th century.

They discuss what it was like to play in local venues, how musicians found work and how they learned their instruments.

Berry added: "I think people should have the ability to explore the cultures which have developed in the city."

"It does enable people who might research [jazz] something to build on."

Berry himself used his collection of recorded interviews to write a PhD and a book on how people learn to become musicians.

One of his interviews was with Arthur Parkman, who ran a rock night at Bristol's Colston Hall in the early 1960s.

In the recording, Parkman laments the fact he turned down the chance to book a then-unknown band from Liverpool for £100.

The band, called The Beatles, went on to enjoy a successful career in music.

The current collection could take another three years to fully digitise, although Walker said archivists would still welcome approaches from people with historically significant recordings.

"Archives are always interested in what material is out there," he said.

"I would recommend people approach their local archives in the first instance and speak to them about whether it's of interest and relevance."

Follow BBC Bristol on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630.