Sounds Good? Meet the Sounds of the South West team
Posted on by Saffron Smolka.
The Sounds of the South West team. L-R Katie Scaife, Harry Ovington, Mary Milton, Heather Milward.
Earlier this year Bristol Archives received the good news that The National Lottery Heritage Fund had awarded them £175,000 for Sounds of the South West, a new regional audio digitisation project. Archives, currently stored on outdated formats such as reel-to-reel tapes and cassettes, are in danger of being lost due to format degradation and reliance on machines that are no longer in use. Without this project, important local audio heritage will be lost.
Bristol Archives can now get started on a year of developing the project into a multi-year, multi-partner project for the whole of South West England. What a coup! They will be working in partnership with Archives South West, the network of our region’s local authority archives.
The first thing to do was to hire the team that will lead on developing and delivering this regional programme. Let’s meet them!
In charge of the Sound Room, we find Harry Ovington, the project’s audio digitisation engineer. Harry enjoys working with a range of physical audio formats, spanning magnetic tape, disc-based media like lacquer discs and shellacs, audio cassettes, and born digital formats like DAT’s and minidiscs. Here’s a short mix of a couple of the recordings Harry’s digitised so far:
Mary Milton will be training and mentoring heritage workers from across the region in cataloguing and rights clearance for audio archives. She also works in the Bristol Archives Searchroom but has a background in audio production. Mary says,
“Having worked on a previous sound heritage project I’m really looking forward to sharing the process with others. It’s exciting to hear this material and gain the insights you get from the detective work you often have to do when clearing rights. You sometimes get to speak to the descendants of the people who appear in these recordings which can be a rewarding and emotional process.”
An open-reel audio tape, one of the many formats the project will be digitising.
And job-sharing the project manager post, we have Heather Milward and Katie Scaife.
Katie says,
“Made possible by National Lottery players, the project aims to preserve our region’s valuable audio heritage by digitising it to archival standards, ensuring that local history is saved for future generations. But it’s about more than just preserving audio recordings. I’ve been deeply impressed by the unique power of audio archives to move people and connect individuals across the decades. I can think of no better way to understand that past than hearing someone who was there tell you about it in their own words. First-hand reports of ways of life that have now vanished provide intimate and instant insight into how our society and environments have changed. Listeners can better understand what we’ve lost and gained, and how we might create a better future”.
Heather adds,
“This is my first experience of working on an audio archive project, having previously worked in TV Production Management for many years. It’s a pleasure to be part of such a knowledgeable and welcoming team! The project is allowing us to nurture and strengthen ongoing relationships between archive partners across the region, with the expert guidance of Archives South West, as well as creating some fantastic volunteer, community engagement and apprenticeship opportunities. This is a special project which we hope will feed and support the sustainability of audio digital preservation for many years to come.”
Archives South West covers the regions of Bristol, Cornwall, Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire.
Bristol Archives is home to ten centuries of history: Bristol Archives collects and preserves the city’s archives for current and future generations.
About The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. Sounds of the South West is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to support this creative project to preserve and create new access to our shared audio heritage.
2 comments on “Sounds Good? Meet the Sounds of the South West team”
I did some oral history interviews of older people in St Werburghs in the 1980s. One in particular might be of interest- a lady who was able to tell me the cries of the street traders in the area back in the early years of the 20th century. The recording is on cassette tape- I would like a digital copy and I wonder if it would be an interesting addition to your archive.
I will pass this on to the archives team along with your email and if of interest they will email you. Thanks for getting in touch Harry.