Listen to the past: Bristol at War podcast released
Posted on by Fay Curtis.
by Katie Scaife, Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project manager
It’s happened again; another hour of excellent listening. Once more, the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project, the participation team at Bristol Museums and BCfm have had the honour of working with a team of talented community volunteers to create and broadcast podcasts based on archival audio.
Monday 5 July marks the launch of this new series called Bristol at War. This time the volunteers were inspired by the oral histories in Bristol Libraries ‘A Town in the West Country’ collection.
This collection was recorded in 1988, capturing memories of Bristolians reminiscing about wartime Bristol. The recordings were part of research for a play of the same name that was performed at Bristol Old Vic.
Under the guidance of BCfm’s Marcus Smith, local people were recruited and trained to create podcasts based on these recordings. Each volunteer found a theme to explore and reflect on in their piece.
Moving, funny and thoughtful by turns, they have been compiled into a one hour broadcast which is now available on Soundcloud.
You can also listen to some special bonus material:
Marcus said:
“What a privilege to listen to the stories and memories of Bristolians during the Blitz in the 1940s. Nowadays we think of war and conflict as something that happens far away in different parts of the world, but many bombs dropped on our roofs and doorsteps not too long ago. Again, I’d like to thanks the team of volunteers who made this project possible and who really brought these old Bristolian voices to life for all to listen and learn.”
These oral histories are now available in digital format thanks to the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project based at Bristol Archives.
Unlocking Our Sound Heritage is a national project led by the British Library and supported by the
National Lottery Heritage Fund. Find out more about the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project.
Image: A woman sits in the ruins of her bombed out house © David Facey, Facey collection at Bristol Archives ref no. 41969/1/75