Caving Audio Archives

graham

graham

New member
mrodoc said:
Anybody out there willing to be interviewed re the late Luke Devenish, pioneer cave diver and caver and open water diver? i have some personal memories and an anecdote or two but wondered if anybody from his era would be prepared to be interviewed. He was based on the Mendips.
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Pete, surely the obvious candidate would be Jim Hanwell?
 
langcliffe

langcliffe

Well-known member
SamT said:
Thinking of bribing a few notable derbyshire/eldon characters with beer and recording some stuff.

Just wondering about technology for recording. I subtly tried the Dictaphone on my mobile the other day, its not a cheap mobile either and the quality was god awful.

Must be some reasonable cheap kit around these days,  just wondered if anyone has any experience.
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May I respectfully draw your attention to the last two paragraphs on http://caving-library.org.uk/audio/contributing.shtml ?
 
langcliffe

langcliffe

Well-known member
Alan Gray of the Axbridge Caving Group has made available some remarkable recordings of Balch speaking at the opening of the Axbridge Caving and Archaeological Society museum in 1952, six years before his death.

As one would expect of 1952 tape recordings and an old man in his eighties, the recordings are not that easy to listen to, but Alan has also made a transcript available. When you select the recording, right click on the transcript link to open the PDF file in another window and reading it at the same time as listening will make life a lot easier.

I think that these recordings are very exciting - a link back to the earliest days of British caving.

See http://caving-library.org.uk/audio/mostrecent.php
 
langcliffe

langcliffe

Well-known member
Sid has added a couple of recordings from one of the S.W.C.C. Balinka Pit expeditions. Very graphic, reality tapes made on the spot by people dangling in a hand-made cage attached to a hand-made winch over a 200 metre drop.
 
langcliffe

langcliffe

Well-known member
Sid has added a number of new recordings to the Audio Archives. Some are by Jack Pickup, who should need no introduction, and some are by Frank Royston, one of the original CRO members and member of the Gritstone Club, who tells some interesting stories of stalactites suddenly appearing in White Scar Cave, of early rescues, and of Eli Simpson.

There are now 114 recordings lasting over fifteen hours available in the archives. Unfortunately, however, they are becoming a little Dales dominated, mainly because Sid is the main driving force and he's based in the Dales. Surely there are potential worthwhile  contributions from other areas? Without wanting to massage egos by naming names, I can certainly think of certain individuals from Mendip, Derbyshire, Wales and Scotland who should be recorded for posterity. Recording equipment is, apparently, available for borrowing.

See http://caving-library.org.uk/audio/audio.shtml for more information.
 
ian mckenzie

ian mckenzie

New member
Somewhere I have a cassette recording of Mike Boon that was the basis for the interview published in a 1993 edition of The Canadian Caver.
 
langcliffe

langcliffe

Well-known member
ian mckenzie said:
Somewhere I have a cassette recording of Mike Boon that was the basis for the interview published in a 1993 edition of The Canadian Caver.
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Sounds good. Would there be a copyright issue? If not, could you send it to the BCRA library? They will forward it onto to Sid.

The Librarian
British Caving Library
The Studio
Glutton Bridge
Buxton
SK17 0EN
 
langcliffe

langcliffe

Well-known member
We need some photographs of Bob Leakey to illustrate his interviews. These are by far the most popular recordings on the database,  and it seems a shame not to have pictures of the great man.

If anybody has any photographs they could let us use, please PM me.
 
mrodoc

mrodoc

Well-known member
I have a rather nice photo of Bob Leakey chatting to Graham Balcombe taken at the CDG 50th if that's any good. Also I have edited part of a 90 minute chat with the late Willie Stanton and it is ready to be put on line but I cannot find an email address to send it. I took the tape put it into a sound processing prog and made an MP3 file which is about 7 meg in size. Who would like it for the audio archive. - length about 9 minutes max. There will be more when I have time to do the work.
 
langcliffe

langcliffe

Well-known member
There have been a number of recordings added to the Audio Archives in the last couple of days. Of particular note is a very poignant one donated by Peter Glanvill of Willie Stanton recorded last November where Willie talks about the exploration of the Black Hole Series in Swildon's Hole some 60 years ago, and also a superb account by Jim Newton of an expedition to the Himalayas in 1970 which travelled across land by a double-decker bus.

http://caving-library.org.uk/audio/mostrecent.php

Enjoy.
 
langcliffe

langcliffe

Well-known member
langcliffe said:
There have been a number of recordings added to the Audio Archives in the last couple of days. Of particular note is a very poignant one donated by Peter Glanvill of Willie Stanton recorded last November where Willie talks about the exploration of the Black Hole Series in Swildon's Hole some 60 years ago
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Has anyone got a picture of Willie Stanton we can use for the audio archives? It really doesn't matter whether it's a recent one or one taken in his more active days, although it would be nice to know the year that it was taken.
 
langcliffe

langcliffe

Well-known member
damian said:
I assume you know about the pics in the current Descent.
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Yes - thank you. It was that which reminded me. If necessary I will approach Chris directly (he has helped out before).
 
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