Northumberland Voices Podcasts
Northumberland Archives holds more than a thousand oral history recordings – recorded reminiscences – of Northumbrian people. The recordings tell stories of Northumberland life as well as being an excellent source for the study of dialect. The recordings can be listened to in our searchrooms at Berwick and Woodhorn. We have prepared podcasts of a few of these recordings. Follow the links below to listen to them.
Northumberland Voices: A Shepherding Life
Bob Hepple was born at Sook HillFarm,Cawburn, nearHaltwhistlein 1891.Bob dedicatedhis life to shepherding on the hills in the Tynedale area. In the first of these oral history extracts Bob talks about the hirings, when farmers engaged farm workers. He also describes sheep dog training and even reads some poetry!
For more about Bob Hepple’s oral history, see our blog post:
https://northumberlandarchives.com/test/2021/11/15/bob-hepple-shepherding-in-tynedale/
Northumberland Voices: Paper trousers and Red Cross parcels
Extracts from an Oral History interview with Tom Easton.
Tom was born in 1896 and lived in West Sleekburn as a child. He joined the Tyneside Scottish Brigade during the First World War. After training at Alnwick, Tom fought in France and Flanders until he was captured in April 1918. As a prisoner of war, Tom opted to work down a German coalmine near Brambauer in North Rhine West-Falia.
Northumberland Voices: Back to School
Margaret Elizabeth Palmer attended school in Throckley, Northumberland. She did well at school and passed exams that allowed her to become a student teacher. From the age of 13 to 18, Margaret travelled into Newcastle to a teacher training centre. She gave up her job when she got married, but was persuaded back during the First World War.
Here she talks to Amanda Arrowsmith, archivist from Northumberland Archives, about becoming a teacher in Northumberland at the beginning of the twentieth century.