Personal histories
Personal histories of the Little Ouse headwaters
The late Albert Driver of Fen Street Redgrave, thatching
a stack at Moneypot farm with fen litter. © David Orr
This page is still under development. Please bear with us as we upload the sound files and more transcripts and summaries of the oral histories.
Between 2011 and 2013, the Little Ouse Headwaters Project recorded a series of Oral Histories – the memories of people who had lived or worked in the upper valley. Their personal testimony describes the local environment, its wildlife, social systems, and rural crafts and practises. There is a lot about local agriculture, rural life and wartime experiences. There are many personal anecdotes and stories of the villages. It will soon be possible to download the recordings as MP3 files.
Whenever possible, a photographic portrait was taken of those who recorded a history. These photos can be seen on the website. Everyone who took part provided a formal, written permission which can also be viewed on this website. Some (but not all) of the histories have been summarised or fully transcribed and are available here, and there is a summary of extracts from all the recordings. Finally, some contributed written memoirs by letter or document, and these are also provided at the end of the following table.
LOHP would like to say a huge thanks to those who helped with the project. In particular to those who gave their time and their memories so freely to the project, and also to those volunteers who undertook the interviews and compiled the summaries. We would also like to thank those who provided advice and support – the Norfolk Sound Archive at the Records Office, and the invaluable technical wizardry of Stewart Orr who processed the raw sound files. We are grateful for the funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund which made this project possible.
To listen to a collection of quotations from the recordings relating to changes in agriculture click here.
To listen to a collection of quotations from the recordings relating to gathering food from the local fens and woods click here.
To listen to a collection of quotations from the recordings relating to changes in agriculture click here.
To read a selection of quotations from the interviews, click here.
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Name |
Portrait (click to enlarge) |
Soundfile |
Summary |
Transcript |
Consent form |
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Doug Atkins: interview 1 |
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listen |
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| interview 2 | listen |
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Molly Aves |
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listen |
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Alec Bull: interview 1 |
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| interview 2 | listen |
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Mervyn Cater: interview 1 |
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listen |
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| interview 2 | listen |
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Eric Davey: interview 1 |
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listen |
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| interview 2 | listen |
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Malcolm Baker |
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Roly Farr |
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Leslie Flatman |
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Ray Garnham |
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Josie Gilbert |
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Peter Hughes |
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listen |
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Kim Lambert |
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listen |
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Brian Lambert: interview 1 |
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| interview 2 |
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David Orr: interview 1 |
listen |
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| interview 2 | listen | ||||
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Norman Orves |
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| Margaret Philip |  |
listen | |||
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Peter Reeder & David Huggins |
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Arthur Rivett |
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John Webb |
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listen |
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To read the memoires of Bill Barrell, who was evacuated as a 15 year old school boy, from Hackney to Church Farm in Blo'Norton, in 1939 click here (1.14Mb file) .
The memoires of Len Brown,another of Blo'Norton's evacuees, can be read in his published memoir From Pavements to Ploughed Fields:An Evacuee on a Norfolk Farm 1939-1948.
