'We Were There' is a unique experience for museum visitors to meet veterans and eyewitnesses to conflict and ask them questions about their lives and experience of conflict, hearing their true stories first hand.
Listen now to three eyewitnesses talking about their life aboard Royal Navy ships, and their experience of sharing their stories with museum visitors.
- Fred Sutton was an Ordnance Artificer,
- John Mann joined as a teenager to work down below in the engine room as a Stoker,
- Andrew Kersey was a highly proficient Wireless Telegraphist.

Curated by Ngaire Bushell, Public Engagement & Learning Officer, IWM London.
Interviews recorded and edited by Jonathan Kempster of IWM Documents & Sound Archive, London. (17/2/2023)
www.iwm.org.uk/events/we-were-there
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A Century of Steam – from the sound collection of P&O Heritage Archive, a recently conserved copy of a BBC radio programme broadcast on the National Programme on the 6th of October 1937 to celebrate the Centenary of the P&O shipping line, (originally produced by Felix Felton).
The audio material was recovered from eleven 12-inch acetate cellulose-lacquer grooved 78rpm radio transcription discs, conserved in the P&O archive, and digitally transferred.
Image shows the company’s new ship, Stratheden - her maiden voyage to Brisbane began on Christmas Eve 1937, and she continued in company service until 1964.
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Curated by: Susie Cox, Senior Curator, P&O Heritage Archive, London
Audio Preservation by: Jonathan Kempster, MIPS
See the latest P&O Heritage Archive exhibition here: www.poheritage.com/the-collection

[Main image: Radio Times 1/10/1937]
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Also available on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jonathan_kempster/po-heritage-a-century-of-steam?si=ed2d4208390841878ee1aea879a1c851&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

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At Chiltern Open Air Museum (COAM) our mission is to document and conserve the story of the Chilterns. Whether it’s the buildings and objects we save, or the people who lived and worked in and around them - our responsibility is to tell those stories to future generations.

We discovered that a great way of encouraging storytelling is to sit around the campfire, toasting marshmallows, and listening to each other.

We invited two special guests, Dr Geeta Ludhra and Gregory Gonzales – they both live here in our Chilterns community, but their heritage originates much further afield.

Our ‘heritage basket’ of objects and words was passed around to prompt memories of life’s journey. Listen now to Geeta and Gregory’s stories, and those of some COAM visitors.

Organised and created by Jacqui Gellman / 

Audio Production by Jonathan Kempster

© 2022 Chiltern Open Air Museum      https://coam.org.uk/museum-buckinghamshire/history-future/  

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The site of Ivinghoe Benedictine Priory, dedicated to St Margaret of Antioch, lies in the hamlet of St Margaret's, between the villages of Great and Little Gaddesden, in the North Chiltern Hills.

Pilgrimage led by Revd Miranda Seldon, in the presence of Brother John Mayhead OSB.

Produced for Oral History Sound Recording & Storytelling by Jonathan Kempster, July 2022.

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Paula Gamester is the Founder and CEO of The Sewing Rooms, a social enterprise based in Skelmersdale in the north of England. Aware of the cost-of-living crisis that has hit many families in the United Kingdom she designed a product that drastically cuts cooking costs and fuel consumption. Not only does ‘The Sew Fab Bag’ save money, it also massively reduces our carbon footprint and reduces landfill waste. Her design is based on the medieval ‘hay-box’ cooking technique. She told Jonathan Kempster about her inspiration and motivation in producing the Sew Fab Bag.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/sewfab-bag

https://www.the-sewing-rooms.co.uk/

(Interview produced for BBC World Service Business Programmes, July 2022).

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Chiltern Open Air Museum (COAM) marked the Queen's Platinum Jubilee by inviting some very special guests from local care homes to a celebratory tea dance. With hundreds of other visitors touring the 45-acre site, there was a mood of fun and celebration. Tea and cake prompted storytelling of Jubilees past and even of the 1953 Coronation itself.

Produced by Oral History Sound Recording June 2022.

In April 1982, Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Islands. BBC radio reporter Laurie Margolis gained the first confirmation from the Islands, via a fragile shortwave radio link, that the invasion had taken place. He told his story to the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive.

Oral history interview by Jonathan Kempster for Imperial War Museums, www.iwm.org.uk/

An edited version of this material was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 3rd April 2022.

(Image: IWM Archive FKD2750)

As the nation celebrated 'Armed Forces Day' a group of Quakers audited their garden ecology and drank tea for peace.

http://www.llquakers.org.uk/hemel/web/

Produced by Oral History Sound Recording, July 2022.

George Moreton is a passionate ornithologist living in the Chiltern Hills. He travels the world to watch birds. In this episode of Radio Walks, George guides novice 'twitcher' Jonathan Kempster on a walk through the Gade River Valley. We learn the truth about the dawn chorus, and hear what's up and what's down in the bird league table. Garden feeding, modern farming, road transport, air travel, and human activity in general make every day a battle for our feathered friends, but George is dedicated to recording the changes and challenges in the life of birds.

[Listen on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/jonathan_kempster/radio-walks-podcast-ep6-the-life-of-birds-interview-with-george-moreton?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing] 

If you know someone who can walk and talk at the same time, or if you'd like to be a guest on the programme, please get in touch via: [email protected]

Produced by: Jonathan Kempster for Oral History Sound Recording & Storytelling, June 2022.