Sight Support has been one of my focuses: having invested in both a Clover 7S Handheld Video Magnifier and a PENfriend2, so I decided to look into a Talking Archive. I had heard of a Talking Newspaper and visited the Yorkshire Coast Sight Support to find out more. After further thoughts, I teamed up with volunteer, Lynn Hilton and our Talking Archives was launched!
Meet our volunteer…
Lynn Hilton has been volunteering since February, working with the Frank Meadow Sutcliffe Collection but has extensive experience with Talking Newspapers.
“I worked for The Macclesfield & District Talking Newspaper for the Blind for 20 years – Editor for 15 years. When I took on the job of Editor there was a team of 58 volunteers and we had 300 listeners. During my tenure we went from audio tape to CD to memory stick. A weekly, one-hour magazine was added, special extra recordings of poetry, and for World War I anniversary, and an annual recorded pantomime mostly written by me and with lots of amazing sound effects courtesy of the recording technicians.”
Lynn was married for 54 years to gemmologist and jeweller John and has one son. She was the Publicity Manager for an engineering company – writing the company magazine, designing advertisements, brochures etc, and organising exhibitions and seminars.
Lynn has interviewed a few famous individuals for the Talking Newspaper recordings including Timothy West, Dame Jenni Murray and the late Bill Turnbull!
“Timothy West was extremely kind and generous, helping a rookie interviewer set up very modest recording equipment I had never used before. Interviewed him in his dressing room at The Buxton Opera House just half an hour before he went on to play King Lear. I Interviewed Jenni Murray sitting at her kitchen table, and Bill Turnbull in the snug at his temporary home in Rainow with his black labrador leaning against my leg.”
Back to Talking Archive…
Lynn was the perfect partner to assist me with this project. I decided to focus the podcast on The Viking – a school magazine that dates from 1916-1976; choosing articles and poetry that we thought would entertain our listening audience. Scarborough Talking News are keen to feature these recordings in their new talking magazine, which has a scheduled release of 23rd/24th May.
We will continue to feature The Viking in our unique podcast but will eventually move on to other exciting collections – what a great way to spread a little historical gossip!
Claire Marris Archive Development Officer
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