Sound recordings
Here are four pages of oral history recordings relating to Stanhoe. Most of the recordings were made by current and past residents of the village and collected by Stanhoe Archive.
Unless otherwise noted, all the sound recordings on stanhoe.org are copyright © Stanhoe Archive. Please do not re-use them without permission. All photos are copyright © Rosemary Brown.
BBC Village Voice 1986
(52 minutes, © BBC Radio Norfolk 1986)
In 1986, BBC Radio Norfolk visited Stanhoe for its Village Voice programme. Presenter Wally Webb (photo) spoke to many Stanhoe residents.
The programme is reproduced on stanhoe.org by kind permission of BBC Radio Norfolk, which retains the copyright. The recording was taken from a cassette tape, so the quality is less than perfect.
Eddie Barber (1935–2018)
(1 minute, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Eddie and Jean Barber used to run Stanhoe’s shop and Post Office. In this short clip, Eddie explains that he almost turned the job down after discovering that there seemed to be only two or three family names in Stanhoe – and few house names or numbers.
(2 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Eddie describes his post round.
(1 minute, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
The post round had its excitements. Here Eddie describes how an elderly resident needed help.
(4 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Eddie remembers local landowner Roddy Ralli.
Joyce Rowe
(5 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Mrs Joyce Rowe, born Joyce Smith in 1926, describes coming to Stanhoe in 1940 when her father became landlord of the Crown.
(6 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Joyce goes on to talk about the family's land at the Crown public house, working for neighbouring farmer Mr Brown, and joining the Land Army.
Derek Scales
(7 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Derek Scales, born in Stanhoe in 1948, talks about childhood amusements, school, village cinema, trains at the station, and work on the farm.
(3 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Derek explains what life was like at the Norfolk Hero pub in the 1950s and 60s.
(23 seconds, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Derek talks about the annual November 5 bonfire near the pond in the 1950s.
Margaret Ayres (1936–2018)
(13 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Margaret Ayres was born Margaret Taylor in Terrington St John in 1936. In this conversation with Rosemary Brown she describes how she came to Stanhoe in 1951 when her parents bought the Post Office, life at the Post Office and shop, and how she married the boy next door.
Jean Barber
(8 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Jean Barber was born in 1935 at Outwell. She came to Stanhoe in 1964 with her husband Eddie to run the Post Office stores, which also sold petrol. Among their customers for petrol were the Queen Mother and the Duchess of Kent.
Rosemary Brown
(7 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Rosemary Brown explains the complicated genealogy of the Ayres family.
(1 minute, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Rosemary relates Doreen Ayres’s stories of getting water from the Pit and the well.
Eva Blackburn (1923–2012)
(40 seconds, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Mrs Eva Blackburn, born Eva Rowe in 1923, describes how as a small child she came on a cart to Church Farm, Stanhoe.
(35 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Stanhoe in the early 1930s: Church Farm; Eva’s memories of farm work, especially involving horses; the carpenter’s and blacksmith’s shops; lorries and cars; childhood games; doctors and district nurses.
(27 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Stanhoe school, outings, Sunday School, Hospital Sunday, pubs and other village entertainments.
(2 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Eva remembers how mains water did not reach Stanhoe until 1948, and electricity not until 1952.
(25 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Col. and Mrs Seymour of Barwick House; the dairy and milk deliveries; organising a household staff of 30; hunt balls and London society; walking to work; trains to school; buses; Mr Wright the carrier; old folk’s outings; the coming of mains water (1948) and electricity (1952); hazards of cooking on an oil stove; bathrooms and other amenities in the early 1960s.
