As the sun dips in the west, a breeze rustles and rattles through the reeds and the canopy of the giant river red gums, stirring the wetland inhabitants to life. As dark creeps across the lagoons and channels, barking frogs and froglets find their voice. The high-pitched chatter of reed warblers, and calls of water birds unseen amongst the reeds, create layers of sound over the metallic, whirring base track of insects. By the early hours, only the insects hold the stage.

Evening Symphony

Those who have come to know the Macquarie Marshes in all her guises have been captivated by her magic — an intoxicating combination of beauty and a diversity of life. Now, it’s understood that there’s an urgent need for more knowledge and understanding of this complex, fragile, and beautiful landscape, and the communities who call her home, in order to secure her future.

Track credit: Last Day by JercaMedia (licensed)

Last Day

Reimagined Futures

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.
Event organised by Jacqui Gellman. 
Audio production by Jonathan Kempster. 
Photography by Suzanne Plunkett.
https://suzanneplunkett.com/
https://coam.org.uk/museum-buckinghamshire/heritage-stories/
(c)2022 Chiltern Open Air Museum Ltd.

Queen's Platinum Jubilee Tea Party at COAM - Chiltern Open Air Museum

WALKING THROUGH THE SUBMERGED FOREST

This piece is composed from my field recordings and readings of letters from Bexhill Museum archives, layered to bring to life a part of our eroding coastline and an archive which lies quietly unearthed. 
The field recordings were made whilst walking at low tide through pre-historic submerged forest remains, at Bulverhythe in EastSussex. This is layered with field recordings made in nearby woods.

Julian Porter, Rother Museums' curator found photographs and letters in the Bexhill Museum archives relating to the forest, which Actor and Theatre Producer Leigh Shine, read for me in a recording session. 
I hope the piece creates a spirit of place, a sense of timelessness and ever evolving change. The magical experience of walking through thousands of years of human and environmental ebb and flow.
Mary Hooper 
April 2023

Walking through the submerged forest

Steve Newman - Commercial Reel

Steve Newman - Narration Voice Reel

Steve Newman - Comedy Compilation Reel

Everything we do at Chiltern Open Air Museum (COAM) is about bringing history to life and stimulating the senses of our visitors. In our exhibits you can see, smell, and touch history, and storytelling is integral to our mission. 
 
Listen to the latest edition of Campfire Heritage Stories – an annual event when we gather to hear about the heritage and life journeys of people who have made the Chilterns their home. 
This year’s Storytellers include Karen Bonner (Chief Nurse at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, a descendent of the Windrush generation), Elizabeth Dench (Jamaica), Sejal Sechdav (Uganda) and B J Taylor (Keyna).
[A stereo recording, best heard on headphones].

Curated and organised by Jacqui Gellman, Outreach Officer.
Audio production and Oral History by Jonathan Kempster (MIPS).
Photograph by Cat Humphries (https://cathumphries.wordpress.com/). 
Helen Light, Marketing and General Manager.
https://coam.org.uk/
Funded by The Rothschild Foundation (https://rothschildfoundation.org.uk/).
 
Chiltern Open Air Museum, Newland Park, Gorelands Lane, Chalfont St Giles, Bucks, HP8 4AB
01494 871 117
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/chilternoam
Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/chilternopenairmuseumevents
 
Chiltern Open Air Museum is a registered charity (no. 272381) inspiring present and future generations with stories of Chilterns historic buildings, people, and places.

Living History at Chiltern Open Air Museum - Heritage Stories 2024

Give me a minute to take you to the river. It's a glorious summer morning on the Macquarie River, running through the heart of Dubbo City in Central NSW. The birds, bees and water insects are doing their thing as the brown water swirls and eddies, gently washing over the pebbly beach on its way further west.

Sounds of Summer: Macquarie River

It's a golden pink, windy, predawn in summer and the world is slowly starting to stir. In the cool of the early morning, frogs, birds and crickets lay down the soundtrack to a typical summer day as the sun rapidly climbs above the trees.

Sounds of Summer: Sunrise on the dam

During a two-month artist residency through Nes, in Skagaströnd, Iceland, I met Sigrún Lárusdóttir who shared a folk story with me about the ravens who saved a young farm girl near the adjoining town of Blönduós. This story, in Icelandic, is part of Eye of the Corvus project and exhibition (www.eyeofthecorvus.art). In this 15 minute interview, she explains the story in English and we talk more about the "bæjar hrafnar" (house ravens) of Skagaströnd she knows so well.

Sigrún Lárusdóttir interview, October 2019

Oral Historian and Audio Journalist, Imperial War Museum Sound Archive, BBC Radio, Freelance. 
Visiting Oral Historian at Chiltern Open Air Museum (COAM).
Member of Institute of Professional Sound, National Union of Journalists, Oral History Society, Subject Specialist Network (War & Conflict), International Association of Sound Archives.

Living History at Chiltern Open Air Museum - Heritage Stories 2024

Oral History Sound Recording & Storytelling

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