Voices From The Dales
Voices From The Dales was a podcast published by the Dales Countryside Museum between 2021-2024, described by listeners as a “rare treat” and “full of delightful accents”. There were 30 episodes, each 15 minutes long, across three series. Episodes mixed fresh interviews with clips from the museum’s oral history collection, which began with a box of cassette tapes bequeathed by founders Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby. All episodes were presented by freelance journalist Andrew Fagg from Hawes.
Series One had a diverse range of subjects including schools, chapels, cheese, fell running, Ingleborough and peatland.
Series Two was all about dialect, with special guests Rob and Val Ward from Hawes. It featured Kit Calvert, the dialect poetry of John Thwaite and the story of youth worker Trevor Sharpe’s Song of Wensleydale project – as well as an unmissable recording of Lizzie Dinsdale talking about haytime.
Series Three also had a single theme: Swaledale Farmer. The series featured Swaledale sheep breeders Christine Clarkson, Sue and Ray Ridley, and Michael and Rachel Watson, and their thoughts on nature and farming. Voices From The Dales is a seven-and-a-half hour-long treasury of sounds and stories from the people of the Yorkshire Dales, particularly Wensleydale, Swaledale and Ribblesdale.
Thank you for listening!