At our January meeting Ted Gundry played a very interesting selection of recorded stories, collected from around Cornwall over the last 45 years.

Originally recorded by the BBC, Ted saved the spools from being erased, as it was the habit of the BBC to wipe the spools clean after each broadcast to reuse them. These “memory shots” or audio recollections remain a very important body of work.

The hall rang with laughter as the characters told their tales. Possibly each member of the audience had a favourite. Even the titles brought a smile to our lips, such as “Bill, the step ladder and the chimney pot” or “Willy and Billy at the Radjel Inn”.

Other voices told of hard times. There was Minnie Daniel who, at 100 years old and blind, recounted in a down to earth, philosophical way, the hardships of her youthful life working as a Bal Maiden. Other people recalled their memories of the recurring topic of port or wine casks being washed ashore after shipwrecks. The ingenuity shown by villagers in sharing and secreting away the precious red liquid was amazing, as was the variety of vessels in which it was carried home – even bed pots were pressed into service!

Ted explained that a not for profit company called Azook, based at Camborne, has been formed with the aim of digitalising this audio collection, together with local films and photographs. Eventually these will be made freely available to the general public. It is an enormous undertaking, for example, the Ellis collection of 100,000 glass negatives will be scanned, one by one. Many of the resulting digital photographs will uploaded onto the Azook's website www.cornishmemory.com Another way this priceless archive will be utilised is in the preparation a series of complete lessons for schools, in line with curriculum requirements. It is hoped to foster “a sense of place” in the modern generation.

We were very grateful to Ted Gundry for putting on such an enjoyable afternoon which culminated, as do all our OCS meetings, in everyone enjoying a pasty, a bit of heava cake and a chat, over the traditional 'cuppa'.

Make sure you don't miss our 'Mystery Soldier from St Erth', February 25 at 2.30pm, researched and presented by Cedric Appleby of Penzance and Hayle OCS.