The British Caving Library holds a web-based archive of audio recordings relating to British caving and cavers. Although much of the material recounts exploits which are well documented elsewhere, the immediacy of the spoken word bring them to life. Some of the recordings are also a poignant reminder of the twenty four friends who have since died.
The recordings have come from a number of different sources, but special mention must be made of Geoff Yeadon, Lindsay Dodd, and Sid Perou whose contributions of many valuable recordings allowed the project to get off to a flying start. A full list of those who have contributed recordings and photographs is available here.
There are currently 226 interviews given by 81 interviewees, from sixteen interviewers, lasting over 35½ hours.
The recordings are usually limited to a maximum of twenty minutes, and may be accessed by drilling down through a list of interviewees, or by drilling down through a list of subject index, or by a keyword search. Note that the quality of the recordings is variable - many were not originally intended for public consumption! They are available as embedded media files and as downloadable MP3 files for playing on external players.
If you have any recordings you would like to offer for consideration for inclusion into the archive, or if you feel that an individual or a story is a candidate for recording, please look at our contributors' page.
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