Editorial Notes and News
The origins and the way ahead
We can thank Dave Cobley for first coming up with the idea of a British Caving Audio Archive.
During early discussions, the most common remark was "It's a pity we didn't do it a year or two ago. We've lost so and so this year...". Unfortunately, this was always going to be the case, whenever it was started. However, it does underline the need to get recordings of some of the key caving figures out there, particularly those who are aging or infirm. There is an enormous wealth of material to collect, and it is not possible for that to be done by one or two people!
We desperately need help from people from every club, and every region to help find any existing material that is already out there, and to start recording those precious memories for posterity.
If we can do that, this could be one of the most informative, and inspirational of all the caving sites on the web. Listen to the recordings already on here, and I'm sure that you'll agree!
In one respect we have been extraordinarily lucky. Geoff Yeadon uncovered some cassettes which contain some fifteen or so hours of recordings made in 1979 in conjunction with Lindsay Dodd. These were made whilst researching for a proposed book to follow the film "The Underground Eiger". They include some irreplaceable recordings from such as Bob Leakey, Eric Hensler, Graham Balcombe and Mike Wooding, as well as from many younger people who are still active today.
Sid Perou
19th February 2009
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank on behalf of the whole caving community those who have generously spent time tracking down their own material and contributed it freely to the archive, and to those who have gone out with a microphone to record valuable material. These include:
- Axbridge Caving Club
- Geoff Yeadon
- Lindsay Dodd
- Peter Glanvill
- Sid Perou
We would also like to thank the following for devoting a considerable amount of their time, effort, and skill in getting these National Caving Audio Archives up and running:
- Dave Checkley
- Sid Perou
- John Sellers
Webmaster
19th February 2009
updated: 16th February 2010
Technical notes
Recordings are held in MP3 format, and their details are stored in a MySQL database accessed from a PHP application. They may be played from within the browser using an embedded Adobe Flash MP3 player which requires both JavaScript and the Adobe Flash plugin to be installed. The recordings are also available for downloading and playing on external players for those who are unable to access them through their browser.
If you wish to post a comment about a recording, do feel free, but note that you will need session cookies to be enabled in your browser. This is to prevent attacks by automated spambots.
Webmaster
19th February 2009