…… Or "Who's got What?"

Recordings relating to the British Isles already in the International Music Collection:

Cll - TOPIC RECORDS

C13 - Jim CARROLL & Pat MACKENZIE

C25 - Alan WARD

C37 - EFDSS Cylinders

C42 - J COAKLEY

C55 - Paulette VASSELL

C66 - UNIVERSITY of CORK Cylinder Dubbings, Ireland

C100 - RADIO TELEFIS EIREANN

C102 - Ewan MACCOLL AND Peggy SEEGER

C200 - A L LLOYD

C216 - Ewan MACCOLL Symposium

C250 - Charles PARKER Archive

C256 - Pat SHULDHAM-SHAW

C331- Ian RUSSELL

C433 - Fred HAMER

C544 - Rory MCEWEN

C604 - Peter KENNEDY

C742 - Gwilym DAVIES

C796 - Mike YATES

Over the past thirty years Doc Rowe has been collecting English folklore, song, dance and cultural traditions and has amassed an archive of material on past and contemporary cultural tradition in the Britain. The collection has already been acknowledged internationally as of major significance, with its particular emphasis on Calendar Custom. The strength of the collection lies in ongoing 'serial' fieldwork, documentation and the regular contact with communities throughout England where individual events flourish - hence the material is both wide-ranging, first hand and constantly updated. During the past year the collection has been moved from London (where it was spread over three sites) to a large house in Bristol where it is being organised into a permanent and accessible resource. The collection contains a vast amount of audio tapes and cassettes with related documentation and transcripts; photographs (both archival and contemporary) and transparencies; written and printed material (either as photocopies or in published volumes); field notes; correspondence; artefacts and posters; newspaper cuttings and video taped material (see listing below) Additionally, there is already exhibition and display material of mounted photographs, ephemera and material objects from Doc's work as a designer and illustrator.

To date the work has been self-funded - supplemented from sales of photographic work - with a degree of reciprocal help from agencies such as the English Folk Dance and Song Society (ENDS) and, most notably, the Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language (now NATCECT) at Sheffield University where he was based between 1980 - 85. More recently, he developed the London History Workshop Centre's Sound and Video Archive in London. It was experience of working with these important collections that has led to the recognition of the significance of his own material and the necessity of ensuring appropriate storage, security and an improved level of access and display.

It is important not to overlook or play down the importance of the personal contact and goodwill that has been built up over the years. There are a large number of individuals and groups that have helped in the work over the years and, in turn, many who have been helped by the resulting collection. With a wide range of close contacts in the field, continuous support and obvious interest over many years has led to material (including costume) to be offered. In the past six months three major collections of books, disks and recordings have been deposited and a number of individuals have altered their wills to leave material to the collection - material which includes song and dance, dialect and childlore.

It is clear that one major concern - echoed by many individuals and organisations researching into vernacular arts - is over the long term prospects for the safe keeping of their own collections and, over the more short term, safe keeping of similar collections no longer in the care of their original creators. There is nowhere at present (in the British Isles, at least) able to accept this mixed media material and keep it together as an organised coherent unit. Since many institutions deal only with single medium, collections could be split according to group. i.e. books to the British Library, audio to the National Sound Archive, etc. Additionally, there is the threat that collections may not be looked after in accordance with the wishes of the creator. Restrictions on level of access originally placed on individual items cannot always be respected since many establishments often only accept material if they are assigned full rights to do with it as they will. This can also include the more sensitive area of copyright.

This has led to the formation of a mutual aid association of individuals working in the fields of folklore, the vernacular arts, popular culture and allied fields and is known informally as a collective of collectors / collections. A fuller discussion paper on this may be obtained from Doc at the above address.

Content: (as of Dec 1996)

Transparencies are filed according to location, date and sequence shot. Negatives filed in date sequence. Exhibition panels of both colour and black and white material exist.

The audio tapes are virtually all catalogued on computer database. They include own field recordings and actuality, with material linked to documentaries and broadcasts plus research, music, song, lore, etc. Also some BBC sound Archive material as well as off-air and material donated by other collectors.

Master tapes are of custom, song, dance and interviews that I have personally shot (includes documentary material). Viewing copies exist of some of this material. The related material includes off-air, donated and purchased material. (Custom actuality material dates back as early as 1912).

The 16mm footage is largely from 'The Future of Things Past' (Wood Film / C4 1986 ) series that I worked on. Note: There is a significant amount of other material on offer .

There are a few recordings which, by their nature, are restricted for a specified period. A few contain intimate or close family details from certain informants which I feel should not be freely available in an unedited form. Similarly there is a discrete collection of recordings, made of a particular dispute within a well known traditional event, where both sides of the debate was recorded on a daily basis over a period of time and is restricted for obvious reasons.

60+ cassette tapes (in National Sound Archive) and 7 DAT tapes (yet to be deposited). Tapes up to 1980 in mono, thereafter in stereo and better quality. Collection still being added to.

We did a bit of small-time collecting in the period 1967-70, and also recorded a number of traditional singers and musicians when they appeared at two Folk Clubs we helped organise in London. The recordings are all mono and were made on domestic equipment - the quality ranges from quite good (most) to dreadful (a few), but some of the latter do feature some wonderful performances. The collection has hardly been added to since the '70s, and comprises around 25 hours of recordings. All of it is catalogued, and the best of it - about 11 hours of performance, details below - has recently been transferred to DAT, and is fully indexed.

Correspondence:

Rod Stradling - e-mail: rod@mustrad.org.uk

snail-mail: 1 Castle Street, Stroud, Glos GL5 2HP, UK