In July – in a first for the British Library Oral History team – we held a reflective listening session at a major UK agricultural event: Groundswell. Now in its ninth year, Groundswell Regenerative Agriculture Festival takes place each summer at Lannock Farm in Hertfordshire, providing a forum for anyone interested in food production and the environment to learn about the theory and practice of regenerative agriculture.

Inside the Workshop Tent. Photo: Angela Cassidy.

In the Workshop Tent, Paul Merchant and Mary Stewart (Oral History, The British Library) and Angela Cassidy (University of Exeter) played audio extracts from two National Life Stories collections: ‘An Oral History of Farming, Land Management and Conservation in Post-War Britain’ (generously supported by Arcadia) and ‘Oral Histories of Environmental Collaboration’ (recorded in partnership with the NERC funded RENEW Programme at the University of Exeter). With some trepidation at the size of the venue for the listening session, we were utterly delighted that 160 farmers, researchers, agricultural advisers, ecologists and others duly pitched up with open ears to listen and respond together to 12 excerpts from the in-depth oral histories.

In one of the audio clips, historical geographer John Sheail reflects on attempts by ecologists and agricultural scientists to bridge the working worlds of farming and environment in the 1980s and 1990s:

John Sheail on beginnings of positive relations between ecologists and scientists

Download John Sheail_transcript

In another, co-founder of Groundswell John Cherry speaks of his joy at seeing farmland birds return to fields under ‘no-till’ (no-ploughing) systems:

John Cherry on the return of farmland birds to no till fields

Download John Cherry_transcript

John Cherry (right) with Paul Merchant outside the Workshop Tent. Photo: Mary Stewart.

In the session’s final extract, Northern Ireland farmer John Rankin reminds us to listen to earlier generations as we experiment with farming systems fit for the future:

John Rankin on learning from past farming practice

Download John Rankin_transcript

John Rankin and sister in the 1960s (top) and John Rankin’s father and grandfather in 1933 (bottom). Courtesy of Ian Rankin.

These and other audio clips – many of which you can listen to on a British Library Soundcloud playlist – prompted much thought and discussion. The hubbub of conversation in the Workshop Tent after we played each cluster of clips was amazing to experience and we are convinced of the role of oral history in helping to shape agricultural-environmental practice and policy in the present and future. The session at Groundswell is one in a series of interactive sessions in summer 2025 as part of an AHRC Impact Accelerator Award (University of Exeter Translational Funding). We are currently assessing how NLS can raise further funds for interviewing and outreach in this subject area.

Sounds of soil sign. Photo: Paul Merchant.

Elsewhere at Groundswell, other kinds of listening experience were on offer. Following the sign in the photograph, we found ourselves listening to subterranean sounds of soil biology recorded by researchers at Rothamsted Research and a number of universities.

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Paul Merchant, Mary Stewart (National Life Stories, The British Library)
Angela Cassidy, Eleanor Hadley Kershaw (RENEW Programme, University of Exeter)

Earlier this year, the Library was delighted to host a series of recording sessions with the four co-editors of Clod Magazine. For those of you who don't already know, Clod is an independent magazine, founded in Luton in 1987, and now approaching its 40th issue. It appears irregularly, with publication ceasing entirely for seven years at one point. ‘No one noticed’, says their Facebook page.

The Clod editors moonlight as members of a similarly long-established music group called the Knockouts. While the magazine has its origins in the indie music fanzine scene of the 1980s, and maintains a DIY cut-and-paste aesthetic, it is not much concerned with music - and is not itself a fanzine.

Rather than music, the substance here is art, humour, and a decidedly prickly and surreal form of social comment. If the Vorticist artist and writer Wyndham Lewis had lived in South Bedfordshire in the second half of the twentieth century, he might well have come up with something like Clod. As with Wyndham Lewis’s provocative journal Blast, Clod has a penchant for morally upbraiding its readership through didactic and slightly deranged polemics. 

2024 saw the publication of the collected Clod Magazine issues 1-21 in one bumper 660pp volume. Early issues are out-of-print and impossible to find so this initiative was very welcome. I’m pleased to say the Library has acquired a copy for its collection.

It seemed a good time to conduct some interviews on the history of the magazine and to record some readings and, happily, everybody agreed to participate.

ABOVE Clod editors, clockwise from top left: Stephen Whiting; Tim Kingston; Andy Whiting; Andrew Kingston.

The readings were drawn not just from Clod but from a range of related publications, including the short-lived football fanzine TOWN, and Tim Kingston’s 1998 book Kenilworth Sunset? A Luton Town supporter’s journal. We also recorded a selection from the long-running ‘Luton Haiku’ series (five volumes published to date) and some of Andrew Kingston’s non-Clod solo works.

An exciting exclusive was Andy Whiting’s very funny account of the pleasures of following Hitchin Town FC (aka the Canaries). All being well, this should be published in Clod 40.

Here is a short extract from the recordings. This is Stephen Whiting reading from Clod 36: We queue up for boiled fish

ABOVE hand-stamped embellishments are a common feature.

Following the integration of the Key Stage Two (KS2; ages 7 - 11) Windrush Voices workshop into the British Library’s core schools programme, members of the Learning Team have been developing a workshop for Key Stage 3 (KS3; ages 11 - 14) learners. This uses a similar framework to the KS2 workshop, using the process of interactive listening to help engage learners with oral testimonies. The three extracts selected for the KS3 workshop are of Vanley Burke, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Andrea Levy, all discussing their experiences of school.

Vanley Burke on going to school in Britain as a child (BL reference C459/217) 

Download Vanley Burke on going to school in Britain as a child transcript

Linton Kwesi Johnson 'aspirations above my station' (BL reference C1276/60)

Download Linton Kwesi Johnson 'aspirations above my station' transcript

Andrea Levy on experiences at school (BL reference C1276/59)

Download Andrea Levy on experiences at school transcript

The rationale for this selection is that the theme is immediately relevant to the listeners, providing a point of connection and resonance with learners who are a similar age to the recollections in the clips. Before listening, learners are told some contextual information about the interviewees and for each one, asked to consider what they are expecting to hear. Following each clip, learners have a chance to reflect, thinking about what they heard, whether it was in line with their expectations, and whether there were any surprises, both in what was said and what was omitted. They are then encouraged to consider what follow-up questions they would like to have asked, further contributing to the interactive dynamic.

An additional aspect introduced for this workshop is to draw out similarities and differences between the extracts. This is a useful technique as it helps create an analytical framework and focused way of listening to and thinking about the extracts. On the surface, there are more obvious similarities between the experiences of Vanley Burke and Linton Kwesi Johnson, both encountering a system that had low expectations of Caribbean working-class Black boys. Vanley reflects that ‘it was like the wild west’ whilst Linton recalls being told by a careers advisor that he had ‘aspirations above his station.’

Vanley Burke. Image Courtesy of Birmingham Post & Mail, 2014

On first listen, Andrea Levy’s account provides clear differences, with her experiences sounding much more positive. At one point, she laughs as she recalls doing well in tests:

‘I’d come top and I just couldn’t believe it you know I just because you know I just couldn’t believe that I could I mean what were they doing you know I was not working hard…I I don’t I still don’t know quite you know, I thought, what’s happening?’

Andrea Levy © Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo/ Alamy Stock Photo

Andrea speaks with a British accent (she was born in England in 1956), whilst Linton and Vanley both have Jamaican accents (arriving from Jamaica in 1963 and 1965 respectively), potentially further contributing to their outsider status and feelings of estrangement within the British education system. Hearing accents also speaks to the importance of playing the clips, as this would go undetected if the recordings were being read in class from a transcript rather than directly listened to. For some learners and teachers, hearing Jamaican accents might be simultaneously familiar to their own lives and unexpected in a classroom setting. Thus, oral history has the potential to help bring connections and meanings to learners’ lives, legitimising voices and experiences that, until relatively recently, haven’t always been visible in the historical record.

There are also some areas of similarity that might not be immediately obvious. Despite Andrea’s cheerful exterior, there are hints that she was also made to feel like she didn’t belong; for example, when she says ‘there were no other Black kids in my class’ and ‘I just didn’t mention Jamaica or anything.’  These examples suggest a connection to Vanley and Linton in that she also felt like an outsider but was more able to assimilate to fit in. Another similarity between Linton and Andrea can also be drawn in their deep appreciation of learning. Both discuss the subjects they enjoy, with Linton reflecting: ‘I always loved learning you know I had a very inquisitive mind I wanted to know. I had a thirst for knowledge.’  

Linton Kwesi Johnson. Image credit: Maria Nunes Photography

This is important as it suggests that whilst their external treatment and experiences were different, there is a clear connection in their internal attitude to and relationship with learning. This is underpinned in the first part of Linton’s extract when he says: ‘We all wanted to make something of our lives.’ A further similarity is that all three of the interviewees went on to have successful careers in the arts, with experiences of Caribbean migration playing a key role in Linton Kwesi Johnson’s poetry, Andrea Levy’s novels and Vanley Burke’s photography. 

Drawing out similarities and differences between extracts offers the chance to think more deeply about the recordings and find connections that might otherwise go unnoticed. The sheer number of items available at the British Library means there is sometimes a danger of trying to cover as much ground as possible through listening to as a wide range of recordings as possible. I would argue that less is more, and that there is deep educational value in listening to a small well-selected range of clips.  

It is important to note that the clips used are selected from a much longer interview. Andrea, Vanley and Linton recorded multi-session in-depth life story interviews for the British Library. This means that the clip doesn’t necessarily represent the entirety of their descriptions of their school and childhood experiences and it is entirely feasible that other parts of the interview could potentially contradict what is being said in these extracts.

Similarly, different people, including potentially Linton, Andrea and Vanley themselves, might well interpret the clip in different ways, especially if they have heard more expanded sections of the interview. This is not to diminish the experience of listening to a shorter edited clip. Rather, being mindful of the nature of the life story approach, with its focus on a full story as opposed to a single historical event, can make for richer conversations with learners, leading to a deeper understanding of different types of oral history.

Beyond the workshop, there are multiple opportunities to engage learners with the Library's Sound Archive, suggesting the applicability of oral history in the classroom for cross-curricular use. For example, in addition to English and History students studying aspects of migration and Empire through literature and sources, Photography students might want to explore Vanley Burke’s work and consider the extent to which his school experiences influenced his photography, or Politics and Citizenship students might want to consider the connection between art and activism.

Similarly, Sociology students might want to use the oral testimonies to examine ethnicity and achievement in relation to education, also drawing on other items in the British Library’s collection such as the work of Beryl Gilroy. Students studying for an Extended Project Qualification or Higher Project Qualification (student-driven research projects) might want to incorporate oral testimonies to help drive their enquiry question, strengthening their research skills and gaining confidence in handling sources within an archive.

Ultimately, this workshop and the selected recordings provide an excellent opportunity to engage learners with aspects of the collection and encourage wider engagement with audio testimony and sounds from the British Library to the classroom.

Thank you to all those involved in developing this work: members of the Learning Team at the British Library, Mary Stewart (Lead Curator, Oral History), and, crucially, to the interviewees themselves: Andrea Levy and Linton Kwesi Johnson (interviewed by Sarah O’Reilly for Authors’ Lives, 2014 – 15) and Vanley Burke (interviewed by Shirley Read for An Oral History of British Photography, 2014)

Blog by Debbie Bogard, Learning Facilitator in the British Library's Learning team.

Further Reading and Listening

Read 'Linton Kwesi Johnson awarded PEN Pinter Prize 2020' on the Sound and Vision Blog

Read 'Remembering Andrea Levy' on the English and Drama Blog

Read '"We’re not just passing through": how photographer Vanley Burke immortalised black Britain' on The Guardian

For more details on how the interactive listening approach can be used in the classroom, read Debbie's blog Authentic Encounters: Oral History in the Classroom Part 2 on the Oral History Society website.